Payment gateways
What this is for
Taking money online — from your ordering site, a kiosk, or a payment link.
Payment at the till is separate; card payments there run through your own terminal unless a gateway is connected. See Payments and payment methods.
What's supported
Restodesk connects to a range of providers: Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal, PayFast, Paystack, Mollie, Flutterwave, Xendit, Tap and others.
Which are available to you depends on your plan and your region.
Connecting one
Under Settings › Payments:
- Enable the gateway you want.
- Enter its credentials — API keys or equivalent, from that provider's own dashboard.
- Save.
- Test with a real payment, then refund it.
Credentials come from the provider, not from us. Setting up an account with them — including whatever identity and business verification they require — happens on their side first.
Choosing a provider
Ask four questions, in this order:
- Do they operate where you are, in your currency? This eliminates most of the list immediately.
- What do they charge? A percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction. On restaurant-sized baskets, the fixed fee matters more than people expect.
- When do you get paid? Settlement periods vary from next-day to a week. That's working capital.
- What happens when something goes wrong? Refunds, chargebacks, and whether you can reach a human.
Don't choose on headline rate alone. A slightly higher percentage with next-day settlement and usable support is usually the better deal.
Test mode first
Most providers have a test or sandbox mode. Use it.
Run a full order through end to end: place it, pay it, check it arrives marked paid, then refund it and check that works too. Refunds are the part people don't test, and they're the part you'll need under pressure.
Then switch to live and do one real payment with a real card, for a small amount, and refund it. Test mode passing is not the same as live working.
Offline payment methods
Separate from gateways: a way for customers to pay outside the system — usually a bank transfer — and upload a receipt as proof.
The order then sits at Payment Verification until someone checks it, and a manager either Confirm Payment or Report Unpaid.
Check your bank before confirming. An uploaded screenshot isn't proof of anything, which is exactly why that status exists.
Worth offering where card fees are painful on large orders, or where bank transfer is simply how business is done in your market.
"Offline payment" and "the POS working offline" are unrelated. One is a way to pay; the other is what happens when your internet drops. See When the internet drops.
Reconciling
Gateway money doesn't arrive per order — it arrives as a settlement covering many, minus fees.
To reconcile: match the gateway's settlement report against paid online orders for the same period. The difference should be the fees, and if it isn't, that's worth chasing while it's recent.
See Payments and payment methods.
Security, briefly
- Card details never touch Restodesk. The gateway handles them, which is what keeps you out of scope for most card-security requirements.
- Treat API keys like passwords. Don't email them, don't paste them into chats.
- Restrict who can see payment settings. It's part of Manage Settings — see What each role can do.
- Rotate keys if anyone with access leaves.
Good to know
- Payment settings are per restaurant.
- More than one gateway can be enabled; customers choose at checkout.
- A gateway that stops working takes online payment with it — cash-at-counter and offline methods still work, so you're degraded rather than down.
- Provider fees are between you and them. Restodesk doesn't take a cut of your transactions.