Payments & Loyalty · Kava OS Pro
Let people pay with whatever is already in their pocket.
Kava OS handles cashless vending payments across every format: EMV contactless cards, mobile wallets, the Kava app or QR, employee badges and payroll deduct, with employer subsidies and loyalty on top. Keep your own processor at no markup, or use Kava Pay.
- markup on your own processor
- $0markup on your own processor
- Kava Pay, over interchange
- 0.35% + $0.05Kava Pay, over interchange
- transactions in the last 12 months
- 11.8Mtransactions in the last 12 months
Every payment method your people already use
Cards and wallets
EMV contactless cards and mobile wallets on every Kava Cooler and Kava Vend, and through MDB cashless readers on retrofitted machines.
Kava app and QR
Scan to open, pay from a saved method, and collect member prices and rewards in one place.
Employee badges
The credential that opens the building can open the cooler, so nobody walks back to their desk for a wallet.
Payroll deduct
Purchases roll into payroll through file or API connectors for Workday, ADP and UKG.
Employer subsidies
The employer pays all or part, by item, site, group or hour: free breakfast before 9 a.m., or half-price meals on night shift.
Loyalty
Frequency rewards and member prices configured per site, with brand-funded offers through Retail Media.
Your processor, your rates, your contract.
In a consolidating market, payments are the easiest place to lock an operator in. Bundle the reader, the processor and the software together, and switching any one of them means switching all three.
Kava OS keeps them separate. Retrofitted machines pass your existing MDB cashless reader through Kava Link, and you can bring your own processor at no markup. If you'd rather have fewer vendors, Kava Pay runs at interchange-plus 0.35% + $0.05 per transaction. Either way, shoppers never pay a cashless convenience fee.
- Cashless reporting in Kava OS regardless of processor.
- Switching processors doesn't mean switching platforms.
- No setup fee for software and no long-term contract on monthly plans.
Bring your own processor or use Kava Pay
| Question | Bring your own processor | Kava Pay |
|---|---|---|
| What 8Kava charges on payments | No markup | Interchange-plus 0.35% + $0.05 per transaction |
| Your existing processor agreement | Stays in place | Not needed |
| Cashless reporting in Kava OS | ||
| Fees charged to shoppers | None | None |
| Best fit | Operators with negotiated rates and readers they like | New programs and hosts who want fewer vendors |
Example: on a $4.25 sale, the Kava Pay margin above interchange is about $0.065 (0.35% of $4.25 is about $0.015, plus $0.05). Interchange itself is set by the card networks and varies by card type.
How a subsidy program goes from idea to receipt
Define the program
Choose sites, eligible items, time windows and the employer's share. A free coffee before 9 a.m. is one rule; 50% off fresh meals after 10 p.m. is another.
Connect eligibility
Badges or app accounts identify who qualifies. HRIS connectors keep the eligible list current as people join, move or leave.
The shopper taps
The door display shows the subsidized price. The employee pays the remainder, or nothing, by card, wallet or payroll deduct.
Finance gets one report
Subsidy spend is reported per site, group and pay period, ready to reconcile against payroll or invoice to a department.
What happens at the door, and when things go wrong
At the door
- Door release
- Under 1 second after tap
- Authorization
- A hold at tap; the final charge covers only what left the cooler
- Receipt
- Within 10 seconds of the door closing
When the network drops
- Offline buffering
- 72 hours of transactions on every 8Kava device
- Sync
- Automatic when the connection returns
Exceptions
- Failed vends
- Kava Vend V4 refunds automatically when its drop sensor sees nothing fall
- Disputes
- Resolved from shelf-level weight and recognition records
- Declines
- Tracked per device and reader, so a failing reader stands out
Security
- Card data
- Built to support PCI DSS scope reduction through P2PE-capable readers from certified processors
- Platform
- TLS 1.2+ in transit, AES-256 at rest, US-region hosting
Retrofit results, first 90 days
How many sales walk away because a wallet is sitting on a desk two floors up?
In a building where everyone wears a badge, the badge is the one thing every person is guaranteed to carry. Count the steps between "I'm hungry" and "I'm eating" at your busiest location: find the machine, find a payment method, wait, pay, open, take. Each step is a place a sale can leave. Which one could you remove this month?
Payments questions
Do shoppers pay a convenience fee for using a card?
No. No cashless convenience fee is imposed on shoppers, whether you bring your own processor or use Kava Pay.
Can I keep the card readers I already have?
Yes. Kava Link connects to the MDB bus and passes your existing MDB cashless reader through, so the reader and its processor keep working. You gain telemetry and remote pricing without touching payments.
How does payroll deduct reconcile?
Purchases are tied to a badge or app account and summarized per pay period. File or API connectors for Workday, ADP and UKG carry the totals into payroll, and finance sees the same numbers in Kava OS.
Is card data safe?
With P2PE-capable readers from certified processors, card data is encrypted at the reader and decrypted only by the processor. Kava OS is built to support that PCI DSS scope reduction, and platform data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
Which plan do I need?
Cashless reporting is part of every plan, starting with Core at $19 per device per month. Subsidies, payroll deduct and loyalty programs are part of Pro at $39. See pricing.
Where to go next
Keep your processor. Lose the friction.
Tell us your readers, your processor and your payment mix. We'll show you what changes, what stays, and what a subsidy program would cost.