thread Help with Setting Up a Secure Donation Station in Our Church Foyer in Payments Troubleshooting

Help with Setting Up a Secure Donation Station in Our Church Foyer

YLCC — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 18:55:29 GMT

Hello,

I’m trying to set up a secure and user-friendly tithes, offerings, and donation station in the foyer of my church. The idea is to have a Square kiosk with an iPad where people can quickly and securely enter their donation amount and pay using a card or payment app.

However, my concern is that if I leave the Square Point of Sale app open, it could be tampered with—people might accidentally access settings or other areas they shouldn’t.

Is there a way to limit customer access on the Point of Sale app so they can only:

1. Enter their name, phone number, and email (optional).

2. Input the amount they want to donate.

3. Complete the payment securely.

I’d appreciate any guidance on how to lock down the app or make it more customer-friendly while maintaining security.

Thank you!

Re: Help with Setting Up a Secure Donation Station in Our Church Foyer

TheRealChipA — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 19:55:42 GMT

Hi there @YLCC. Good question. Here are my thoughts.

First, I would not under any circumstances use Square POS for this purpose. There are just too many issues and gotchas that will crop up. Square POS was made to be used by employees and employees only.

Having said that, I can recommend that you look into Square Kiosk. Here is some general information that should help you investigate and decide if it is worth it for you. Please review that and then if you have further questions or concerns, come back here and post those. I’ll be happy to answer them if I can.

———-

To use Square Kiosk, follow these steps:

Set Up Hardware: Ensure your Square Kiosk hardware is properly set up.
Install the App: Download and install the Square Kiosk app on your iPad.
Configure Settings: Customize your self-service ordering experience, including menu items and categories.
Connect Devices: Ensure your iPad is connected to the Square Kiosk.
Test Payments: Verify that payments can be processed smoothly.

For detailed guidance, refer to the following articles:

Re: Help with Setting Up a Secure Donation Station in Our Church Foyer

Sammie_C — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 19:41:15 GMT

Hi @YLCC, thank you for your post. Welcome to the Seller Community!

I appreciate your insight on this @TheRealChipA, and would agree with you.

While certain functions of Square's POS systems are customizable, our systems are made for business and employee use, and I would not recommend having your device be used by patrons on their own. A workaround might be by having someone within your organization who is trained on your POS system accepting donations through the POS for your patrons. Having patrons have full access to the POS, could eventually cause issues in the long run.

If you have any other questions about this, please feel free to reach out.