Quick Start Guide

Getting Started

Tap Electric is an easy-to-use charger management system that allows you to set access and tariffs, collect payments, perform charger maintenance, and more, all from a convenient app or webportal. Tap Electric supports all chargers that speak OCPP 1.6.

1. Sign in with Apple, Google or email. You cannot connect or manage chargers in guest mode.

Charger Accounts

• A charger account is the owner of one or more charging locations.
• Account admins can manage access, tariffs, etc., and perform remote maintenance.

Create a new Account

1. If creating the account from the Tap app: Charger management > Connect your charger

If starting from your desktop instead of the app, simply navigate to Tap Web and click Get Started.

2. Select a profile that most closely matches your case.

3. Select your country.

4. Enter your address.
5. Select your Tax settings.
   

Account Settings

You can always change the account settings you created during setup by navigating to:

Account > Settings

From here you can edit all of your account settings:

Display Settings

These settings affect what information drivers see when looking at your chargers. You can add your organization name, phone number, website, a small blurb about yourself, and a logo.

Payout Settings

Payout Settings tell us where to deposit your revenues each month. With Tap you have 2 options:

1. Stripe. Stripe is a leading payment service provider. They provide excellent dashboarding and reporting capabilities, and advanced control of payout preferences. If you have such needs or already have a Stripe account, you may want to use Stripe to receive your charger payments. Create your Stripe account or link your existing one by navigating to:

Account > Settings > Payout Settings > Open Stripe

To comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, Stripe may ask you to identify. There are no fees associated to this Stripe account for you.

2. Direct bank payouts. By entering your bank details, Tap will deposit your revenues directly in your account each month.

Notification Settings (Offline Alerts)

In Notification Settings, you can setup up an email alert for when a charger goes offline. An alert is sent approximately 10 minutes after the charger has gone offline to ensure small drops in connectivity do not trigger a false alarm.

Connected Accounts

• Installers and Operators use Connected Accounts to help manage their customers.
• An Account can have many Connected Accounts.
• The installer/operator should create a Connected Account for each of their customers. The admins of both the Primary Account and the Connected Account can administer all of the Connected Account's locations.
• A Service Plan can be created for each Connected Account.

Creating a Connected Account

1. Navigate to:

Account > Connected accounts > connect new account

2. Configure the account per the steps from the Create a New Account section
   

Creating a Service Plan

• Service Plans allow Installers and Operators to set pricing for their services.
• A unique Service Plan can be created per Connected Account (i.e. per customer).

1. You can create the Service Plan on initial setup of the connected account, or do it later.
2. To edit the Service Plan, navigate to:
3. Account > Connected accounts > (select the account) > Add service plan

Connecting chargers

Once you have an Account set up, you can start creating Chargers and Locations.

We need to tell the chargers to start talking to Tap Electric’s servers. Depending on the charger brand you are onboarding, there are different steps to take. The list below links to instructions to onboard each brand of charger.

Charger onboarding instructions by brand

Follow this link for a complete list of charger onboarding guides.

Driver Groups

• Each Account can define Driver Groups used to configure special access and/or tariffs
• Driver Groups can be applied to whole locations and/or individual chargers. Having a group per charger is especially useful in a residential building where each resident owns their own charger/parking bay.
• Driver Groups can be created from existing/known users, or by sending invites to new users.

Driver Groups at Location level

To create special access or tariffs at your location for a Driver Group:

1. Driver groups > create driver group
2. Enter group name > create driver group
3. Driver group members > add member
4. Once you have created the group, you can link it to any desired location to manage special access and tariffs. More on that in the next sections.

Driver Groups at Charger Level

Driver Groups can be linked to an individual charger, useful for limiting the access of the charger to specific drivers. For example, in a residential building, you may want each household to have access only to their own charger in their own parking bay.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Go to Chargers.

2. Select a charger to configure.

3. Under “Manage” select Charger Access.
   

4. Select Driver Groups
   

5. Select Connect driver group to charger.
   

6. Either create a new group, or select an existing one. Then press Connect Driver Groups.
   

Configuring Locations

Manage Location Access

Navigate to:

Location > Location access

You must specify who can access your location. There are 3 levels of access:

1. Driver Groups. Only linked Driver Group users can charge here.
2. All Tap users. Anyone with the Tap app or Tapkey can charge here.
3. Roaming. Anyone with the Tap app or Tapkey, plus anyone with a valid charge card or app from integrated 3rd party service providers, can charge here.

Note that who can ACCESS the location (Location Access) is not always the same as who can SEE the charger in the map (Location Visibility).

Driver Groups

With this option, only linked Driver Group users can charge here.

