You have a table-top coffee machine in an office, a practice or a showroom. It has to take payments and record every sale for accounting and fiscal reporting. But the machine is small, there is no room inside for a standard payment system, and you do not want to drill holes in the front for a reader.

There is another way: customers pay with their phone through an app, which connects over Bluetooth to a small electronic system – Dynamos – inside the machine. Nothing to mount, nothing to drill, every sale recorded.

You need a payment system, but the machine cannot take one

A small coffee machine has the same obligations as a full-size one: every sale recorded, consumption and revenue per location, accounting data kept, fiscal sales data transmitted where the law requires it. And customers expect a modern way to pay.

Keys, cards and contactless all need a reader the customer can reach. On a table-top machine that means:

• No space. The inside of a compact machine is already full.
• Drilling. The reader goes on the front panel, so the panel gets cut. Many operators refuse, especially where the machine is on display.
• Cost. Extra hardware to buy and fit, plus a card fee on every sale.
• Time. Fitting and wiring a reader on each machine takes longer, and the machine is permanently changed.

So operators run the machine without a payment system or turn down small locations.

The customer’s phone becomes the reader

With the Pay4Vend app, the customer’s phone is the reader. The customer keeps credit in the app and tops it up from the phone. At the machine, the phone connects over Bluetooth to a small payment system inside the cabinet. Nothing on the front, no holes.

The system is Dynamos, 8.2 cm wide. It fits where a standard payment system never would, and the Bluetooth version needs no external reader. It is the lowest-cost way to accept app payments in the Coges range.

Bluetooth is only the link between phone and system. The payment happens in the app, from prepaid credit. The machine needs no card terminal, key reader or other customer-facing hardware.

How a purchase works

Buying a coffee takes a few seconds:

1. The customer tops up credit in the Pay4Vend app
2. At the machine, the phone connects to the Dynamos over Bluetooth
3. The customer selects a drink
4. The price is taken from their credit
5. Machine serves a drink
6. Dynamos records the sale.

Customers can also check their balance and message the operator from the app. The same app lets you reward your regulars with a discount, a free drink or a quick survey, which goes a long way in an office of 20 people. Read more on what Pay4Vend does for loyalty and revenue.

What you get as an operator

What this means for your business:

• Every sale recorded. Dynamos logs each transaction and collects the data for accounting and fiscal reporting. The technician’s smartphone picks it up during the visit and can transmit it to your ERP in real time.
• Small locations visible. Consumption and revenue per machine, same as on your large installations.
• No reader to buy, fit or wire. The customer’s phone replaces it.
• No holes. The front panel stays as it was. Machines go back unchanged when a contract ends.
• No card fee per drink. Customers pay from prepaid credit; there is no terminal at the machine taking a cut.
• Faster installation. One unit inside the cabinet, nothing mounted outside.

If a location wants a key or card, Dynamos also comes in MyKey and MIFARE versions. For most small machines, the Bluetooth version with Pay4Vend solves the actual problem.

Where it works, and where it does not

We will show you how it works

If your table-top machines run without a payment system, or you turn down small locations because of it, let us show you this set-up on a real machine. Book a demo with Coges: we bring a Dynamos system and the Pay4Vend app, and you see a payment, the sale record and the fiscal data in a few minutes.