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Meet your newest recruit: a sleek, reliable multitasker that takes payments, processes sales, cuts costs, grows tips, splits bills, and boosts your brand. Once upon a time,  EFTPOS terminals did one thing: accept card payments. In 2024, they have become the beating heart of a business’s finances, incorporating myriad tools and features to help merchants not only deal with the increasing volume of card payments, but also make informed business decisions, deliver premium and branded customer service, and get you paid faster. Zeller Terminal is one such device that’s leading the way in payment technology in Australia. Integrated into Zeller’s financial ecosystem, which offers a  point-of-sale system ,  transaction account  and  savings account ,  debit cards  and  corporate cards , a  contact directory  and  mobile app , Zeller EFTPOS Terminal is a key component of an all-in-one system that gives businesses real-time visibility of their cash position, important sales insights, and near-instant access to their funds. So much more than an EFTPOS machine, Zeller Terminal is a key growth driver for your business, and below, we explain twelve reasons why. Top 12 benefits of Zeller Terminal 1. It saves your business money. Zeller Terminal is yours to own outright for the low cost of $99, or $199 if you choose Zeller Terminal 2, which comes with a built-in point-of-sale system. There are no monthly rental fees, no lock-in contracts, and no hidden costs. Once you start taking payments, you will only ever incur a 1.4% transaction fee for all card types – including AMEX – or 1.7% for over-the-phone transactions. Plus, with Zeller Terminal’s flexible surcharging capability, you can choose to pass on all or part of your merchant fee to the customer. Unlike many merchant services providers which lock you into surcharging for an added fee, Zeller’s zero-cost EFTPOS  option can be turned on, off, or customised at the press of a button. 2. It accepts every payment method. Zeller Terminal gives your customers the option to pay however is most convenient for them. To make payment, a customer can: tap their smartphone, watch, or other  NFC-enabled device  to the terminal tap their contactless debit and credit cards to the terminal insert a chip card into Zeller Terminal and, if needed, securely enter their PIN swipe their card and enter their PIN, or sign directly on the screen (available on Zeller Terminal 1 only) call you and read their card details over the phone 3. It simplifies checkout with a free, built-in point-of-sale system. Traditional point-of-sale software can be costly to growing businesses, which is why Zeller Terminal 2 incorporates a simple POS solution right into the hardware, for free:  Zeller POS Lite . Designed for micro, small, and mobile businesses, this easy-to-use POS solution records sales and delivers a fast and secure customer checkout experience. With Zeller POS Lite, you can: Manage a library of items directly on the terminal or via Zeller Dashboard or App Customise your product offering with modifiers and variants Design your home screen grid to allow quick access to frequently used items Generate itemised receipts which customers can receive via email, SMS, or QR code View detailed sales reports to understand what you are selling and when Create and manage discounts Get set up instantly – Zeller POS Lite comes automatically installed on Zeller Terminal 2 4. It boosts your brand with customisable receipts and screensavers. Zeller ensures your brand is central to the payment process by allowing you to customise both your receipts and your machine’s screensaver. Whether they’re printed or sent digitally as an email or SMS, Zeller receipts can incorporate a custom image at the top of the receipt, as well as business details, social media handles, a brief message or returns policy. Similarly, Zeller Terminal’s large digital screen can be customised with an image of your choice, allowing you to engage your customers with your brand while you scan their items or pull up their order on your point-of-sale. Much more than a simple payment device, Zeller Terminal is an innovative marketing tool that can be leveraged to instil your brand messaging. Customise your Terminal screensaver and your receipt to align with your brand. 5. It splits payments. Gone are the days of making your customers get out their phone calculator to figure out who owes what after a group meal. Zeller Terminal’s  Split Payments  functionality gives customers the option of splitting by custom value or by number of people. Not only is this more convenient for your patrons, but it speeds up the payment process, freeing up the EFTPOS terminal for it to be used by other staff. Additionally, by giving each individual customer the option to pay their share, it gives them all the opportunity to provide a tip. Everyone tips differently, so by giving more power to each customer, it is not only a more democratic process, it's likely to result in cumulatively greater tips for your business. 6. It settles the bill, tableside. Zeller Terminal’s  Pay at Table  feature is revolutionising the dining experience. Where before waitstaff would have to jostle between the diner’s table and the point-of-sale machine to settle a bill, Zeller Terminal now allows you to see total outstanding bills, take payments and close tables — all on one device. Rather than the customer paying at the counter or finalising the bill in the traditional, time-consuming manner, waitstaff can deliver the bill and the mobile payment device, all at the same time. The status of a table is updated in real time and synced across all machines, reducing human error and optimising the whole operation. 7. It makes processing refunds easy. Zeller Terminal supports both complete and partial refunds – and you, as a business owner, have the ability to restrict who can provide a customer with a refund. It’s an added level of protection for your business. Refunding a payment doesn’t cost your business anything; Zeller doesn’t charge any additional fees for refunding a customer. 