Accepting credit cards is no longer just an option these days. No matter how small or large your business is, whether you sell luxury items or daily use products, your customers will want you to accept their preferred debit or credit card. So, here’s the process of accepting payments with POS software.

First off, choose the right POS System
There are different things you need to consider when it comes to pick POS system. First of all, you have to find out how you are going to accept payments. Do you conduct your business online, in-store or both? Basically, POS systems fall into these categories –
• Standalone POS terminals – They are the basic modes of card processing. Usually, they are countertop devices to swipe or dip cards for payment. Some even have NFC features. They cost less than other solutions and they are good for startups to control their overhead costs. But they cannot integrate with many business systems.
• Integrated POS system – They provide robust functionality in all-inclusive solutions for reporting, processing, accounting and inventory management, and loyalty etc. They are usually designed for industries with integrated features to address the particular needs.
• Mobile terminals – It accepts debit and credit card payments from static and designated checkout station. It uses wireless connectivity. It enables restaurant servers to accept payments. Business management functionality is limited in this POS system.

Go for a compatible payment gateway or processor
When choosing a POS system, you also have to decide which payment gateway or payment processor you should work with. Payment gateway is the third party hosted solution to connect with your desired payment processor as long as gateway works with the same processor.

Be sure your solution has all the important safety and security features to protect your business and customers from security threats.
From losing customer’s faith to paying thousands of dollars as penalties and fines, you may definitely be unable to receive credit card transactions in future. Data security breach is bad both for your business and reputation. So, it is always best to do everything you can to avoid such kind of breaches in the first place. So, you should consider these five things –

EMV technology – Chip card acceptance is the best way to reduce card fraud and it is very common.
Tokenization and encryption – Encryption protects data of credit cards in transit and tokenization secures information for transactions after authorization, including recurring billing and tip adjustment.
Anti-fraud solutions – Prevention is better than paying hefty charges after breach. Some payment providers assign their teams to fraud prevention.
PCI compliance – It is mandatory in all businesses which include payment system and accept credit cards. PCI council has a list of PA-DSS list of validated applications.

If you go with online processing, you will want to have additional protection. When there is a fraud in EMV counters card, it doesn’t make any sense in online sales. One option is implementing secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate which enables transmission of sensitive data between customers’ browsers and your site.