Offline Mode
Offline Mode lets you serve customers and process payments without an active internet connection.
Everybody has seen the havoc an internet outage can cause. With Offline Mode set up, your service carries on. This guide walks you through switching it on, setting sensible limits, and checking that everything syncs once you are back online.
On this page
Activating Offline Mode
You activate Offline Mode on the Settings tab of your Dines app. Offline Mode is set per device, so you cannot switch it on for multiple devices at once.
On the device, go to Settings > Offline Mode > Offline Limits.
You will now see the options that control how Offline Mode behaves on this device.
Enable Offline Payments | Turns Offline Mode on. You can then take payments on the device with no internet connection. Once a stable connection returns, all pending payments process automatically. |
Automatic Offline Mode | Switches the device into Offline Mode on its own when it detects a weak or unreliable connection, and switches back once the connection stabilises. You never have to toggle it manually. |
The dot at the top of the Dines app shows the device's status: red means offline, blue means offline payments are syncing, green means everything has synced.
Setting Offline Limits
The options below let you cap what the device can take while offline. Any internet issue should hopefully be fixed well before you reach these limits, but they are a useful backstop.
Number of Card Transactions | Caps how many card transactions the device will take while offline. |
Value of Card Transactions | Caps the total monetary value of the transactions taken while offline. |
Per Limit Charge | Sets the maximum value of a single transaction. Set this to £30 and any transaction over £30 is refused. |
Time Since Last Online | Sets how long offline payments can be held on the device. Do not set this beyond 24 hours (1440 minutes), and reconnect the device within that window. The maximum is four days (5760 minutes). |
Offline limits reset automatically when the device reconnects to Wi-Fi. If your limit is 50 card transactions, the device stores up to 50 while offline. Once it syncs, you have capacity for another 50 the next time it goes offline.
Leave the device online long enough for every transaction to sync. Each one takes roughly 10 to 20 seconds depending on internet speed, so a batch of 50 can take up to 20 minutes to sync. The dot at the top of the EPOS glows blue and white while syncing is in progress and turns green once it is finished. You can see what is still pending in the Offline Information section below.
Reconnect at the end of every night
Bring the device back onto Wi-Fi at close and leave it there until the dot at the top of the EPOS turns green. Green means every offline payment has finished syncing.
Offline Information
You can check progress towards your offline limits at any point. Go to Settings > Offline Mode > Offline Information for a full rundown of Offline Mode activity, including every order taken while offline.
Taking Orders in Offline Mode
Taking orders offline follows the same process as taking them online. The one difference is a note at the top of each order on the checkout screen reading Offline Order, a reminder that you are processing without an active internet connection.
Checking Your Connectivity
If you think the internet is running slow but are not certain, you can test it from the Dines app. Go to Settings > Account > Help & Support > Troubleshooting > Internet Connection and select Speed Test.
The test usually takes under a minute. Anything over 10mbps is ample for processing payments through Dines.
Important to Note
Offline payments cannot be checked at the time of sale.
Because there is no connection, the system cannot check for payment issues such as card declines or insufficient funds until the device is back online. Our testing puts this at under 2% of transactions.
By enabling Offline Mode you accept responsibility for any payment issues that arise.
Thank you for reading. If you have any questions or feedback, or a Knowledge Base article you would like to see, please get in touch.
