Card readers

Pair a countertop reader so clients can tap or insert a card, add a tip on the device, and be on their way.

A card reader turns the front desk into a proper checkout counter. The client taps or inserts their card on the device and picks a tip on its screen, with the payment landing in Sable on the same ticket as the service.

Order a reader

You can buy a reader from inside Sable, and it arrives ready to pair with your salon already set up on it. Salon owners can open Settings → Card Readers in the Sable app on iPhone or iPad, or in Sable on the web, and choose Buy reader. Booth renters use Settings → Card Readers → Buy reader on the web.

Pick the reader you want, add any accessories that go with it, and the order ships to whatever address you give us. The form starts from your business details for salon orders. Booth renters enter their own shipping address.

Owners pay with the salon’s Sable billing card. Booth renters order with their own hardware card and see only their own orders and shipping details. If no card is saved, choose Add card at review. Saving a renter hardware card does not change rent autopay.

After payment enrollment on the web, a one-time dialog offers a reader for your salon or your own clients. Choose Buy reader to open the shop, or Not now to continue. Buying is optional. Buy reader remains available in Card Readers when you need it.

Sable prepares your salon’s reader location after payment enrollment, using the saved salon business address. This is separate from the order’s shipping address. If setup needs attention, open Settings → Payments for the address action or setup retry. Booth renters ask their salon owner to complete the salon address. If an existing reader location needs review, contact support before creating another location.

Once the order is placed you’ll find it under Buy reader on the web. Salon owners can also find their orders on the Card Readers screen in the app, with its progress and a tracking number as soon as it’s on the truck. We’ll email you when it ships and when it arrives, and again if anything changes, including a cancellation with a refund or a delivery that comes back to us.

You can cancel for a full refund yourself while the order is still waiting to be placed with our supplier, which is usually the first few hours. After that, email [e-mail] and we’ll cancel and refund it for you right up until it’s delivered.

Pair a reader

Plug the reader in and let it find your salon’s Wi-Fi. Once it’s connected, it shows a short pairing code on its own screen, made of three words.

In Sable, open Settings → Card Readers and choose Pair reader. Salon owners, Salon Managers, and Admins can pair, rename, and remove readers. Other teammates with reader access can see the readers and whether they’re online. Type the code exactly as it appears on the device, give the reader a name you’ll recognize at a glance (Front desk and Color bar beat Reader 1), and pair it.

Pairing codes rotate every few minutes. If yours is rejected, glance back at the reader’s screen for the current code and try again.

The name matters more than it looks: at checkout you’ll pick the reader by that name, so a name that describes where it sits keeps a two-chair salon straight.

Tip options on the reader

The reader asks the client for a tip on its own screen, using the same tip percentages you already set in Settings → Payments. Change them there and the reader follows.

Take a payment on the reader

When you finish an appointment and go to check the client out, Card reader is waiting at the top of the payment options, already selected whenever you have a reader online. If you’ve paired more than one, pick the one the client is standing at by the name you gave it.

Send the sale to the reader and the client takes it from there: they choose a tip on the reader’s screen and tap or insert their card. Sable shows you the sale is in progress the whole time, so you can hand the client the device and keep your hands free.

The moment the card is approved, the ticket closes with the tip already added to the total. Nothing more to type in. In Transactions, a sale taken this way shows its method as Card reader, so when you reconcile your day you can see at a glance which payments ran through the reader and which were Tap to Pay on an iPhone.

A reader can only run one sale at a time. If you send a ticket to a reader that’s already busy, Sable tells you which one and lets you either wait for it to finish or cancel that payment first.

If the client changes their mind, cancel the payment from Sable or on the reader itself. Either way nothing is charged and the ticket stays exactly as you left it, so you can take the payment another way.

A sale that never had an appointment behind it works the same way: build the ticket from Transactions → Create payment and send it to the reader from there. See Record a payment without an appointment.

Keep an eye on your fleet

Settings → Card Readers lists every reader you’ve paired, whether it’s online right now, and when it was last seen. Rename a reader any time.

Removing a reader unpairs it from your salon. If a payment happens to be in progress on it, that payment is safely canceled and nobody is charged.

When a reader shows as offline

An offline reader is almost always power or Wi-Fi. Check that it’s charged or plugged in, and that it’s on the same network you paired it with. It reappears as online on its own once it reconnects.

Which readers work

Sable supports the S700 Smart Reader and M2 Tap Reader offered in the Sable shop.

On a shared front-desk computer or iPad, use Salon Mode so each teammate takes payments with their own permissions. If the Salon Mode idle timer comes due during an active reader payment or checkout, Sable protects that step long enough to finish or cancel it safely, up to five minutes, before locking.

Taking payments on your iPhone without any extra hardware is a separate feature, Tap to Pay, and it lives in the Sable iOS app.