Merchant Services Built for South Florida. Not for a Call Center in Another Time Zone.
Your South Florida Business Works Too Hard to Hand Over 3 Percent of Every Sale.
Sidekick Payment Solutions installs a compliant cash discount program. Sets up your Clover POS in person. Gets most merchants approved the same day. No contracts. No surprise line items. No hold music.
Zero Fee Processing Available
Same Day Approval for Most Merchants
Month to Month. No Contracts.
Certified Clover Provider
On Site Setup Across Miami-Dade and Broward
Full Service in English and Spanish
A cafeteria on West 49th Street in Hialeah. A salon off Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale. A studio near Miramar Parkway. Different businesses. Same monthly statement problem. Card processing in the United States averages roughly 2.6 percent of every sale. A business running 30,000 dollars a month in card volume at a 3 percent effective rate gives away 900 dollars every month. That is 10,800 dollars a year that never touches the operating account. Sidekick moves that money back into the business.
South Florida Margins Are Thin Enough. The Processor Should Not Be the Reason They Get Thinner.
Rent went up. Insurance went up. Payroll went up. The one line nobody renegotiates is the merchant statement. It arrives with interchange categories and assessment charges and a PCI compliance line that appeared last spring without warning. The rate quoted at signing is not the rate being paid today.
South Florida makes this worse in ways a national processor never accounts for. Season runs November through April and card volume spikes with it. Ticket averages in Coral Gables and Brickell run high enough that a percentage point moves real dollars. A restaurant on the Hollywood Broadwalk in February processes in one week what a Midwest operator processes in a month. Every one of those swipes carries a fee that most owners never chose and cannot explain.
Then there is the compliance layer. Florida merchants sit in an unusual legal position. Florida Statute 501.0117 technically prohibits credit card surcharges. The Eleventh Circuit struck that ban down as unconstitutional in Dana's Railroad Supply v. Florida Attorney General in 2015. Florida businesses may lawfully pass card costs through. The Florida Attorney General confirms this publicly. What the state does require is disclosure. Undisclosed fees can qualify as an unfair or deceptive trade practice under Florida law and the Attorney General publishes a consumer hotline for exactly that complaint.
Most merchants running a cost recovery program in Miami-Dade or Broward set it up themselves or let a processor drop a sign on the counter and walk away. That is where the exposure lives.
$10,800
Annual cost to a business running 30,000 dollars monthly card volume at a 3 percent effective rate
2.6%
Average cost of card acceptance per sale across United States merchants
$10,800
Annual cost to a business running 30,000 dollars monthly card volume at a 3 percent effective rate
July 1 2026
Date Florida Statute 509.214 took effect requiring public food service establishments to disclose card surcharges on menus bills and receipts
Florida Changed the Rules on Restaurants This Summer. Most Owners Have Not Heard.
Effective July 1 2026 public food service establishments in Florida must disclose card surcharges under Florida Statute 509.214. Sidekick handles that disclosure at setup.
If a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale or Miami adds a card fee at checkout and does not disclose it on the menu and the bill and the receipt that operator now has a state law problem on top of a card network problem. This applies to bars. Cafeterias. Ventanitas. Food halls. Any public food service establishment as Florida defines it.
Sidekick builds the program so this is handled before the first ticket runs. Menu language. Point of entry signage. Point of sale signage. Receipt line items. Staff scripting in English and Spanish so the answer a customer gets at the register matches the answer printed on the wall.
A properly structured cash discount program sidesteps most of the surcharge exposure entirely. The posted price becomes the card price. Customers paying cash receive a documented discount off that posted price. Federal law under the Durbin Amendment protects a merchant's right to offer that discount and no state bans it. That structure also solves the debit problem. Federal law prohibits surcharging debit cards in every state. A cash discount program applies to the transaction total regardless of card type which removes the need to sort debit from credit at the terminal.
Sidekick does not hand a merchant a sign and a login. Sidekick configures the posted pricing. Installs the disclosures. Trains the staff. Documents the program. Then stays reachable when a customer asks a question nobody trained the cashier to answer.
Stop Absorbing the Fee. Here Is the Mechanism.
