Taking Gravity Payments During an Internet Outage

By Riley Bennett, merchant-device documentation editor with eight years reviewing payment-support workflows (editorial persona)
Last reviewed: July 12, 2026

Some Gravity Payments setups can record credit-card transactions while the internet is unavailable and submit them after connectivity returns. That does not mean the payment has been approved: the terminal cannot check the account, available funds or card status while offline.

This independent guide is not operated by Gravity Payments and cannot enable offline processing or recover a stored transaction.

What an offline card payment actually is

An offline transaction is stored by the payment device instead of being sent immediately to the processor and issuing bank. Gravity says the encrypted payment is transmitted for approval when the device reconnects.

The customer may receive a printed receipt before that later approval attempt. At that moment, however, the merchant does not yet know whether the issuer will approve the charge.

This creates three separate stages:

Stage	What has happened	What has not happened
Card presented	Terminal records the transaction	Issuer has not necessarily reviewed it
Offline record stored	Device retains the payment for later transmission	Merchant has not received final approval
Device reconnects	Transaction is sent for processing	Funding still depends on approval and settlement

A receipt produced offline is evidence that the device recorded the attempt. It is not a promise that the business will be paid.

Does every Gravity Payments terminal support offline mode?

No universal offline feature applies to every Gravity account or device.

Gravity says it integrates with equipment capable of offline card processing, while its brief power-outage support page directs merchants to call 866-701-4700 for account-specific instructions.

Clover Starter is one Gravity-listed service plan that includes offline-payment capability. The plan is available for Clover Go, Clover Mini and Clover Flex, although the exact behavior still depends on the product, application and merchant configuration.

There is an important device distinction. Clover’s current developer documentation says Clover Mini and Flex are configured by default to accept offline payments for up to seven days. Its separate Clover Go documentation states that offline payments are not supported through the Clover Go SDK, so developers must detect the lost connection and prevent transactions that cannot complete.

The shared Clover name does not make those products operationally identical.

Check the exact model and software. Skip assuming that a mobile reader inherits the offline behavior of a Clover countertop or portable terminal.

Who carries the risk?

The merchant does.

When a Clover device cannot reach the payment gateway, it cannot confirm that the card is valid or that sufficient funds are available. Clover therefore lets eligible merchants disable offline transactions, set an individual transaction limit or cap the total amount accepted during an outage.

Gravity warns that a stored transaction may be rejected after the device reconnects. When that happens, the business may be unable to recover the money from a customer who has already left with the goods or received the service.

Offline mode shifts the decision from the issuer to the business:

• Accept the sale and risk a later decline.
• Reject the card and risk losing the customer’s purchase.
• Accept only transactions below a controlled limit.
• Request another available payment method.

The right choice changes with the business. A coffee shop may accept the risk of a small ticket. A jeweler, medical provider or equipment seller may decide that one rejected transaction would cost more than several missed sales.

Priority one is setting a dollar limit before the outage. Skip leaving the decision entirely to whichever employee is standing at the terminal.

Clover offline limits and prompts

Clover documents several ways an integrated point-of-sale system can handle an offline-payment challenge.

The safest interactive option alerts the employee that the device is offline and asks whether to accept or reject the transaction. More aggressive configurations can approve an offline payment without displaying a warning or force transactions into offline mode regardless of connectivity. Clover cautions that these options can override the merchant’s normal time and dollar limits.

For example, a merchant might configure the system to:

• Accept offline payments automatically below $20.
• Ask for manager approval above $20.
• Reject every offline payment above a set total exposure.
• Disable offline transactions completely.

Automatic acceptance is faster. It also makes it easier for an employee to finish a shift without realizing how much unapproved revenue is stored on the device.

Use visible prompts unless the business has deliberately approved another risk policy. Record who can override the limit and when an override is appropriate.

What to do when the internet fails

First determine whether the failure is local or provider-wide.

Gravity maintains a public system-status page with current and historical incident information. Merchants can subscribe for email or text updates when Gravity creates, updates or resolves an incident.

Then check the local network:

1. Confirm that another approved business device can reach the internet.
2. Inspect the terminal’s connection indicator.
3. Verify that the router and access point have power.
4. Confirm that the payment device is connected to the intended private network.
5. Check whether cellular service is available on a portable terminal.
6. Review the Gravity status page before resetting applications.

Gravity says unstable connections can cause transactions to halt temporarily, time out or leave devices unable to synchronize. It recommends sufficient bandwidth, hard-wired Ethernet for compatible Clover countertop equipment, a separate guest network and limited reliance on hotspots.

