Terminal Management
Move terminals from your stock to a merchant: activate, register, reassign, and port them in bulk. Look up any terminal by ID or serial number, see where its settings come from, and check its health, apps, and transactions.
Overview
Every payment terminal passes through three stages before it can take payments: it sits in your stock, it is activated to a merchant, and it is registered to one of that merchant’s stores. This guide covers each stage and the tools for managing terminals once they are live.
You manage terminals in two places:
- Devices in the sidebar, for your whole fleet across all merchants
- A merchant’s Terminals tab, for that merchant’s terminals only
How terminals behave (language, network, tips, PINs) is covered in Terminal Configuration & Tips. Installing and removing apps is covered in Terminal Apps.
The terminal lifecycle
| Stage | What it means | Who acts next |
|---|---|---|
| Your Stock | The device is in your inventory and not linked to any merchant. | You: activate it to a merchant. |
| Activated | The device is linked to a merchant but not yet to a store. | You or the merchant: register it to a store. |
| Registered | The device is a live terminal in a store and can take payments. | The merchant: start taking payments. |
A terminal must be activated to a merchant before it can be registered, and it must be registered before it can take payments.
When you ship terminals directly to a merchant from Shipments, activation happens automatically and the merchant only needs to register. Terminals you bulk-order to yourself land in Your Stock. See Shipments & Returns.
The Devices page
Click Devices in the sidebar. The page has three tabs, each with a count: Your Stock, Activated, and Registered.
- Search by serial number, terminal ID, merchant ID, merchant name, or model.
- Look up terminal opens the Terminal Info page.
- Refresh reloads the lists.
- Port terminals moves a batch of terminals to a merchant in one go. See Porting terminals in bulk.
Click a serial number or terminal ID to open that terminal’s info page, or a merchant name to open the merchant.
Your Stock
Lists devices you hold that are not yet linked to a merchant, with serial number, model, connectivity (IMEI, IMSI, UICCID), and status.
To activate a device, click Activate on its row, search for the merchant under Activate for merchant (type at least two characters), and click Activate Device. You can also activate to a multi-merchant group; groups show a Multi-merchant group badge in the search results. The device moves to Activated.
Activated
Lists devices that belong to a merchant but have no store yet. Each row has two actions in its menu:
- Register assigns the device to a store and turns it into a terminal:
- Choose the store under Select store. If the merchant has no stores yet, create one first (see Stores).
- Enter the Registration code. For SurfPad and printer devices this is the serial number, which is pre-filled for you. For other terminals, enter the 6-digit code shown on the terminal screen during setup.
- Optionally give it a Terminal name, such as “Counter 1”.
- Click Register Device.
- Reassign merchant moves the activated device to a different merchant. Pick the new merchant under Reassign to merchant and click Change Merchant.
Registered
Lists live terminals with their name, ID, serial number, merchant, model, firmware, connectivity, and status.
The row action Reassign merchant deregisters the terminal and sends the device to a different merchant. You choose the new merchant, then confirm on a second step that warns you this is destructive. After Deregister & Move, the terminal must be registered again at the new merchant before it can take payments.
Porting terminals in bulk
Port terminals on the Devices page reassigns many terminals to one merchant, each landing in a store.
- Under Port terminals to merchant, search for the merchant or multi-merchant group.
- Paste the Serial numbers, one per line or separated by commas or spaces. The dialog shows how many serials it detected and ignores duplicates.
- Pick a Destination store. It applies to every serial, and you can override the store on individual rows.
- Click Port terminals. The button only enables once every serial has a store.
The result lists each serial as ported or failed. Port more keeps the merchant and store and clears the serials so you can run another batch.
Note: The merchant needs at least one active store before you can port terminals to it.
Activating from the merchant
You can also activate terminals while you are on a merchant:
- Open the merchant from Merchants and go to the Terminals tab.
- Click Activate.
- Enter the serial number printed on the terminal. Serials are 9 to 12 letters and digits. Each valid row is marked Valid serial number.
- To activate several at once, click Add another serial number for each extra terminal. Duplicate serials are rejected.
- Click Activate. The dialog shows the result for each serial.
Registering from the merchant
On the merchant’s Terminals tab, click Register Device. Choose one of two modes:
Enter code from device
- Select the Store.
- Enter the Registration Code / Serial Number: the 6-digit code shown on the terminal screen during setup, or the serial number from the back of the device for SurfPad and printers.
- Optionally enter a Terminal Name to help identify the device later.
- Click Register Device.
Generate code for device
- Select the Store.
- Click Generate Code.