The cash discount program. Legal in all fifty states including Florida. Available to every business Sidekick serves.
Gas stations on Okeechobee Road have run this model for forty years. Two numbers on the sign. Cash price. Card price. One disclosure. The customer paying cash gets a discount. The customer paying with a card pays the posted price which already reflects the cost of acceptance. The fee does not vanish. It relocates. Off the profit margin and onto the transaction where the cost originates.
The mechanics matter more than the marketing. The posted price must be the card price and the discount must come off that number. Post it the other way around and the program stops being a cash discount and becomes a surcharge subject to network caps state disclosure rules and registration requirements. Sidekick builds it correctly the first time.
Cash price. Card price.
The posted price must be the card price and the discount must come off that number.
BUILT COMPLIANT
Posted pricing. Signage at the door and the register. Receipt line items. Menu disclosure for food service. Every requirement handled before go live.
EVERY BUSINESS TYPE IN SOUTH FLORIDA
Restaurants. Salons. Chiropractors. Gyms. Boutiques. Martial arts academies. Ecommerce. If it takes a card Sidekick can implement this.
NO HIDDEN CATCH
The same structure that kept fuel retailers profitable for four decades. Now running for a boutique on Miracle Mile and a barbershop in Miami Gardens.
The POS That Runs the Business. Not Just the Register.
Sidekick is a certified Clover provider. Every system ships pre integrated with the cash discount program so nobody configures two platforms.
Clover is not a card reader. It is an operating system for the front of the house. Inventory. Staff hours. Loyalty. Live sales reporting from a phone at two in the morning. Most South Florida operators are paying for three or four separate subscriptions to do what one Clover device handles.
Sidekick provides installs and supports every system. A technician drives to the location. Configures the hardware. Trains the team in whichever language the team actually speaks. Leaves a direct number. Not a chatbot. Not a ticket queue in another state. A person who has stood behind that specific counter.
CLOVER STATION
Full countertop system for restaurants and retail and high volume operations. Inventory. Employee permissions. Tip management. Real time reporting.
CLOVER MINI
Compact and fast. Fits any counter. Handles contactless and chip and swipe without slowing the line on a Saturday night in Wynwood.
CLOVER FLEX
Mobile. Tableside on Las Olas. Trade show at the convention center. Client site in Weston. It travels.
CLOVER GO
The most portable option. Turns a phone into a terminal. Built for mobile detailers and trainers and contractors working across both counties.
Sidekick Shows Up. In Person. In Both Counties.
Fifteen cities. One local team. On site installation and training wherever the business operates.
Miami-Dade County
From Brickell towers to Calle Ocho storefronts Miami runs on volume and tourism dollars. Sidekick works with restaurants and retailers and service businesses across the city and configures programs that hold up during season and survive the summer slowdown.
Cafeterias. Ventanitas. Auto shops. Family retail along Palm Avenue and West 49th Street. Hialeah is one of the most Spanish dominant markets in the country and Sidekick delivers every conversation document and support call in Spanish without an interpreter line.
Warehouses and distributors and light industrial operations near the Okeechobee corridor. Sidekick handles B2B card acceptance recurring invoicing and virtual terminal setup for businesses that rarely see a walk in customer.
Barbershops. Restaurants. Event and hospitality businesses around the stadium district. Sidekick builds programs that handle unpredictable volume swings without penalty pricing.
Miracle Mile boutiques. Giralda Plaza restaurants. Professional offices and medical practices. High ticket averages mean the processing percentage matters more here than almost anywhere in the county. Sidekick handles the presentation side so the payment experience matches the brand.
Broward County
Las Olas restaurants. Flagler Village retail. Marine and hospitality businesses serving a visitor economy that never fully stops. Sidekick installs on site and supports through season.
Broadwalk restaurants and Downtown Hollywood retail around Young Circle. Heavy tourist card volume and thin food service margins make Hollywood one of the strongest cash discount markets in Broward.
Families and franchises and service businesses along Pines Boulevard and around Pembroke Lakes Mall. Sidekick supports multi location operators with consistent pricing across every store.
