Get Started with Square Contracts
With Square Contracts, you can create and send contracts right from your online Square Dashboard and Square Invoices app. You can use contracts to establish clear service agreements with your customers, secure digital signatures and help protect yourself against potential payment disputes.
Build Contract Templates
You can build custom templates with your business-specific information to save time and easily update any future contracts.
Template options
| Template | Overview |
|---|---|
| Credit card authorisation | This contract template gives you authorisation to store a customer’s card information and charge it as agreed upon. Use this for repeat customers or subscription services. Once a customer signs and submits this contract, their card information will automatically be added to their Customer Directory profile under Card on File. |
| Service agreement | Set clear expectations with your customers about your service. |
| Sale of goods | Set clear expectations with your customers about your physical or digital products with this template. |
| Completion of services | Use this template once your business completes any services sold to a customer. This agreement helps you obtain written acknowledgement from your customer that your services were successfully completed as described. It can also provide added protection during a payment dispute process. |
| Confirmation of delivery | Use this template to obtain written acknowledgement from customers that the products they purchased were successfully delivered as described. This agreement can provide added protection during a payment dispute process. |
Note: Square Contracts only provides sample templates for you to create your own contract. Square does not provide any legal advice and we do not guarantee or advise that any contract is suitable for your purposes or enforceable in any jurisdiction. Review the Square Contracts Terms and Conditions.
Create a contract template
Build your own contract template or edit one of the predefined templates from Square to meet your business needs.
- Go to Customers > Contracts in your online Square Dashboard.
- Click Templates.
- Select Create a template. Here, you can add your business details to the Template and Contract sections. Then, click Next.
- Add the clauses you want to apply to the contract. For custom templates, you need to include at least one clause.
- Click Save.
- Go to Customers > Contracts in your online Square Dashboard.
- Click Templates.
- Under Customise an existing template, select the Square template you want to use and click Create template or Create contract.
- Add your business details to the Template and Contract sections, then click Next.
- Add the clauses you want to apply to the contract. Edit, add, remove and rearrange any of the clauses.
- Click Save.
Note: You can copy and edit a standard template to create a new custom template. Your new templates will be saved under Custom templates and in the template selector of your Contracts page.
Develop Contract Clauses
Use the clause library to create and manage a set of custom clauses you can add to any contract or template.
Contracts support two different types of clauses: default clauses provided by Square and custom clauses created by you. There are three different types of custom clauses you can create:
Library clauses: Create a custom clause in your clause library to add to any templates or individual contracts. You can only create, edit or delete library clauses from within the clause library.
Template clauses: Custom clauses created for specific custom templates.
Contract clauses: Custom clauses created for individual contracts.
- Go to Customers > Contracts in your online Square Dashboard, and click Clauses.
- Click Add custom clause.
- Fill out the Clause Title (required) and Clause Description. (required). You can also tick the checkbox if you require customer initials.
- Click Save.
As you add clauses, you can edit, duplicate or delete your custom clauses and use the search bar to navigate your clause library.
Use Custom Contract Fields
Custom contract fields are available with an Appointments Premium or Invoices Plus subscription. With custom contract fields, you can choose what information you want to collect from your customers, like addresses, phone numbers or contract-specific details. To get started:
- From your online Square Dashboard go to Customers > Contracts > Templates.
- Under Customise an existing template, select the Square template you want to use and click Create template.
- Add your business details to the Template and Contract sections, then click Next.
- Add any clauses to the contract. You can also edit, remove and rearrange clauses in this step.
- For Appointments Premium or Invoices Plus subscribers, select Add custom fields. Drag and drop fields to create a question. Click Continue.
- Click Save.
Contracts FAQs
If you send your contract via email, the recipient will receive an email from Square Contracts. When they open the email, they’ll see your business name as well as a prompt to sign the contract electronically. To sign the contract, the recipient will:
- Click Review & sign in the email.
- Securely view the contract, and electronically initial and sign.
- Select Finish & send to finalise the contract. A PDF copy of the finalised contract will be emailed to you and the recipient for record keeping. You can re-send a copy of the contract at any time from your Dashboard.
In the Payment schedule section of the contract, select Multiple payments. This allows you to split the total cost of a project into two payments—a deposit and a final payment.
Each Square template will have a set of clauses already preselected for you. This is just a starting point for the template you select. You can reorder, remove or edit clauses to customise the contract. Some of the predefined clauses will have placeholder text in brackets for you to fill in.
To further customize contract templates to fit your business, you the option to select No payment information. This option is great if you need the flexibility of excluding detailed payment information, such as payment amount and due dates. Currently, this is most common for the Completion of Services, Confirmation of Delivery or the COVID-19 Agreement templates.