7. It gives you real-time insights. Track key metrics from your Zeller Terminal in your own Zeller Dashboard or on  Zeller App . By providing powerful real-time data and a searchable transaction history, Zeller equips you with the tools you need to better manage cash flow, identify cost-saving opportunities and sales patterns. With most payment services providers, daily transaction information is unavailable until totals are tallied up at close of business — and important business information can only be found in a monthly merchant services statement. Having the ability to see how your business is performing at a glance enables you to quickly understand your short-term cash flow, progress sales targets to meet (and outperform) business objectives, and ultimately make smarter business decisions. 9. It gets you paid faster with same-day settlements. When you settle your funds into a Zeller Transaction Account, your day’s takings from Zeller Terminal will be deposited into your account the very same night, 365 days a year. If you choose to settle your funds into a third-party bank account, you will receive them the next business day. Speeding up the settlement process means you have access to your funds faster, helping to keep your cash flow healthy, and helping to avoid delays to wage payments or supply orders. 10. It can be controlled remotely. If your business operates across multiple locations, you need an easy way to manage your EFTPOS payment terminals. Every one of your Zeller Terminals can be controlled from your Zeller account, ensuring consistency across your entire operation. Update your staff permissions, enable and disable surcharging, update the information on your receipts, and more from one easy, online location. 11. It increases your tips. Zeller Terminal makes it easy for customers to leave a tip. This is particularly useful for hospitality businesses — you don’t have to enable the feature, but the functionality is there. You can configure your Zeller Terminal to provide a range of tipping options, either prompting a customer to leave a tip calculated on a percentage of their purchase or allowing them to enter a custom amount. This is a proven tactic, designed to grow tips for your business. 12. It reduces paper with digital and QR code receipts. A recent study* revealed that Australia produces 10.6 billion paper receipts annually, but because of their chemical coating, none of them can be recycled. With consumers and businesses becoming increasingly aware of their environmental footprint, many are choosing digital receipts as a convenient and sustainable alternative. Zeller Terminal embraces this step forward by offering customers the choice to have their receipts sent via email or SMS (available on both terminal models), or they can quickly scan a QR code which appears on-screen after the payment has been processed and download their receipt directly to their smartphone (Zeller Terminal 2 only). *‘Life Journey of an Average Receipt’ report, commissioned by Slyp, undertaken by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Plus protection for your business. Zeller uses end-to-end encryption and industry best practices to protect transactions from the time they are taken at the terminal to the time your money is received. Whether you choose to use an open or secured Wi-Fi connection or a mobile broadband-based connection, all the information Zeller processes is encrypted to our servers. Our team adheres to industry best practices in cybersecurity and threat management, constantly monitoring transactions for suspicious activity and blocking fraudulent transactions. When payment disputes occur, our team of experts deals with the bank for you, helping you avoid costly chargebacks. We’re always looking ahead. Our team of developers are hard at work, continuously building new functionality to give your business an edge. That's why, when you sign up for Zeller, there are no lock-in contracts or commitments. We know you’ll love our solution enough to never want to leave. Learn more about how  Zeller Terminal  can help your business grow by accepting every card payment, quickly and securely, for one low rate. By sharing your details with us, we may contact you from time to time. 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Discover how this everyday technology functions and why it’s important to choose the right hardware. You’ve tapped. You’ve swiped. You’ve been approved and declined. Your interactions with EFTPOS have been countless, and yet you may not know what’s behind this ubiquitous technology. While most people can remain happily, cashlessly oblivious, for business owners, it’s very important to know what EFTPOS transactions are, how they work, and how to select the right hardware. Read on for a breakdown of everything you need to know about EFTPOS and some handy advice for choosing a terminal. What is EFTPOS? The name EFTPOS is an acronym for Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale. Put technically, it is an electronic payment system that allows customers to make transactions by electronically transferring funds from their bank account to a merchant's business bank account . Put simply, it is any machine that accepts debit and credit card payments. In today’s age, having an EFTPOS terminal is a boon for business . It is a convenient and efficient way to accept digital transfers, with the added benefit of quick payment processing, automatic record-keeping, and reduced cash handling. The Rise of EFTPOS Introduced to the Australian market in 1984, the EFTPOS transaction system took a while to grow in popularity as business owners and consumers got used to the idea of digital payments. For context, Australians were still using cash for 90% of all transactions in 1985. It wasn’t until 2002 that the EFTPOS industry saw significant growth. At the time, EFTPOS terminals were all produced by the big 4 Australian banks and had cumbersome designs, made for function, not form. These days, the landscape has changed on both sides of the counter. For customers, the shift towards electronic payments has seen a massive adoption of debit and credit cards, as well as more recently, mobile wallets. For merchants, there has been a dramatic improvement in EFTPOS hardware which now not only comes in a plethora of sleek styles to match the aesthetic of your business, but also offers up new functionality to help businesses manage their bottom line and enhance the customer experience, such as surcharging , tipping, and Pay at Table technology. And if embracing the cashless society wasn’t already tracking steadily, the COVID-19 pandemic massively accelerated the trend. Business owners and customers all over Australia have precipitously sought to reduce cash handling since early 2020 due to