- Enter the code on the terminal to complete registration, or copy the registration link. Use Regenerate Code if you need a new one.
If the terminal has not been activated to this merchant yet, registration stops and offers to activate it first.
You can also register from a store’s page with Register Terminal, which additionally lets you create online terminals (Payment Page, Self Hosted Page, Merchant Initiated). See Stores.
The merchant’s Terminals tab
The Terminals tab lists every terminal under the merchant with its store, status, type, serial number, registration date, when it was last powered on, and software version. All columns can be sorted. The portal remembers the column and direction you sorted by, in every terminal list, until you change it.
Powered on shows how long ago the terminal was last switched on, with when it was last seen online underneath. Terminals that have never reported sort last.
- Search by name, ID, serial number, or type.
- Filter by type (for example CheckoutX, Surftouch Pro, Surfprint Pro, Surfpad, Payment Page, Printer), by store, and by status. Clear filters resets them.
- Buttons across the top: Push Software, Uninstall Software (see Terminal Apps), Register Device, Activate, and Config (the merchant’s terminal settings, see Terminal Configuration & Tips).
Click a row to open the terminal.
The terminal page
The terminal page shows the name, status, and type, the terminal ID and serial number (each with a copy button), the merchant and store it belongs to, and its software version.
- Click the pencil next to the name to rename the terminal (up to 20 characters). Quick picks suggest common names.
- Click the icon next to the store ID to change store within the same merchant.
The More actions menu (⋯) holds:
- Push app to terminal installs software on this terminal (only for terminals assigned to a store).
- Uninstall app removes software from this terminal.
- Move to another merchant transfers the terminal. Search for the new merchant (at least three characters) and confirm. The terminal goes back to the activated state, so it must be registered under a store at the new merchant before it can take payments again.
Overview tab
The page opens on Overview, a summary of the terminal and everything it inherits.
- Where this terminal sits: the chain from your partner account to the merchant, the store (with its status), and the terminal. Settings flow down this chain: a terminal uses its store’s settings, then its merchant’s, then your partner defaults, unless it sets its own.
- Device: when the terminal was last seen (a green dot means recently), plus battery, charging, power source, network, and signal strength when the terminal reports them. Below that: device, serial number, software, operating system, currency, when it was last powered on, when it went into service, any linked terminal, and the payment methods enabled on it.
- Partner apps: how many apps the terminal reports, how many of those reports are stale, and the POS app with its version. View opens the Apps tab.
- Settings in effect: for terminal configuration, how many settings come from the terminal itself, its store, its merchant, and your partner defaults, with the ones set on the terminal listed by name. For Tips and Branding, a tag shows which level the terminal’s values come from; click it to open that level. Open goes to the Configuration tab.
Tabs
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Overview | Where the terminal sits, its device state, partner apps, and which level each setting comes from. See Overview tab. |
| Transactions | Transactions taken on this terminal, with the same search, filters, and analytics as the merchant’s transactions. See Transactions & Reporting. |
| Payment Links | Only for Payment Page terminals. Create a hosted payment link for a custom amount, choose how long it stays valid (30 minutes to 12 months), and copy it. Existing links are listed below. |
| Health | Battery level, battery status, charging, power source, network strength, Wi-Fi and GSM signal, GSM connection, and network type, as reported by the terminal over today, 3 days, or 5 days. |
| Apps | Partner apps the terminal reports as installed, assigned, or removed, with a history of changes. Apps are matched by the terminal’s serial number. |
| Configuration | Tips and terminal settings for this terminal only. See Terminal Configuration & Tips. |
| Branding | Colours, fonts, logo and icon for this terminal, overriding store and merchant branding. Only for terminals assigned to a store. |
| Info | Terminal ID, name, type, status, serial number, store, software version, device model, and operating system. |
Looking up a terminal
Look up terminal on the Devices page opens Terminal Info. Enter a terminal ID or serial number and click Search. You don’t need to know which merchant the terminal belongs to: the lookup searches all your merchants. Serial numbers are matched exactly, ignoring upper and lower case. The page address includes what you searched for, so you can share a lookup with a colleague.
The result is the full terminal page, with the same header, More actions menu, and tabs: Overview, Transactions, Health, Apps, Configuration, Branding, and Info. You can rename the terminal, change its store, move it to another merchant, and push or uninstall apps from here.
You can also find a terminal from anywhere with global search: paste its ID or serial number.
Printers
A merchant’s Printers tab lists printer terminals separately from payment terminals, with store, status, serial number, and software version. Search by name, ID, serial, or store. Printers are registered under a store in the same way as terminals, using the serial number from the back of the device.