# Dynamic PayNow, static PayNow and SGQR: what a merchant needs to know

https://www.uniwebpay.com/guides/dynamic-paynow-and-sgqr/

*Last updated: 2026-08-03*

Three different things get called "the QR code" in Singapore, and only one of them tells you a payment actually arrived. A static PayNow sticker leaves the shopper typing the amount and you checking a screenshot. A dynamic PayNow QR carries the amount and returns a payment-success notification. SGQR is a label that can carry several schemes at once — a presentation standard, not a payment rail.

**In short**

- Static PayNow — a printed sticker. The shopper keys the amount. You verify by screenshot.
- Dynamic PayNow — generated per sale, carries the exact amount, notifies you on success.
- SGQR — the national QR label that can carry multiple schemes on one sticker.
- The difference between static and dynamic is fraud and reconciliation, not appearance.
- Uniweb Pay offers Dynamic PayNow. It does not offer SGQR.

## The three things people call "the QR"

They are not three brands of the same thing. One is a printed sticker with no amount in it, one is a code generated fresh for each sale, and one is a label standard that lets several payment schemes share a single printed square. Merchants routinely compare them as if they were interchangeable, and the differences are the ones that show up on a bad Saturday.

**Side by side**

|  | Static PayNow | Dynamic PayNow | SGQR |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| What it is | A printed sticker | A code generated per sale | A label standard |
| Amount | Shopper types it | Carried in the code | Depends on the scheme behind it |
| Confirmation | Screenshot, or check your phone | Payment-success notification to the merchant | Depends on the scheme behind it |
| Reconciliation | Manual, against your bank feed | On the transaction record | Depends on the scheme behind it |
| Offered by Uniweb Pay | No | Yes | No |

## Static PayNow: what goes wrong

A static PayNow sticker has no amount in it, so the shopper types the amount themselves. That single fact produces every problem a merchant has with static QR: a wrong figure keyed in good faith, a payment to the wrong shop from a mis-scanned sticker, and — the expensive one — a screenshot of a transfer that never completed.

The verification burden falls on whoever is at the counter. In practice that means a staff member squinting at a customer’s phone during a queue, deciding whether an app screen is genuine. Fake payment-confirmation screens are trivially available, and the person making the call is usually the newest member of staff on the busiest shift.

Reconciliation is manual too. A day of static PayNow takings arrives in your bank feed as a list of transfers with no order references, which has to be matched to sales by hand.

## Dynamic PayNow: the amount is in the code

A dynamic PayNow QR is generated for each sale and carries the exact amount, so the shopper cannot key a wrong figure and does not have to. When the payment completes, the merchant gets a payment-success notification — you are not handing goods over on the strength of a screen the customer is showing you.

That is the whole difference, and it is a fraud and reconciliation difference rather than a cosmetic one. The sale also lands as a transaction record rather than an anonymous bank transfer, so it reconciles the way a card sale does.

With Uniweb Pay, Dynamic PayNow sits on the same merchant account and the same Sunmi P3 as the cards and the wallets. It is not a separate bank arrangement running beside the card terminal, which means one settlement, one statement and one reporting view rather than a QR standee to be squared off separately each night.

## SGQR: the label, not the rail

SGQR is Singapore’s unified QR label. Its purpose is presentation: it lets several payment schemes be carried on one printed square instead of a counter covered in stickers. It is a standard for how the code is laid out and what it can contain — not a payment rail of its own.

This is why "do you support SGQR" and "do you support PayNow" are different questions with different answers. What a customer can actually pay with, and what the merchant sees when they do, depends on the schemes behind the label rather than on the label itself.

SGQR+ is the upgrade worth knowing about, because it changes what the label is for. Under SGQR+ a merchant signs with a single financial institution and accepts a large set of local and cross-border options — reporting in 2026 puts it at up to 23 — through one arrangement rather than negotiating each scheme separately. That is a real convenience proposition and it is the strongest argument against the way we do it.

Uniweb Pay does not offer SGQR or SGQR+. That is worth stating plainly rather than leaving to be inferred: if a shared national QR label with one institution behind it is specifically what you want, we are not the provider for it, and other Singapore providers are.

The honest comparison is this. SGQR+ optimises for breadth through one signature. A dedicated acquirer optimises for the wallets it specialises in sitting on the same account and the same device as your full card acceptance, with one settlement and one reconciliation. Which is better depends on whether your Chinese and regional wallet volume is a long tail you want covered cheaply, or a core part of takings you want run properly. Both are defensible; they are not the same product.

## Which one do you want at the counter

If you take more than a handful of QR payments a day, you want the amount in the code. Everything else about QR acceptance — the sticker, the standee, the label standard — is presentation. Whether the merchant learns that a payment succeeded from the system or from the customer is the part that decides how the shift goes.

A useful test when a provider demonstrates their QR: ask them to scan and then cancel halfway. Watch what the merchant side shows. A setup that cannot distinguish "paid" from "started and abandoned" will hand goods over for free eventually.

> One more question worth asking, and it is not about QR at all: does the same device also take cards? A counter with a card terminal, a QR standee and a wallet box on it is three reconciliations a day, and it is the arrangement most merchants are trying to get out of.

## What Uniweb Pay offers

Dynamic PayNow, on the same merchant account as six card schemes and four wallets, at the counter and at an online checkout. The QR is generated per sale, carries the amount, and returns a payment-success notification to the merchant. Settlement is SGD, in T+1 batches, alongside everything else on the account.

SGQR is not offered. Static PayNow stickers are not what this is; if you have one today, the thing being replaced is the screenshot check.

## Questions merchants ask

**What is the difference between static and dynamic PayNow?**

A static PayNow QR is a printed code with no amount in it, so the shopper types the amount and the merchant verifies by looking at a screenshot. A dynamic PayNow QR is generated for each sale, carries the exact amount, and returns a payment-success notification to the merchant. The difference is fraud exposure and reconciliation, not appearance.

**Is SGQR the same as PayNow?**

No. SGQR is Singapore’s unified QR label — a presentation standard that lets several payment schemes share one printed square. PayNow is a payment rail. What a customer can pay with depends on the schemes behind the SGQR label, not on the label itself.

**Does Uniweb Pay offer SGQR?**

No. Uniweb Pay offers Dynamic PayNow, on the same merchant account and the same terminal as its card and wallet acceptance. If a shared national QR label is specifically what you need, other Singapore providers offer it.

**Can I take PayNow and cards on the same device?**

Yes. On a Sunmi P3, Dynamic PayNow, the six card schemes and the wallets all run through one terminal on one merchant account, and settle into the same SGD payout.

**How do I know a QR payment actually went through?**

With Dynamic PayNow the merchant gets a payment-success notification and the sale appears as a transaction record. With a static PayNow sticker there is no such signal, which is why static acceptance ends up being verified from the customer’s screen.

## Related guides

- [Which payment methods should a Singapore merchant accept?](https://www.uniwebpay.com/guides/payment-methods-singapore-merchants/)
- [How to accept WeChat Pay and Alipay in Singapore](https://www.uniwebpay.com/guides/accept-wechat-pay-alipay-singapore/)
- [How to choose a payment acquirer in Singapore](https://www.uniwebpay.com/guides/choosing-a-payment-acquirer-singapore/)

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