Updated March 13, 2025

Use the Dubsado mobile app to accept contactless in-person payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android.

With Tap to Pay and the Dubsado mobile app, you can accept all types of in-person, contactless payments, right on your iPhone or Android mobile device—from physical debit and credit cards to Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other digital wallets—no extra hardware required.

It’s easy, secure, and private. Tap to Pay uses the built-in security features of iPhone and Android devices to keep your business and customer data private and secure. When a payment is processed, the customer’s card numbers are not stored on the device or online, so you can rest assured knowing your business stays yours.

All of Dubsado’s in-person payments are powered by Stripe.

Many modern mobile devices have the hardware required to run Tap to Pay already built into the device itself. So long as you have a qualifying device, you’re connected to Dubsado Payments, and your business is located in one of the accepted countries, you can start receiving payments via Tap to Pay as soon as you’ve set up the payment option within the Dubsado mobile app.

Tap to Pay is exclusively available to users connected with Dubsado Payments powered by Stripe, and users connected with Square aren’t able to accept Tap to Pay payments. PayPal can be connected in addition to either Dubsado Payments or Square, but a Dubsado Payments connection is required in order to accept Tap to Pay payments.

Read below to see availability, device requirements, and software requirements for Tap to Pay on iPhone and Tap to Pay on Android.

Tap to Pay on iPhone is currently available for Dubsado Payments merchants located in the following countries:

Tap to Pay on iPhone requires an iPhone XS or later. The iOS version needed to run Tap to Pay varies by country:

Tap to Pay on Android is currently available for Dubsado Payments merchants located in the following countries:

Tap to Pay on Android is supported by a wide variety of Android mobile devices. An Android mobile device can use Tap to Pay if it meets the following requirements:

Check out Stripe’s support doc to see which Android devices are able to accept Tap to Pay payments.

In order to use Tap to Pay on iPhone or Tap to Pay on Android, a Dubsado Payments Stripe account must be linked to your mobile device using either your Apple ID or Google Play account, respectively.

Because this connection to Stripe is device-specific and involves a user’s Apple ID or Google Play account, only Dubsado brand owners are able to set up and use Tap to Pay functionality at this time. If you are an Admin, Basic, or Accountant multi-user on a Dubsado brand, you won’t be able to set up or receive Tap to Pay payments on your mobile device.

Dubsado mobile app users are prompted to set up Tap to Pay when first opening the app, if they are the owner of the brand they have selected to view.

In the popup that appears, tap Set up Tap to Pay to continue to your Tap to Pay settings. If you tapped Maybe later and want to set up Tap to Pay, you can also navigate to the More tab to find your Tap to Pay settings.

Within your Tap to Pay settings, follow these steps:

After agreeing to the terms and conditions, confirming your address if necessary, and checking out our in-app how-to video, you’re all set to start accepting in-person contactless payments!

Accepting payments is easy and takes just a few simple steps.

The Contactless Symbol is a trademark owned by and used with permission of EMVCo, LLC.

Not every credit or debit card is contactless ready, and you may need to ask your client to make their payment online using their invoice link.

Within the Dubsado mobile app, there are three different ways you can access Tap to Pay functionality. An existing invoice is needed in order to accept a payment. Check out the three options below:

For each of the above options, following the steps produces the Accept a payment screen.

On the Accept a payment screen, you can select select or confirm the project, and then choose or confirm an existing invoice for which you want to accept a payment.

Tapping Continue to payment options allows you to proceed with collecting a payment using Tap to Pay.

After tapping Continue to payment options, the appearance of the payment review page will vary depending on if you have gratuity or surcharging enabled.

Tap to Pay can be used in conjunction with added gratuity, with surcharging, or with both gratuity and surcharging enabled. Keep in mind that surcharging can only be used for businesses in select locations, and a surcharge fee can only be added to payments made via credit card. Check out our article on surcharging for more information.

To review or enable your gratuity and surcharging settings, head to Settings ➔ Payments and invoices on Dubsado’s desktop site. Gratuity and surcharging cannot be enabled from the Dubsado mobile app.

With gratuities enabled, the payment review page automatically includes default tip options of 15%, 20%, and 25% of the payment total. The client can tap one of these options to add their tip amount to the payment total.

Clients can also tap Custom amount to enter a custom tip amount, or they can tap No tip to add no tip and proceed with paying the original payment amount.

With surcharging enabled, the payment review page defaults to displaying the payment amount plus the surcharging fee for your location.

Since a surcharge can only be applied to credit card transactions, a card type selector is also displayed on this page. Your client can tap Credit or Debit depending on the card they intent to use to make the payment.

By default, Credit is selected when first accessing the payment review page. If Debit is selected, the surcharge amount is removed from the payment total.

For merchants in the United States, the surcharge rate is capped at 2.7% for Tap to Pay transactions.

Allowable surcharge rates are determined in part by your “average cost of acceptance,” which is largely dependent on the credit card processing rate. The processing fees associated with Tap to Pay are actually slightly lower than the fees associated with a normal online transaction, which means the maximum surcharge rate must also be slightly lower.

For merchants in Canada, the maximum surcharge rate matches the rate for a normal online transaction at 2.4%.

See below for the full table of payment processing fees by country for Tap to Pay transactions.

Depending on your region and the issuer of your client’s card, transactions above a certain limit may require additional verification measures, such as PIN entry.

iPhones running iOS 16.4 or later support PIN entry. For transactions that require PIN entry, the Dubsado mobile app automatically prompts your client to enter their PIN after tapping their card.

However, not all card issuers allow for online PIN entry, meaning these cards must be inserted into a chip reader for transactions above the limit and can only be used for Tap to Pay transactions under the regional contactless transaction limits.

For a full list of contactless transaction limits by region, head to Stripe’s support doc.

NFC wallet payments such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay may not be subject to these transaction limits. If your client’s card cannot be used for a transaction due to the transaction limit, consider asking your client to pay via an NFC wallet or with another card.

When processing payments using Tap to Pay, there are no additional transaction fees.

In fact, transactions fees for accepting payments via Tap to Pay are generally slightly lower than transaction fees for standard online payments (Hooray!). This is because payments made via near-field communication (NFC) technology are more secure and less likely to be fraudulent.

See below for a full list of payment processing fees for Tap to Pay, by merchant country and payment type. These processing rates are used instead of the normal Dubsado Payments processing fees, and are not added fees.

At the moment, Tap to Pay payments are treated as one-off payments, and clients won't be able to enroll in autopay when making a Tap to Pay payment—even if autopay is set to required on the invoice’s payment plan.

If a client makes a Tap to Pay payment on an invoice where autopay is required, they will still be able to enroll in autopay when making subsequent payments online.

It is possible to accept a payment via Tap to Pay on a scheduler invoice by accessing the invoice from the mobile app after it has been created by the scheduler, but accepting a payment this way will not complete the booking process—since a scheduler invoice must be paid during the booking flow. Accepting a payment outside of the scheduler ➔ invoice flow will not result in a booked appointment.

So, it’s recommended that clients are instructed to make a normal online payment on a scheduler invoice in order to properly book their appointment slot.

Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other digital wallet payments can only be accepting via Tap to Pay at this time.

Alternatively, clients making a payment on a Dubsado invoice online can experience a similarly effortless payment experience by making use of Link, since a variety of payment methods can be saved to a client’s Link account.