Square

What is Square

Square is a financial services and digital payments company that provides a comprehensive suite of tools for businesses of all sizes. Founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey, the company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Square's core purpose is to make commerce easy for everyone. It started with a small, square-shaped card reader that allowed anyone with a smartphone to accept credit card payments. Today, it has expanded into a complete ecosystem that includes hardware, software, and financial services, helping businesses manage sales, inventory, staff, customers, and capital.

Square Features

Square offers a wide range of features designed to support various aspects of a business. Here are some of the key functionalities:

• Point of Sale (POS) System: Square provides versatile POS software that runs on smartphones, tablets, and dedicated Square hardware. It allows businesses to process sales, manage items, and track customer information.
• Payment Processing: Securely accept all major credit and debit cards, as well as mobile payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Payments can be taken in-person, online, over the phone, or through invoices.
• Square Online: Build a professional e-commerce website to sell products, offer services, or take food orders online. It integrates seamlessly with your in-person sales and inventory.
• Inventory Management: Keep track of stock levels in real-time across all your sales channels. Receive low-stock alerts to avoid running out of popular items.
• Customer Management: Create a customer directory, view purchase history, and collect feedback. Use this data for marketing and building loyalty programs.
• Staff Management: Manage your team with tools for time tracking, permissions, and performance reporting. Square also offers a full-service payroll system.
• Square Banking: A suite of financial tools including business checking and savings accounts, and access to loans through Square Capital. These services are integrated directly into your business operations.
• Invoicing: Create, send, and track professional invoices directly from the Square app or dashboard. Customers can pay online with a credit card.

Square Pricing Plans

Square's pricing is primarily based on transaction fees, making it accessible for new and small businesses. There is no single subscription plan that covers everything; instead, pricing is structured around the products you use.

• Standard Plan: This is the free-to-use plan. You do not pay a monthly fee for the basic POS software, online store, or invoicing. You only pay a flat-rate processing fee per transaction. The rate varies depending on whether the payment is tapped, dipped, swiped, keyed-in, or made online.
• Plus Plans: For businesses with more complex needs, Square offers paid monthly subscriptions for specific products like Square for Retail, Square for Restaurants, and Square Appointments. These plans include advanced features such as advanced inventory management, table management, or multi-location appointment booking, along with lower processing rates in some cases.
• Premium Plans: Large, high-volume businesses can contact Square for custom-priced plans. These plans offer tailored features, dedicated account management, and potentially lower, customized processing rates.

Square Free Plan

Square offers a robust free plan that is ideal for many small businesses and startups. With the free plan, you get access to the core Square Point of Sale app, a basic Square Online store, invoicing capabilities, and reporting tools. There are no monthly fees, setup fees, or long-term contracts. The only cost is the standard processing fee on every transaction you make. The free plan is fully functional for accepting payments and managing basic business operations. Limitations include the absence of advanced, industry-specific features found in the paid 'Plus' plans.

How to use Square

Getting started with Square is a straightforward process designed to get you selling quickly.

1. Create an Account: Go to the Square website and sign up for a free account. You will need to provide basic information about yourself and your business.
2. Link Your Bank Account: Connect your business bank account to your Square account. This is where Square will deposit your funds.
3. Get the Software: Download the free Square Point of Sale app onto your iOS or Android smartphone or tablet.
4. Obtain Hardware: For in-person sales, you will need a card reader. Square often provides the first magstripe reader for free. For more functionality, you can purchase a contactless and chip reader, a Square Terminal, or a Square Register.
5. Set Up Your Business: Add your products or services, set prices, and customize your settings in the Square Dashboard.
6. Start Selling: You can now begin accepting payments. For in-person sales, use the app and card reader. For remote sales, send invoices or use your Square Online store.
7. Manage and Grow: Use the Square Dashboard to monitor your sales data, manage inventory, and engage with customers.

Pros and Cons of Square

Square is a powerful tool, but it has its advantages and disadvantages.

Pros:

• Ease of Use: The platform is very intuitive and easy to set up, even for non-technical users.
• Transparent Pricing: The flat-rate transaction fees are simple to understand, with no hidden monthly charges on the basic plan.
• All-in-One Solution: It offers a complete ecosystem of hardware, software, and financial services that work together seamlessly.
• No Long-Term Contracts: You can start and stop using Square at any time without penalty.
• Accessibility: It lowers the barrier to entry for small businesses to start accepting credit card payments.

Cons:

• Cost for High-Volume Businesses: The flat-rate pricing can be more expensive than a traditional merchant account for businesses with high sales volume.
• Account Stability Issues: Some users have reported unexpected account holds or terminations, often due to risk assessment algorithms.
• Customer Support: While support is available, reaching a live person can sometimes be difficult, and responses can be slow.
• Hardware Costs: While the basic reader is cheap or free, more advanced hardware like the Register or Terminal can be a significant investment.

Square integrations

Square has a large App Marketplace that allows you to connect your Square account with many third-party applications to extend its functionality. This helps in automating workflows and syncing data across different platforms.

• QuickBooks Online and Xero integrations: Automatically sync your sales data from Square to your accounting software, making bookkeeping and reconciliation much easier.
• Wix and WooCommerce integrations: Connect your existing e-commerce website with Square to process payments and sync inventory and order data.
• Acuity Scheduling and Fresha integrations: For service-based businesses, these integrations help manage appointments and sync them with your sales data.
• Mailchimp integration: Automatically add customers from Square sales to your Mailchimp mailing lists for email marketing campaigns.

Square Alternatives

While Square is a market leader, there are several other excellent options available.

• PayPal: A strong competitor, especially for online payments. Its in-person POS solution, Zettle, is functional but the overall ecosystem is less integrated than Square's.
• Shopify: The best choice for businesses focused primarily on e-commerce. Shopify also offers its own POS system for physical retail, making it a direct competitor for product-based businesses.
• Toast: A specialized platform designed exclusively for the restaurant industry. It offers more in-depth features for restaurant management, such as table mapping and kitchen display systems, than Square for Restaurants.
• Clover: Offers a wide range of POS hardware and software solutions sold through various banks and merchant service providers. It can be highly customized but often comes with more complex pricing and long-term contracts.

Square API

Yes, Square provides a comprehensive set of APIs for developers through the Square Developer Platform. This allows developers to build custom solutions that integrate with the Square ecosystem. You can use Square APIs to process payments, manage orders, sync catalog items, and much more.

To get started, you need to create a developer account on the Square Developer website, which is free. From your developer dashboard, you can create an application to get your API keys (Access Token and Application ID) for both sandbox testing and production environments.

Here is a simple cURL example of how to use the Square Payments API to create a payment:

curl https://connect.squareup.com/v2/payments \
  -X POST \
  -H 'Square-Version: 2023-10-18' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "source_id": "cnon:card-nonce-ok",
    "idempotency_key": "YOUR_UNIQUE_IDEMPOTENCY_KEY",
    "amount_money": {
      "amount": 100,
      "currency": "USD"
    }
  }'

Square Affiliate program

Square offers a referral program for its users. When you refer another business to Square, both you and the referred business can receive benefits, typically in the form of credits that cover processing fees up to a certain amount. You can find your unique referral link in your Square Dashboard.

For influencers, bloggers, and larger partners, Square runs a more formal Affiliate Program through affiliate networks like Impact. Affiliates earn a commission, usually a fixed bounty, for each new seller they refer who activates their account and starts processing payments. To join, you need to apply through the affiliate network, and once approved, you will get access to marketing materials and tracking links to promote Square.