Understanding Offline Payments in NX

Understanding Offline Payments in NX

NX provides a built-in Offline Payments Mode to ensure your business can continue accepting card payments even when your internet connection is unavailable. Below is an overview of how it works, what to expect during offline transactions, and how they are handled once connectivity is restored.

🛠️ Setup

By default, all Venues are configured to disallow Offline Payments Mode.

If you wish to enable it, you can do so in the NX Portal:

Path:

NX Portal > Configuration > In-Store > POS Config > Payments & Tenders > Allow Offline Payments Mode

Only users with the appropriate permissions will be able to toggle this setting. Once enabled, your POS will have the ability to switch into Offline Payments Mode if needed.

⚠️ Entering Offline Payments Mode

NX will automatically enter Offline Payments Mode if:

• The internet connection has been lost for more than 1 minute,
• or A user with the proper permissions manually enables Offline Mode via the NX Portal.

When this happens, the system displays a red flashing status bar at the bottom of the screen. This is your clear indicator that payments are being taken in Offline Payments Mode.

⚙️ How Transactions Work Offline

• Automatic Approvals: All credit card transactions taken while offline are automatically approved, unless the payment exceeds your venue’s Offline Transaction Dollar Limit.
• Secure Storage: Each offline transaction is securely stored on the device through NX’s payment gateway.
• Temporary Hold: These payments are not immediately sent to the processor—they remain pending until the system is back online.

🔌 Returning Online and Processing Transactions

Once internet access is restored—or an authorized user turns Offline Payments Mode off—NX begins actively processing the stored transactions:

• If a payment is approved, funds will be deposited as normal.
• If a payment is declined, the merchant will not receive funds for that transaction. (There is no retry mechanism.)
• If a system error occurs (such as the device rebooting or an internal gateway issue), offline transactions may be lost permanently and cannot be recovered.

🏦 How Offline Transactions Affect Batching

NX continues to batch transactions as usual. However, offline payments follow slightly different rules:

• Active Batches: Only transactions that have been actively processed are included in the current batch.
• Skipped Transactions: If an offline transaction has not yet been processed when the batch runs, it is skipped.
• Next Batch Inclusion: Once processed, the transaction will be included in the batch for the day it was processed (not the day it was originally taken).

⚠️ Important Note: This can cause a mismatch between the Batch Report total and the Daily Sales Report total, since late-processed offline transactions may fall into a later batch.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Offline Payments Mode should only be used when absolutely necessary.
• Offline Payments Mode ensures you can keep accepting cards even without internet.
• There is an inherent risk in processing payments via Offline Payments Mode. You should evaluate if this risk is acceptable before enabling Offline Payments Mode.
• Transactions are automatically approved, but final approval only happens once back online.
• Declined payments or system errors may result in lost funds.
• Batching only captures transactions that have been actively processed, which may create reporting differences.

✅ With this knowledge, you’ll know exactly what to expect when NX is operating in Offline Payments Mode, helping you minimize surprises and make informed business decisions.