Virtual terminal

The virtual terminal lets you take a payment yourself, without the customer visiting a checkout page. You type the card or bank details into the dashboard and charge them directly. It is built for payments taken over the phone, by mail order, or in person at a counter.

Every charge you take here creates a real transaction and order, exactly like a checkout payment. It appears in your Transactions list, sends a receipt, and can be refunded or cancelled the same way. In sandbox mode the charge is simulated so you can practice without moving real money.

Opening the virtual terminal

The virtual terminal is a full-page form titled Virtual Terminal, with the subtitle "Manually charge a customer's card." Use the Back button in the top left to leave without charging.

The form is one screen, worked top to bottom:

Choose the customer.
Choose or enter the payment method.
Add the items you are charging for.
Apply a discount if you have one.
Review the total and charge.

The Charge button sits to the right and shows the amount you are about to take, for example "Charge $49.00". It stays disabled until the form has enough to run a payment.

Choosing a customer

At the top is a Customer section with two buttons: Existing customer and New customer.

Existing customer

Pick this to charge someone already saved in your workspace.

Click Existing customer.
Use the customer search box to find them by name or email.
Select the customer.

Once a customer is selected, a Payment method dropdown appears listing the cards saved in their vault. See Saved cards from the vault below for how this works.

New customer

Pick this to charge someone who is not saved yet, or a one-off customer.

Click New customer.
Enter their First name and Last name.
Enter their Email.
Enter a Phone number if you want. Phone is optional here.
Enter the payment details (card or bank, covered below).

The email is where the receipt is sent, so enter it carefully.

Saved cards from the vault

When you select an existing customer, Paysio loads the payment methods stored in their vault. The Payment method dropdown shows each saved card with its brand icon, the last four digits, and the expiry date.

If the customer has one saved card, it is selected automatically.
If they have several, pick the one to charge.
If the dropdown says "No saved payment methods", that customer has nothing stored. Switch to New customer to key in a card, or take a new card and it can be saved for next time through the normal checkout flow.

Saved cards are charged through your workspace's active card gateway, so a card saved under a different processor may not appear here.

Card vs bank charges

For a New customer, you enter the payment details by hand. The label reads Card details for cards or Bank account for bank payments.

If your workspace has bank payments enabled, a small toggle appears next to the label:

Pay with bank switches from card entry to bank (ACH) entry.
Pay with card switches back.

If you do not see the toggle, only card payments are turned on for your workspace.

Entering a card

Type the card number. The brand icon appears as you type.
Enter the expiry as MM / YY.
Enter the CVC (the security code, 3 or 4 digits).

Entering a bank account (ACH)

Bank payments debit the customer's US bank account directly.

Enter the routing number (9 digits).
Enter the account number.
Choose whether the account is Personal or Business, and Checking or Savings, using the small toggles in the fields. For some bank processors these options are fixed and the toggles do not appear.

A note reminds you that bank payments can take several business days to clear. Only take a bank payment when the customer has given you permission.

Billing address

Under the payment fields is a + Add billing address link. Click it to enter the customer's street address, city, state, postal code, and country. Adding an address helps cards pass address verification and reduces declines. Some processors only accept US billing addresses, in which case the country is locked to the United States.

Building the charge

The Items section is where you pick what the customer is paying for. It draws from the one-time products in your catalog, so create your products first if the list is empty.

Click Add item.
Choose a product from the dropdown. The price shows next to each name.
Set the quantity in the number box.
If the product has variants (such as size or color), a second dropdown appears. Pick the variant, and the price updates to match.
Repeat Add item to add more products.
Use the trash icon to remove a line.

Tax is added automatically for any product set to collect tax. You do not enter tax by hand. It appears as a separate Tax line in the summary.

Applying a discount

Below the items is a Discount dropdown. It lists the active discount codes in your workspace.

Leave it on No discount to charge full price.
Pick a code to apply it. The discount shows as a green line in the summary, reducing the total.

Only discounts that are still active and within their usage limit appear in the list.

Statement descriptor

For some processors an optional Statement descriptor field appears. This sets the name the customer sees on their bank statement, up to 25 characters. Leave it blank to use your workspace default from payment settings.

Reviewing and charging

The summary at the bottom shows the Subtotal, Tax, any Discount, and the Total. Hover the dotted labels to see a line-by-line breakdown.

When everything looks right, click Charge on the right. The button shows the amount and changes to "Processing..." while the payment runs.

On success you see a Payment Successful screen with the amount and order number. From there you can start a New Charge or click View Transaction to open the payment.
On failure you see a Payment Failed screen with the reason from the processor. Click Try Again to return to the form and fix the details.

Surcharges and dual pricing

If your workspace uses dual pricing (a card surcharge), the price you build in the cart is the bank price. Paying by card adds the surcharge on top, and paying by bank never carries it. This mirrors what customers see at your public checkout.

When a card charge carries a surcharge, the total already includes it, and a line below the total shows what the same order would cost by bank, for example "$49.00 with bank payment". Bank charges are never surcharged.

The blocklist check

Before every charge, the virtual terminal checks the customer against your blocklist. If the payment matches a block rule, a warning appears saying the customer is on your blocklist and how many rules matched.

You can still complete the payment. Click Charge anyway to override the block, or Cancel to stop. This override is only available in the virtual terminal, because you are taking the payment yourself and can judge whether the block is a false match.