You've received your terminal
What is already done, what you still need to set up, and what to have ready before you start.
Congratulations on your new Citizen Pay terminal. There are only two things left to do before it can take payments and pay money into your account: connect your bank account and turn on your payment connections.
Both are done from the Citizen Pay Dashboard on a computer or phone. You do not need to be technical, and you do not need to touch the terminal itself.
Short on time?
Set aside about 20 minutes. Most of that is typing in your business and bank details. After you submit them, your bank account still has to be verified, which usually takes a day or two.
What should already be done
The physical setup of the terminal is normally handled by the Citizen Pay partner who delivered or installed it. By the time the terminal is in your hands, they should have:
- Unboxed the terminal and powered it up
- Chosen the display language
- Connected it to your Wi-Fi or mobile network
- Activated and registered the terminal to your business
If your terminal is still showing a setup or activation screen, that part is not finished yet. Contact the partner who supplied your terminal rather than working through it yourself. The full procedure they follow is written up in hardware setup.
What you need to do
1. Connect your banking
Link the business bank account your money is paid into, and verify your business.
2. Set up payment connections
Choose which payment methods your terminal accepts, and switch them on.
Do them in that order. Payment connections can only be switched on once your bank account has been submitted, because that is where the money from each payment ends up.
What to have at hand
Getting these together before you start will save you going back and forth:
| What | Why it's needed | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Your business details | To confirm who is being paid | Registered business name, company registration number, business address, VAT number if you have one |
| Your business bank details | To know where payouts go | Account holder name, IBAN or account number, BIC/SWIFT, and a recent bank statement or account confirmation |
| Proof of identity | Required by law for anyone accepting card payments | A passport or ID card for the business owner or director, and sometimes proof of your home address |
| Your terminal | To pair it and run a test payment | The terminal itself, plus its serial number (printed on the label on the back) |
Use the business, not the person
The bank account you link should be in your business's name and match the business details you enter. A personal account with a different name is the single most common reason verification gets held up.
What happens after setup
Once your bank account is verified and your payment methods are on, your terminal is live. From then on you run everything from the Citizen Pay Dashboard: watching transactions come in, tracking your payouts, and inviting your staff so they can see the tills too.
If something does not look right at any point, start with troubleshooting.