health concerns around the physical exchange of money. In 2021, the Reserve Bank of Australia reported that just 27% of in-person payments were made using cash. EFTPOS VS. eftpos To confuse matters, eftpos (lowercase) also refers to a privately-run Australian debit card platform. So, while EFTPOS is the globally accepted term referring to the conduit between a customer’s bank account and your business bank account (or Zeller Transaction Account ), eftpos is also the brand name of such a payment system. The important difference with eftpos is that it only serves debit cards — not credit cards — and works in Australia only. It’s unlikely that you’ve ever noticed this subtle difference because 90% of all debit cards in Australia are co-branded with Visa or Mastercard. This means they can process transactions through Australia’s local debit card network (eftpos) as well as international schemes. When a customer taps, dips or swipes their eftpos card and selects either Cheque or Savings, the transaction goes through the eftpos network. If a customer decides to pay via Credit, the transaction is processed via Visa or Mastercard because a credit payment cannot be processed through eftpos. Without getting into the weeds, it’s just important to be aware of the difference between EFTPOS and eftpos so that you understand what you are looking for when shopping for a card-processing terminal. How do EFTPOS transactions work? EFTPOS transactions start with an EFTPOS machine . These machines are the conduits that allow the relevant networks to connect and exchange information in order to complete a payment. The networks involved include the bank where the buyer has an account, your own business bank account , the company providing the EFTPOS machine, and more recently, your point-of-sale technology. The back-and-forth talk between the terminal sitting on your counter and the larger networks ensures the card being used has the necessary funds in its associated account and confirms the identity of the cardholder as well as the bank tied to the card. If the machine is integrated with your POS software, the machine will also communicate with the system to bring up the relevant transaction amount on the terminal. The image below outlines how this system works, and in what order. The Acquirer refers to the financial institution that processes the payment on behalf of the merchant. Zeller for example. The Card Scheme, also known as a payment network or payment scheme, is the organisation that establishes and maintains the rules and infrastructure for the use of credit and debit cards. Visa, Mastercard, American Express are all examples of card schemes. The Card Issuing Bank is the financial institution that provides a credit or debit card to the customer. How long do EFTPOS transactions take? While the transaction is instantaneous, the multi-step process of authentication, verification, and funds transfer detailed above can require some time to fully process. How quickly your money will “settle” (that is, show up in your bank account) will also vary from one EFTPOS terminal provider to another. This is a very important consideration when choosing your payments platform, because the time it takes to access your funds will greatly affect your business cash flow. For example, Zeller customers who settle to their Zeller Transaction Account will receive their funds nightly. Many other platforms can take up to 72 hours. What to look for in an EFTPOS machine When choosing an EFTPOS terminal for your business there are nine questions you need to be asking . Your selection process will involve a consideration of initial output costs, such as terminal fees and setup fees, functionality, and mobility but to make sure you’re getting the best bang for your buck, your terminal also needs to tick the following boxes: It needs to accept all card types As a business owner in Australia, your best bet is to ensure your terminal can accept eftpos debit cards as well as common international standards, like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. It needs to accept contactless payments Thanks to the expansion of NFC technology , the “tap-and-go” payment method has gained enormous traction in Australia both with cards and mobile wallets in recent years (four in five customers now pay contactlessly at least once a week). It’s an extremely quick and convenient way for your customers to pay, and will no doubt become the norm over the next few years. Merchant fees need to be low and flat Typically, the EFTPOS transaction fee (charged by the machine provider) will depend on the customer’s choice of payment method — making it very hard for businesses to estimate what their transaction fees will amount to for any given period. Having one low, flat fee for all card types means that you can forecast how much you are likely to pay in processing fees. At Zeller, you will only ever pay 1.4% per transaction. It needs to offer the option of surcharging Also more commonly referred to as zero-cost EFTPOS , surcharging gives you the ability to pass on the aforementioned fee to the customer. Surcharging is becoming more and more common in Australia, and is an important cost-cutting measure for businesses. Read our article on whether surcharging is right for your business. It needs to offer multiple options for connectivity If your WiFi connectivity dips out, it’s integral that you can keep processing payments until it is back up and running. Having a SIM card in your EFTPOS machine means you’ll never have to worry the next time your main connection fails, you’ll simply need to switch to SIM usage and business can continue as usual. For more detail on how terminals work, read our step-by-step guide on how to use an EFTPOS machine. Introducing Zeller At Zeller, we’ve built a smarter EFTPOS payments solution . Zeller Terminal is a dependable, secure EFTPOS terminal boasting mobility, customer convenience, a sleek design and low, transparent fees. With Zeller Terminal, you pay just 1.4% per transaction — no matter whether the customer has tapped, dipped or swiped their payment method of choice. With one low rate for all in-person payments, as well as faster settlements, forecasting your cash flow is simple. With Zeller, you can accept payments, access the money you’ve earned, oversee and manage your cash flow, and much more. And as more payment methods emerge, we are committed to supporting your business to keep pace with change.