Friday dinner. Guest pays by card; the terminal spins then stops. Screen says fail; the pin-pad beeps. Guest says it charged; cashier says nothing came in. The queue grows. Nobody has authority to say: how this ticket is booked, whether the guest may leave, who reconciles.
Decline, interrupt, unclear whether money left — these are not problems for day-end later. On the spot you must know who decides, what to record, how the next tender runs. Clear exception tickets before close; then talk about tomorrow’s open. This page is not about tax filing. It is about whether floor payment can continue and whether the books can match.
Name the scene first, then act
Do not jump to “try the card again.” First say which of the three it is.
Decline: the path clearly refuses. Log time, table or ticket, amount, tender, exact terminal text. While the guest is still at the table, agree cash, another card, or hold for the shift lead — do not let the cashier invent a fourth path.
Interrupt: power, network, app exit or card pulled mid-tender. Worst cases: screen looks unfinished but money left; or screen looks success and the feed has nothing.
Mismatch: ticket in the system does not match the drawer or recon file; or the payment side has a line and the shop has no ticket. Do not paper over with “we probably overcharged.”
Scene: same table swiped twice; guest says two charges; system shows one success. If nobody logged both attempt times and prompts on the spot, after close you only guess.
Check with the vendor under review and with this shop’s payment-device provider: after interrupt or decline, how shift staff tell whether money left; which of screen, slip and back-office feed counts. Put their written claim and your live test on one page. Do not only copy “we show status.”
Who decides, what to log: one sheet by the till
Name one post here (plus a deputy) who may decide: void and retake, switch to cash, pause that payment path, or let the guest leave and reconcile later. Staff do not decide — they must know who to call and what to write first.
Every exception keeps at least: time, table or ticket, amount, tender, exact terminal text, operator, shift-lead decision, whether the guest has left. Photo the prompt if you can; if not, hand-copy the wording. Do not rewrite from memory later as just “fail.”
Scene: before the cashier’s third “try again,” if the shift lead has not signed the sheet, all three may charge while the system keeps one line — next day accounts cannot match, and the guest is gone.
Keep two things apart: keep selling, and how this one line books. Taking other tables is not the same as this line being clear. Unclear stays open, rides into handoff, and does not mix into “settled.”
With several providers, write who to call for software, payment device and network when payment breaks. First phone answer is not money matched.
Match before close; then talk about tomorrow’s open
Do not leave exception tickets for tomorrow morning. Add to close: every decline, interrupt, repeat attempt and open charge that day, line by line against the payment feed (or the recon file this shop agreed). Matched — tick off. Unmatched — open: how much, which side, who follows, can it close before open.
Scene: before Saturday lunch open, morning finds three “status unclear” from last night. Guests gone; terminal will not clarify. If last night did not match, open starts on guesses — wrong guess means double refund or missed refund.
Before the next open, the shift lead must see the open list. There is no default “unclear status, open anyway.” Either clear it, or write the post-open deadline and owner on paper.
When you evaluate or switch a payment flow, use shift staff and this shop’s devices for one deliberate decline and one interrupt drill. If the drill still cannot tell whether money left, mark still unknown — not pass.