You can link driver groups to a location by navigating to:
Location > Location access > Manage driver group access > connect driver group to location

All Tap Users

With this option, anyone with the Tap app or Tapkey can charge here.

Roaming

With this option, anyone with the Tap app or Tapkey, plus anyone with a valid charge card or app from integrated 3rd party service providers, can charge here.

Benefit for Drivers:

They can use a single payment method to seamless pay for all their charging.

Benefit for Owners:

Owners can increase revenue at their site by enabling roaming, by getting their chargers published in apps from other service providers. Owners can also offer a more seamless payments experience at their chargers so that drivers from other service providers don’t need to download another app.

Roaming Payouts

Payouts work slightly differently with roaming transactions than with Tap transactions. With Tap transactions, Tap collects the money from the driver automatically and then pays charger owners out once per month. With roaming transactions, Tap invoices the 3rd party service provider, then can pay out the charger owner. However, if the service provider is late with payment, this will delay the payout to the charger owner. In short: you get paid when we get paid, which could lead to a longer payout cycle for those roaming transactions. You can read more about how payouts for Roaming work in our Terms and Conditions.

Free Useage Keys

Sometimes it’s handy to have some keys on hand that start a session for free. For example:

• For maintenance staff to charge their vehicle at a workplace.
• For a hotel guest who does not have a smart phone and wants to pay cash.

To facilitate this, you can now add any RFID card or key to your location in Tap as a “free useage key”. This could be the key that came from the charger manufacturer, your building access card, or even your library card. To enable this, follow these steps:

Find the unique ID of the RFID key. There are 3 different ways to find this ID:

• If using the charger manufacturer key, some manufacturers such as Easee print the ID on the key itself.
• Using an Android phone, download the app NFC Tools, and scan your key using the phone. This will tell you the ID – NFC tools calls this the serial number.
• Scan the key on your charger. Email the charger ID and time of your scan to support@tapelectric.app and we will add it for you.

To add the key ID to Tap:

1. Location > Location Access > Free usage keys > add
2. Enter the unique ID of the RFID key.
3. Enter a name for the key. We will attach this name to all sessions completed using this key.

Manage Location Visibility

You have two options to manage the visibility of your location. You can adjust them by navigating to:

1. Location > Location visibility

You can choose to display your location to everyone.

Alternatively, you can choose to only show the location on the map to nearby users. This could be useful if you have a location where you want to allow all users to charge so you do not need to maintain Driver Groups, but also do not want to advertise the location on a map. Common use cases for this are holiday lets, residential properties, office parks, and hospitality locations with parking reserved for customers only.

Manage Tariffs

• All charge locations need a default tariff. This is the tariff that will be charged to any driver that does not otherwise have a special tariff defined (in a Driver Group).
• The default tariff defines the reimbursement amount to the holder of the account.
• If there is a Service Plan defined on the (Connected) Account, this reimbursement amount will be split between the Connected Account and Parent Account according to the Service Plan.
• The default tariff may be different from what drivers pay to Tap Electric.
• A special tariff can be defined per Driver Group at a location.

Setting your default tariff

To set your default tariff, navigate to:

1. Location > Tariff > Edit (pencil) > [enter tariff] > save tariff

Driver group tariffs

A special tariff can be defined per Driver Group at a location.

If the Driver Group is not already linked to the location, navigate to:

1. Location > Tariff > Link a driver group to location > [select a driver group]

Then continue with setting a tariff for the group:

1. Select the Edit (pencil) button beside the group.
2. Turn on "Use a special tariff"
3. Edit (pencil).
4. Enter the tariff for the Driver Group.
5. Save.

Tariff Exceptions (Time of Use | Peak Tariff)

You can set different tariffs according to the time of day using Tariff Exceptions. For example, if you have an energy contract with a different rates for peak and off-peak times, you can pass this variable pricing on to drivers. You can add as many exceptions as you like, but remember that simpler tariffs are easier for drivers to understand.

To set a Tariff Exception:

1. Location > Tariff > Edit (pencil) > Add tariff exception
2. Choose the start and end time for the exception.
3. Enter tariff.
4. Press "add".

To edit or remove a Tariff Exception:

1. Location > Tariff > Edit (pencil)
2. To edit, press the Edit (pencil) button next to the exception.
3. To remove, press the Remove (X) button next to the exception.

When you have created a complex tariff, it's good to check what it looks like from the perspective of the driver. To do this:

1. Location > View as driver

QR stickers

By applying a QR sticker to your charger, drivers can quickly find the charger in Tap.

You must link the sticker to the charger after it has been applied. You must do this from the Tap app on your phone by navigating to:

Location > Charger > QR > [scan sticker with phone]