Get started with your point-of-sale integration

Step 1: Set up an Adyen test account

The first thing you need to do, is to get an Adyen test account.

1. Sign up for a test account.
   You'll get:

   • One company account that represents your core business entity with us.
   • One merchant account.
   • Access to your test Customer Area as an Admin user. In the Customer Area you can manage your account, order payment terminals, view transactions, and add users.

   When you sign up, use real details. Entries with "test" or email addresses containing @gmail.com or @hotmail.com are not always accepted.

2. Determine and set up your account structure.
   You now need to create a structure of one or more merchant accounts that either represent stores or have stores underneath. You can add more merchant accounts and stores later, but the basic structure should reflect the structure that you plan to have when you go live.

Step 2: Scope your point-of-sale integration

The next step is to determine the scope of your integration.

1. Choose your integration architecture:

   • With local communications your cash register communicates directly with the payment terminal over your local network.

   • With cloud communications your cash register communicates with the payment terminal through the Adyen payments platform.

2. Determine the payment features you want to support.

3. Determine your encryption needs.
   By default, we protect payment messages with our End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) solution, but we also offer Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE). Both are equally secure. If you require P2PE, you need to inform us because we then need to provide different software on your payment terminals.

Step 3: Choose payment terminals

Now let's focus on the devices for processing payments. These devices are sometimes referred to as pin entry devices (PED) or points of interaction (POI), but we call them terminals.

1. Select the terminal models that suit your business.

2. Order test terminals from your test Customer Area.

3. Board your terminals, to associate them with a store and make them ready to accept payments.

Step 4: Configure features

Set up the features that your payment terminals should support.

1. Enable Terminal API on your Customer Area company account.

2. Add payment methods. Your payment terminals accept the global credit cards and Maestro out-of-the-box. If you also want to accept local credit or debit cards, wallets, or gift cards, you need to add these payment methods to your account.

3. Configure the payment features that are in the scope you decided on.

Step 5: Build your integration

Now you can start building your integration, and then test if everything works.

1. Add users to your account.
   You already have a Customer Area user (the Admin user) and a default web service user: ws@Company.[YourCompanyAccount]. (You can't log in with your web service user; our system uses it for flows that require authentication, such as processing payments and ordering payment terminals.)

   • Optionally create additional Customer Area users for your team members.

   • Create additional web service users. When you go live, you'll need to create web service users. For example, one for each merchant account, or one for point of sale and one for ecommerce. It's good practice (though not required) to do the same on your test account.

2. Depending on the integration architecture that you chose, either:

   • Build a local integration.
   • Build a cloud integration. For a cloud integration also generate an API key to authenticate your API requests.

   This involves configuring your network, optionally installing an API library, and building a flow for receiving payment results.

   While doing this, make sure you implement our network recommendations and best practices.

3. Test your integration.

   • Make payments:

     • Test the happy flow by making payments with your test terminals and test cards.
     • Test non-happy flows such as timeouts and connection problems.
     • Simulate various acquirer responses to test your handling of declined transactions.

     • Test different card types and Cardholder Verification Methods (CVM).

   • Cancel payments, both from the cash register and from the terminal.
   • Refund payments, both with and without reference to an original transaction.

   • Test the payment methods and features that you added to your integration.

4. Learn how to handle Terminal API errors and troubleshoot your terminals.

5. Ensure your reconciliation is working.
   • Download the Settlement details report automatically.
   • Learn how to automate your payment reconciliation.
   • If you're using Store IDs or currency conversion (DCC), ask our POS Support Team to add these fields to your reports.

Step 6: Go live

After testing your integration for all the features you plan to use, you can take your integration live.

1. Apply for a live account.
   This process takes some time, so you may want to do this in parallel with one of the phases described above.
2. When you have the login credentials for your live account, set up your account structure.
3. Configure your live account with the payment methods and features that you want to use.
4. Add web service users and Customer Area users. Note that we don't create a default web service user for your live account.
5. Order terminals for live payments and configure them.
6. Add a payout account to each of your live merchant accounts.
7. Update your code:
   • For a cloud integration, generate a new API key and switch to the live endpoints and the new API key.
   • For a local integration, secure the communication with the LIVE terminal certificate (or use a library).
8. Do end-to-end tests, from making a payment with a real card to completing your reconciliation.