Restaurants and salons and fitness studios serving one of the fastest growing residential bases in the county. Recurring billing and membership management built in.
Retail and professional services concentrated in the town center district. On site Clover deployment and staff training included.
Professional practices. Medical and dental offices. Boutique fitness. Weston clients tend to run higher average tickets and expect a payment experience that reflects it.
Retail around the Sawgrass district and service businesses across the city. High foot traffic and high card penetration make fee recovery meaningful fast.
Restaurants and retail along Broward Boulevard and the Plantation Walk district. Sidekick handles the transition from an existing processor with no downtime.
Restaurants and retail around the Promenade plus service businesses across the city. Same day approval and month to month terms.
Neighborhood retail and family service businesses. Smaller operations get the same on site setup and the same direct phone number as a twenty location chain.
Built for Every Business That Takes a Card in South Florida.
Food service runs the thinnest margins and the highest card volume in the region. Sidekick puts Clover's restaurant suite on the floor takes the fee off every ticket and handles the new Florida menu disclosure requirement at setup.
Inventory control. Fast checkout. Purchase history in one system. Know exactly what is moving and keep more of what sells.
Every service ticket is revenue that should stay whole. Sidekick manages the payment side so the focus stays on the client in the chair.
Fast secure patient payments handled professionally. Sidekick configures point of sale and recurring billing for healthcare service environments across both counties.
Membership billing. Drop ins. Training packages. Recurring billing runs automatically so cash flow stays predictable through the summer.
Monthly tuition. Belt testing. Gear sales. Sidekick builds around how the school actually operates instead of forcing a retail template onto it.
Gateway integration. Recurring billing. Virtual terminal access. The same cost recovery principles extended to supported online channels.
Automated recurring billing means members pay on time and nobody spends Monday morning chasing invoices.
Inventory precision and fast checkout in one Clover integrated system.
If a customer can hand over a card or tap a phone Sidekick can address the fee attached to it.
Every Processor Makes Promises. Sidekick Makes It Simple.
The industry runs on complexity by design. Tiered pricing. Early termination fees. Monthly minimums. PCI non compliance charges. Rate increases buried in a letter that arrives in July and gets thrown out unopened. That complexity protects processor margin at merchant expense.
Sidekick removes it. One local contact. One transparent agreement. One program that works from day one. The quoted number is the paid number. When something breaks a person answers. When the program stops making sense the merchant walks with no penalty.
That is not a bold claim. That is the floor.
NO CONTRACTS. FULL STOP.
Month to month always. Clients stay because the service earns it every month.
SAME DAY APPROVAL FOR MOST MERCHANTS
Most businesses are approved the same day they apply. Some categories require additional underwriting review and Sidekick says so upfront instead of after the application is submitted.
A LOCAL PERSON WHO ANSWERS
When a terminal goes down Friday night before the busiest Saturday of season a person picks up. Someone who can drive to the location if it comes to that.
ZERO JUNK FEES
No monthly minimums. No statement fees. No PCI surprises. No annual fees in the fine print.
BILINGUAL BY DEFAULT
English and Spanish across every conversation every document and every support call. In this market that is not a feature. It is the baseline.
Four Steps. One Phone Call to Start.
01
Talk to a Local Person
Call text or submit the form. A Sidekick specialist reviews the current statement line by line. No pressure. No obligation. An honest read on what is being paid and what could be kept.
02
Get Approved
Submit the application. Sidekick walks through every document. Most South Florida businesses are approved within hours.
03
On Site Setup
The Clover system arrives configured. A technician installs it trains the team and confirms every function works before leaving. Signage and disclosures go up the same visit.
04
Keep More of the Money
The program goes live. Processing cost drops toward zero. The difference shows up on the first full month of statements.
Built on a Standard This Industry Abandoned.
Sidekick is new in this market. That is a fact and not something worth hiding behind stock photography. Every payment company that earned small business trust started with a first client. Sidekick starts with one commitment. The answer a merchant hears in month twelve matches the answer heard on day one.
No rate creep. No surprise line items. No runaround when a terminal fails on a Saturday.
As South Florida clients share results this section fills with real names real businesses and real numbers. Every review posted here is unedited and earned.
