Pistonlog uses Square for all card payment processing. Each garage connects its own Square account via OAuth from Settings, and from then on you can take a card payment without ever leaving the jobcard.
A 0.5% platform fee is added to every successful Square transaction (minimum £0.01). Square's own card-processing fee is separate.
The four payment methods
Enter card
Type the customer's card details into Pistonlog directly. The card is tokenised in the browser and charged immediately. No physical card machine required.
Send by SMS
Send the customer a payment link by text. Costs 1 SMS credit. The payment is PENDING until the customer pays, then promoted to COMPLETED by the Square webhook.
Send by email
Send the customer a payment link by email. Free. Branded HTML with your garage details. Same PENDING → COMPLETED flow.
Square Terminal
Send a checkout to a paired Square Terminal card machine. The customer taps or inserts their card on the machine itself. Disabled in the UI if no Terminal is paired.
Status terminology
Square payments use their own status field — different from the invoice status on the jobcard:
| Square status | Meaning |
|---|---|
PENDING | Payment link sent or terminal request issued, awaiting customer |
COMPLETED | Money received |
FAILED | Card declined or customer abandoned |
REFUNDED | Issued via the Square dashboard (no refund flow in Pistonlog yet) |
Manual and Square payments don't merge
Recording a manual payment on a jobcard does not affect Square's records, and a Square payment does not automatically update the jobcard's invoice status. The two systems live side by side. See Invoices for how the invoice status is calculated.
Connecting Square
A garage admin connects Square once from Settings. Tokens are encrypted server-side and auto-refresh before expiry — there's no maintenance after the first OAuth.
Related
In this section
Connecting Square
Connect via OAuth so Pistonlog can take card payments on your behalf — one-time setup, per garage
Enter card (Square Web Payments)
Type the customer's card number directly into Pistonlog — card is tokenised in-browser and charged in real time
Send a payment link by SMS
Text the customer a Square-hosted payment link. One SMS credit per send.
Send a payment link by email
Email the customer a branded payment link from Pistonlog — free, with proper SPF/DKIM/DMARC
Square Terminal (card machine)
Push a checkout to a paired Square Terminal device — customer pays on the physical machine
Square troubleshooting
Phantom PENDING payments, Terminal not auto-updating, refunds, and how to re-sync state from Square