How credit card capture works

Your client settles back into the chair for their final blowout. The appointment was great. The experience was exactly what they came for.

Then they get to the reception. The terminal needs to be found. A PIN needs to be entered. The moment lingers longer than it should.

Kitomba Pay has a way to change that. Cardless checkout, also known as Saved cards, let your team charge a client’s card at the end of their appointment without even needing a terminal. Their card is stored securely when they book online, and your team confirms the charge directly inside Kitomba. The client walks out. The payment is done. Fees apply.

This post explains what saved cards is, what you need to set it up, and how your team uses it once it’s running.

What saved cards actually mean for your salon

When a client saves their card during online booking, that detail is stored securely against their profile. The next time they come in, your staff can confirm payment from Kitomba, no terminal, no waiting, no PIN.

From the client’s perspective, checkout barely happens. From your team’s perspective, it’s one tap at the end of an invoice.

The feature is available to all Kitomba Pay customers using Kitomba 1, and it’s already included in your Kitomba Pay plan at no extra cost!

What you need to get started

There are two things to put in place before your team can use saved cards.

First: clients need to save their cards when booking online.

Cards are stored during the online booking flow if you have deposits or cancellation fees enabled. If your salon doesn’t use one of those yet, it’s worth setting up first.

Second: PIN access needs to be enabled on your salon device.

This is a one-time admin setup. Here’s what it involves:

• An admin enables PIN switching on the salon’s main device (the tablet or computer your team uses for checkout)

• Each staff member sets their own 4-digit PIN

• Each time they want to use Kitomba 1, they enter their PIN to switch to their login, and use cardless checkout on that device

Admins can access cardless checkout from any device. Non-admin staff need a PIN-enabled device.

You can find the full PIN access setup guide here:

How to check out a client using a saved card

Once PIN access is set up and a client has a card on file, checkout works like this:

1. Open the client’s appointment and click ‘Make Sale’.
2. On the payment screen, you can select to use their saved card.
   (Note: You can set a saved card to be used as the default payment method here).
3. Complete the sale

The card is charged automatically, and a receipt is emailed to the client. The transaction appears in your sales reports alongside all other payments.

If a client asks what’s happening: “Would you like us to charge your card on file?” Most clients find this straightforward.

What if the card doesn’t go through?

Declines happen. Here’s what to do:

• Kitomba will show you if a payment has failed when you click ‘Complete sale’.

• Ask the client if they’d like to try a different card or pay another way

There’s no need to apologise or make it a big moment. It’s the same as any declined card: calm, quick, and onto the next option.

Ready to turn it on?

If you have Kitomba Pay, saved cards is already included in your plan.