VISA MASTERCARD DISCOVER AMEX ACCEPTED
Questions Worth Asking a South Florida Processor.
The answers Sidekick gives without hesitation.
Yes. A cash discount program posts a single price which reflects the cost of card acceptance and applies a documented discount for customers paying cash. Cash discount programs are legal in all fifty states and the Durbin Amendment protects a merchant's right to offer a discount for cash payment. Florida sits in an unusual position on the related practice of surcharging. Florida Statute 501.0117 prohibits credit card surcharges but the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that ban unconstitutional in Dana's Railroad Supply v. Florida Attorney General in 2015. The Florida Attorney General's office confirms that merchants in Florida may add a surcharge to credit card purchases. Disclosure is required either way. Sidekick builds programs that satisfy Visa Mastercard Discover and American Express network rules along with Florida disclosure requirements before the first transaction runs.
It affects public food service establishments. Florida Statute 509.214 took effect July 1 2026 and requires restaurants and other public food service establishments that add a credit card surcharge to disclose it on menus bills and receipts. Bars cafeterias food halls and ventanitas across Miami-Dade and Broward fall inside that definition. Sidekick handles menu language signage and receipt configuration as part of setup so the disclosure is in place from day one rather than after a complaint.
No. Federal law prohibits surcharging debit card transactions in every state including Florida. This is one of the practical reasons Sidekick favors a properly structured cash discount program. A cash discount applies to the transaction total regardless of card type which removes the need to identify debit versus credit at the terminal and removes the compliance risk that comes with getting that identification wrong.
Sidekick serves businesses across Miami-Dade and Broward counties. That includes Miami Hialeah Hialeah Gardens Miami Gardens Coral Gables Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Pembroke Pines Miramar Weston Sunrise Plantation Coconut Creek and Cooper City along with surrounding communities in both counties. Installation and staff training happen on site at the business location.
Square and Stripe charge a flat rate on every transaction that comes straight out of revenue. Sidekick's cash discount program shifts that cost so the business stops absorbing it. Beyond fee structure Sidekick assigns a local South Florida contact provides same day approval for most merchants installs and supports Clover hardware in person and operates month to month with no long term contract. Square and Stripe are self service platforms. Sidekick sends someone to the location and stays reachable after setup.
Any business that accepts credit or debit cards. Restaurants bars retail boutiques clothing stores hair salons nail salons barbershops gyms fitness studios martial arts academies medical offices chiropractic practices ecommerce stores membership organizations and service providers of every kind. If the business takes cards Sidekick can address the cost attached to them.
Most businesses are approved the same day they apply. Certain categories including some healthcare recurring billing and ecommerce models require additional underwriting review. Sidekick identifies those cases upfront rather than after an application sits for a week. Every required document is walked through directly.
Clover is one of the most widely deployed point of sale platforms in the United States. It handles payments inventory employee scheduling customer loyalty and sales reporting from one device. Sidekick is a certified Clover provider. Every system installed arrives pre integrated with the cash discount program so no merchant has to configure two separate platforms or reconcile them later.
No. Sidekick operates month to month for every client. No long term contracts. No cancellation fees. Clients stay because the service works.
No monthly minimums. No statement fees. No PCI non compliance charges. No annual fees buried in fine print. With the cash discount program active card processing costs are offset. Every cost is disclosed before anything is signed. The quoted number is the paid number.
Yes. Sidekick reviews the current processing statement at no charge and shows exactly what is being paid today against what would be paid with Sidekick. Before switching check the existing agreement for a termination or non renewal clause. Many processors require thirty days written notice and early termination fees can run several hundred dollars. Sidekick handles the transition with no operational downtime. If Sidekick is not the right fit that gets said directly.
Yes. Sidekick provides payment gateway integration for ecommerce sites recurring billing for subscription businesses and virtual terminal access for phone and invoice based payments. Cost recovery principles extend to supported online channels.
Yes. Sidekick delivers full service in English and Spanish. Every conversation every document and every support interaction is available in both languages. In markets like Hialeah Miami Gardens and Miami this is standard practice rather than an accommodation.