Step 1: Check your current contract
Canadian merchants should learn how to switch payment terminals by checking the current credit card terminal contract for lock-in before they order a replacement. Before anything, read your existing agreement for term length, early-termination fees, and equipment-return rules. Leased hardware usually has to go back, and a missed return can keep billing after you stop using that processor. Write down the end date, the notice you must give, and who pays to ship the old reader. If the contract renews on its own, the cutover week starts from that clause. Those exit terms tell you which day you can unplug the old unit. Settle this before the new account opens, so a locked lease does not push the change into a Saturday service.
Step 2: Set up the new account in parallel
Open your Armour Payments account and configure the new terminal while the old one still takes live sales. Set the network, the receipt, and the tip prompt on the new reader before anyone depends on it. Running both side by side means a guest can still pay if the new device is waiting on a login or a SIM. Leave the old reader powered, and tell staff which unit is the test device. Label the cables so the next open uses the right network. You are ready for a test sale once the new terminal is online on its own power and its own connection.
Step 3: Test, then cut over
Run a few small live transactions on the new device and confirm they settle. Take one tap, one chip insert, and one Interac debit sale. Void or refund them if they were only tests, and confirm the receipt shows the business name. Then switch fully during a quiet hour. Use the terminal setup checklist to verify tap, chip, Interac, tips, and receipts before you rely on the new terminal. Keep the old reader plugged in through that hour. A morning delivery is not the test. The cutover is short once those sales have already succeeded.
Step 4: Confirm funding, then return old hardware
Keep the old terminal until your first deposit from the new account lands and reconciles against the batch you settled. A successful tap shows authorization. The deposit shows that funding works. If the deposit is short or missing, keep taking cards on the old device while the account is sorted. Once it matches, return any leased equipment under the rules from step one and keep the shipping record. Talk to sales and we will keep the return date and the cutover hour apart. This step is finished when you can match the deposit to the batch report.
Cutting over during Saturday lunch
A busy counter cut over to a new terminal at the start of Saturday lunch because the courier had dropped it that morning. The first live sale failed on a network setting nobody had tested, and the old device was already unplugged. Guests waited while someone hunted for the previous power cable. Run the new terminal beside the old one on a weekday, take a few small live sales, and pick the cutover hour after those sales succeed. Keep the old reader powered until the first deposit from the new account shows in the bank. Saturday lunch is the worst moment to discover a missing Interac prompt. Follow the terminal setup checklist on the new device first. Talk to sales if a contract end date is the thing pushing you to rush the hour.
What to run before you unplug the old reader
On the new device, run one tap, one chip insert, and one Interac debit sale before anyone unplugs the old reader. Void or refund those tests if they were only tests. Print or text a receipt so you know which path staff will actually use. Settle a batch and wait until that deposit lands and matches the batch report. Write down the batch cut-off so a Friday afternoon sale is not a surprise on Monday. Return leased hardware only after that deposit clears. If several people share one countertop lane, train the open and the close on the new menus the day before the handoff. The old terminal stays in reach until those checks pass. Settlement timing is in next-day deposits explained. The lane hardware is on in-person payments.