When the internet is down you can still take cards for tickets you held for offline sale. The card is read now and charged later, when the connection comes back.

Turning it on for your venue (venue admins)

Offline card sales are off by default. A Venue Admin turns them on in the POS → Offline card sales card at AdminVenues[venue]Edit:

• Allow offline card sales — the switch. Off means the Sell offline → Card option doesn't appear on this venue's door devices at all.
• Per-sale cap — the most one offline card sale may be. The default is $250. The card-reader network's own ceiling is $10,000 per sale, so a higher number here is clamped to that.
• Stripe Location offline mode — read-only, shown as On, Off or Unknown. This one is not a Noctern setting: a reader still needs offline mode enabled at the card-reader network end, even when the switch above is on. If it reads Off, ask Noctern support.

Before doors

• While the internet is still up, open Sell offline → Card and pick your card reader once. A WisePOS E card reader must have connected while online in the last 24 hours.
• Tap to Pay on iPhone works with no Wi-Fi only if offline Tap to Pay has been enabled for the account. Tap to Pay on Android needs the internet.

Selling

1. Sell offline → choose the quantity → Card.
2. Choose Tap to Pay or your WisePOS E. The WisePOS E needs the venue Wi-Fi, even if the internet is down.
3. Tap Charge. The amount is the ticket price plus tax (and the day-of-show upcharge when it applies). You can't type an amount.
4. The screen shows OFFLINE — card will be charged later. Print the tickets as usual; they are valid right away.

Afterwards

• Stored payments are sent to Stripe automatically when the connection is back. Keep the phone and the card reader on.
• Never uninstall the app or clear its data while payments are stored. Check Diagnostics → Stored card payments first.
• If a bank declines a stored payment, a red banner lists it (name, amount, time). The ticket is not cancelled. Tell the box office manager, then tap Acknowledge. Declined offline payments can't be recovered by Stripe.
• Offline card payments can't be refunded until they have been sent to Stripe.

Reconciling offline card sales (venue admins)

Noctern records every offline card sale the moment it uploads — even one that later turns out to have been declined once forwarded, or that Noctern couldn't verify against Stripe right away. Tickets are never voided automatically. A sale that needs a decision shows up in two places:

• AdminBox OfficeIncomplete Orders, under "Offline card sales needing attention" — one card per sale, with the patron, amount, ticket(s), and why it needs attention: Declined, a Verification mismatch, offline card sales were disabled for this venue, or over the venue's per-sale cap (which shows both the cap and the amount charged).
• A daily email to the venue's event address, batching everything still open into one message, so a quiet night doesn't mean a flood of one-off emails.

For each one, choose:

• Mark collected — record how the money actually came in (cash, check, or another card run separately). This replaces the failed card attempt with the real tender, so reports and the accounting journal show what actually happened.
• Write off — the venue is not collecting this money. A reason is required, and it's recorded in the venue's activity log.
• Accept — offered only on the two policy reasons (sales were disabled, or over the cap). The charge itself went through; this just acknowledges that it broke the venue's own rule, moves no money, and clears it from the list.