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Apply discounts to transactions

Who is this article for?
  • Sellers with the checkout permission to apply restricted discounts can apply manual discounts. Set permissions in Square Dashboard.
  • About discounts 

    When processing payments with Square, you can manually or automatically apply pre-set percentage or dollar amount discounts to your sales.

    Before you begin

    Be sure you've set up discounts in your Square account. To learn more, check out how to create and edit discounts.

    When applying discounts, remember these guidelines and restrictions: 

    • You can only apply a specific discount to a sale once.

    • Percentage discounts can be applied to an entire sale or to individual items. 

    • Whole amount discounts can only be applied to an entire sale, unless you’re using automatic discounts. 

    • Automatic discounts will be added to the sale when the rules you've set have been met. If discounts aren't applying according to the rules you set up, try updating the Square app to make sure you have the latest version.

    • If you add an automatic discount to a sale, it'll apply to all items in the cart, not just items selected in that discount’s rules.

    Apply a discount

    Apply discounts to an entire sale

    1. When your customer’s cart is fully built, tap Review sale > Add discount. You can also tap Library > Discounts.
    2. Select the pre-created discount you’d like to apply to the sale.
    3. Tap Charge and complete the transaction.

    Apply discounts to individual items

    1. On the Current Sale screen, tap the item you’d like to discount.
    2. Select the pre-created discount you’d like to apply to the item and tap Save.
    3. Tap Charge and complete the transaction.

    Apply multiple discounts 

    If you apply multiple discounts to an entire sale, they’ll compound. Here’s an example:

    1. A discount is added to a sale.

    2. Square calculates the discounted sale total.

    3. A second discount is added, which is applied to the total discounted sale price.

    If you’re applying a combination of dollar and percentage discounts, the percentage discount will be applied first followed by the dollar amount discount. When applying multiple discounts, the maximum discount value will only apply to the discounts with a set maximum discount value.

    Apply a discount to a customer group 

    With Square Customer Directory, you're able to create customer groups based on buyers’ interactions with your business. The discount will automatically apply when a buyer from the group is added to an itemized transaction on any point of sale device. Any customer added to a customer group with an associated discount will automatically receive the discount during a transaction. To learn more, check out how to create and edit discounts.

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