A hotspot can be a backup, but Gravity advises dedicating it to Clover rather than sharing it with ordinary business traffic.

Do not move the terminal onto a public or neighboring Wi-Fi network simply to complete a sale. Gravity recommends using the merchant’s own internet service and a protected WPA or WPA2 network.

Power outage and internet outage are different

Offline mode cannot help when the device has no power.

A portable terminal with a charged internal battery may continue operating during a building outage, while a countertop terminal, router and network switch may shut down immediately. Gravity’s Clover Flex guide describes the Flex as a portable device supplied with a charging cradle and power equipment, while its network guidance assumes powered routers and access points.

A practical outage plan may include:

• Charged portable terminals
• Battery backup for the router and network equipment
• A dedicated cellular connection
• Paper order records that contain no payment credentials
• A clear cash or invoice fallback
• A documented maximum offline transaction amount

Gravity’s public answer to whether payments can be accepted during a power failure is yes, but it tells merchants to call support for the account-specific method.

That short answer should not be interpreted as proof that every unpowered countertop terminal will continue processing.

Do not retry a payment blindly

A network timeout does not always mean the transaction failed. The device may have recorded or submitted the payment while the application lost the response.

Before charging the customer again:

1. Search the terminal’s transaction application.
2. Check the Clover Transactions screen when applicable.
3. Search by payment ID, receipt barcode, amount, employee or payment source.
4. Review any offline or pending queue.
5. Wait for synchronization when the connection has just returned.

Gravity’s Clover instructions allow a transaction to be found by its payment ID, by scanning the receipt barcode or by filtering paid transactions.

Clover’s Diagnostics area also includes Connection History and a Network Queue. Messages that could not reach Clover because of a connection problem remain queued until communication is restored.

No second charge until the first attempt is located.

For integrated software, the point-of-sale record can disagree temporarily with the device. Clover warns that its REST API may not accurately reflect payments taken offline until reconciliation occurs, and it recommends storing external references for payment recovery.

What happens after reconnection

Once the network returns, the terminal sends its stored transactions for processing. Some will approve. Others may decline.

Leave the device powered and connected long enough to finish synchronization. Avoid resetting it, removing the application or clearing data while offline transactions remain unresolved.

Then compare:

• Offline transactions stored during the outage
• Transactions successfully uploaded
• Later approvals and declines
• Customer receipts
• Point-of-sale orders
• Closed batches
• Expected bank deposits

A transaction that uploads successfully must still enter the normal settlement and funding process. It will not necessarily appear in the bank as soon as Wi-Fi returns.

Gravity’s offline-processing article says cardholder balances are not updated until the stored payment is transmitted. The delay can therefore create customer questions when the charge appears later than the purchase date.

Keep the original transaction time and the eventual processing result together in the business record.

If an offline transaction is declined

A later decline means the issuer did not approve the stored payment when it was finally transmitted.

Gravity warns that the business may have no practical way to recover that specific sale after the customer has departed.

Do not alter the decline result or submit repeated attempts without a valid customer interaction. Instead:

1. Preserve the declined transaction record.
2. Match it to the related order or invoice.
3. Follow the business’s established customer-contact policy.
4. Request another authorized payment method when appropriate.
5. Record the unpaid sale correctly in the accounting system.

The merchant’s offline limit should be based partly on how difficult recovery would be. A known repeat customer with an open invoice presents a different collection risk from an anonymous festival attendee.

FAQ

Can Gravity Payments process cards without internet?

Some supported Gravity setups can store offline transactions for later processing. Availability depends on the terminal, application and merchant configuration.

Are offline card payments guaranteed?

No. The device cannot contact the gateway or check the card and available funds while offline. The transaction may decline after reconnection.

Does Clover Flex support offline payments?

Clover says Mini and Flex are set by default to accept offline payments for up to seven days, subject to merchant and integration settings. Limits can be changed or offline acceptance can be disabled.

Does Clover Go work offline?

Clover’s current Go SDK documentation says offline payments are not supported and instructs developers to detect network loss before starting payment attempts.

Can I limit offline transaction amounts?

Yes, on supported Clover configurations. Merchants can set per-transaction and total offline-payment limits or disable offline acceptance.

Should I rerun a payment after a timeout?

Not until the original attempt has been searched. Use the terminal transaction list, payment ID, receipt barcode and network queue before submitting another charge.

How do I check whether Gravity has an outage?

Gravity operates a public status page with active and historical incident information and optional email or text notifications.

The reliable outage workflow is to confirm device support in advance, impose a controlled offline limit, search every uncertain attempt before retrying and reconcile all stored payments immediately after connectivity returns.

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