With standalone mode, you can process payments on your terminal without creating a sale in Retail POS. This allows you more flexibility in the daily operation of your business.
With Lightspeed Retail, you can choose two unique modes, standalone mode and offline mode, to process payments on the Smart Terminal (WisePOS E).

Understanding standalone mode and offline mode

Payments received in standalone mode and offline mode are not synced to the sales history and do not affect your inventory records. They are reported exclusively in your Lightspeed Payments reports. This allows you to account for standalone sales in a way that best suits your business needs.

Standalone mode

Basic standalone mode requires a stable internet connection to function. Payments are processed and captured immediately through your payment terminal.

Offline mode

This feature is currently in beta and may not be available in your account or area.

Offline mode lets you process standalone payments if your internet connection becomes temporarily unavailable. You can continue to process payments in offline mode (when enabled) until the connection is restored. Once the connection has been restored, all stored payments will then be transferred to Lightspeed for processing and your Lightspeed Payments reports will be updated accordingly.

Offline payments are not processed or authorized until connection to the internet has been reestablished. You must connect your terminal to the internet in order to complete the transactions processed in offline mode.

If a payment fails authorization, it will have the status Offline declined in your reports. Each payment with the Offline declined status represents a loss. Lightspeed cannot contact customers on your behalf or provide you with contact information should an offline payment be declined or fail.

Enabling standalone and offline mode

To process payments in standalone or offline mode, you must enable it from Lightspeed Retail.

While offline mode does not require an internet connection to function, it must be enabled while an internet connection is present in order to sync your settings.

1. In Retail POS, navigate to Finance > Terminals.
2. Click the serial number of the terminal you wish to enable standalone or offline mode for, or to enable it for all terminals, click Settings.

   

3. Toggle Allow standalone mode to enable standalone mode.
4. (Optional) Toggle the Allow offline payments toggle to enable offline mode.

   By enabling offline mode, you accept responsibility for any expired or declined transactions taken while offline or any resulting chargebacks, in accordance with your platform payment agreement.

   
5. Review the Allow offline payments prompt and click Allow offline payments to accept.

   

6. Review the Per transaction limit and Total transaction limit, then click Save.

   

   The Per transaction limit and Total transactions limit are pre-filled with the maximum permitted limits. You can choose to lower these limits to suit your business needs, however, these cannot be raised higher than the default maximum limits

7. On your Smart Terminal, tap the menu on the left side of the screen and select Manual payments > OK.
8. Follow the instructions on the Next step prompt to restart your terminal(s), then click Done.

   

Any settings changes must be applied to the relevant terminals before taking effect. Settings are updated automatically overnight or upon restarting the terminal.

Processing payments in standalone and offline mode

Transactions in standalone and offline mode are processed directly through your Smart Terminal. Payments taken in standalone or offline mode are not linked to a sales record. They will appear only in your Lightspeed Payments reports.

• Processing payments in standalone mode

  Once you've set up your payment terminal for standalone payments, you can initiate a payment by entering the value of the transaction on the terminal.

  1. On your Smart Terminal, tap the menu on the left side of the screen and select Standalone.
  2. Enter the payment amount using the on-screen pin pad and tap Pay.
     
  3. Direct your customer to present their card.
  4. Once the payment processes successfully, you can enter an email address for your customer to receive a receipt if required. If no receipt is required, tap Don't email receipt to complete the sale.
     

  Once the transaction has been completed, you can now view it in the Payments tab of your Lightspeed Payments reports.

• Processing payments in offline mode

  When a terminal loses internet connection, you will be notified by an on-screen prompt that you are unable to connect to the network. You can attempt to reconnect or enter offline mode to continue processing transactions offline.

  Email receipts will be sent once the internet connection has been restored and the payment processed by Lightspeed.

  While in offline standalone mode, recorded payments can't be canceled or refunded. You can refund the transaction from your Lightspeed Payments report after the terminal regains connectivity and the payment has been processed.

  1. Tap Switch to offline mode on the Unable to connect to network prompt.
     
  2. Enter the payment amount using the on-screen pin pad and tap Pay. When entering a payment amount, the terminal will display the maximum allowed amount for the payment, considering both pre-defined limits.
     
  3. Have the customer to process their card payment as normal.
  4. Once the terminal approves the presented payment method, the cardholder will be able to enter an email where a payment receipt will be sent when connectivity is regained. Tap Email receipt, or, if the customer doesn’t need a receipt, tap Don’t email receipt.
     

Reporting sales in standalone and offline mode

Payments received in standalone and offline mode do not generate a receipt ID and appear exclusively in your Lightspeed Payment report. This allows you to choose how you would like to account for standalone sales in a way that best suits your business needs.

Sales processed in standalone mode will appear instantly in the payments tab of your Lightspeed Payments reports, whereas offline sales will be reported to Lightspeed Payments when the terminal regains connectivity and transmits the offline payments for processing.

1. Navigate to Financial Services > Payments.
2. Click Filters.
   
3. Select Channel > Standalone or Offline.
4. (Optional) You can use the search bar to enter relevant keywords, and/or filter the results using the Filters dropdown to filter by Date, Status, or Payout status.

Generating standalone sales for your sales reports

If you would like these sales to appear in your daily totals, you can create a custom payment type to record standalone payments. You still manually process the sale on your payment terminal when it's time to charge your customer's card, but use the custom payment type to complete the sale in the POS. Once you complete the sale, the payment type and amount are recorded in your reporting.

If you void or refund the generated sale from your sales report, the funds are not returned to your customer's card. To refund a card, the refund must be processed through the Financial Services tab.

Processing refunds for standalone and offline transactions

Sales can be fully or partially refunded from the payments tab of your Lightspeed Payments reports.

1. Navigate to Financial services > Lightspeed Payments > Payments.
2. Find the payment you wish to refund.
3. Click on the payment to open the details.
4. Click Refund.
   
5. Enter the amount to be refunded and a note if applicable.
6. Click Refund.
7. Process the refund on the terminal and issue a receipt.

Turning off standalone and offline mode

To turn off standalone mode and return to integrated mode:

1. Navigate to Financial services > Lightspeed Payments > Terminals.
2. Click the serial number of the terminal you wish to disable standalone or offline mode for, or to disable it for all terminals, click Settings.
3. Toggle Allow standalone mode to disable standalone and offline mode.
4. (Optional) Toggle Allow offline payments to disable offline mode only.
5. Click Save.
6. On the Smart Terminal, tap the menu on the left side of the screen and select Integrated mode.
7. Follow the instructions on the Next step prompt to restart your terminal(s), then click Done.

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