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Home>Getting Started With Square

Square Get Started Guide

Getting set up to accept payment cards on Square only takes a few minutes but don’t miss out on our entire suite of products and features that can help you run and grow your business.

This five-step guide can help you take payments faster, significantly reduce your team’s training time, generate robust sales and inventory reports, and reduce your administrative time.

What if I get stuck?
You can contact Square Support by live message, phone, or email - we’re more than happy to help. You can also find answers to common questions in our Seller Community.

Use this guide for reference, or share it with your team by saving or printing this page. Right-click anywhere on this page to save or print.

The products and features that you choose to use may depend on your business type or industry, the size of your business, and number of team members.

Step 1: Get Set Up to Take Payments

Use this section to order your hardware and set up your secure Square account so you can get paid quickly once you start accepting payments.

Account Creation

To Do Steps Why?
Yes Create Account with a Business Email Address Use your business email when creating your account as important alerts and updates are sent to this email address.
Yes Enter Business and Personal Info Help Square verify your business account and recommend useful features for your business type.
Yes Enter Bank Account Info When you first link a bank account, verification can take up to 4 business days to complete. You can get deposits within 1-2 business days after the verification is complete. You can also add additional bank accounts from the Account & Settings tab of your online Square Dashboard
Yes Order Hardware Make sure you’re set for opening day by ordering your hardware at least 7 working days in advance since shipping takes some time. You can visit one of our retail partners to purchase hardware more quickly if you wish.
Yes Download the Square App Get the Square app - the point-of-sale system designed to grow with you - to accept payments in-store or on the go.

Step 2: Set Up your Account on Square Dashboard

Your online Square Dashboard is your business headquarters, where you can take care of everything from adding locations, employees, and items, to customising your account, viewing your sales reports, and more.

Account Security

To Do Steps Why?
Yes Turn on 2-Step Verification 2-Step Verification provides an extra layer of security when accessing your Square Dashboard.

Transfers Setup

To Do Steps Why?
Yes Schedule Transfers Choose how quickly you’ll receive your funds based on our different transfer options.
Optional Set your Close of Day If your business closes after midnight Melbourne time, setting a close of day lets Square group and send transfers based on a full day’s business activity.

Location Setup

To Do Steps Why?
Yes Add Locations and Addresses Set up multiple locations (if you have them) to slice and dice sales data, update inventory, and manage employees across the different places you do business.
Yes Add other Bank Accounts If you have separate bank accounts for each location, you’ll need to visit the Bank Accounts tab in your online Square Dashboard. Select a location, click Add external bank account, and complete the bank verification process.
Yes Add Web and Social Media Sites Adding your website and social links to digital receipts is a great way to get more online traffic.
Optional Add Deposit Tags Match deposits to specific locations with deposit tags.

Receipt Setup

To Do Steps Why?
Yes Customise Receipts and confirm your business details Customise your receipts and help set the right expectations around your store policies. Your logo appears on customers’ digital receipts and helps them recognise your business and their purchases. You can choose from a framed or full-width logo for your receipts.

Dashboard Library Setup

To Do Steps Why?
Yes Create Items Items created in your online Square Dashboard display at the till, which increases checkout speed and provides detailed reporting, so you know what you’re selling.
Yes Add GST By default, your Square account has GST turned on. Set up GST and the items it applies to and let Square calculate the total automatically. The tax report shows total tax collected.
Optional Create Categories Categories classify items into different groups like Hot or Cold Drinks and control which items print on kitchen tickets.
Optional Create Modifiers Let customers tailor their orders with modifiers and get better item-level data.
Optional Create Discounts Discounts for neighbours? Team member meals comped? Create pound and percentage discounts for items or an entire sale.
Optional Set up Inventory Know exactly how much inventory you have and when you need to restock by setting up Inventory Management.
Optional Set up Dining Options Note how and where an order will be used (e.g. ‘Delivery’, or ‘Takeaway’) to help your employees prepare orders correctly. This information also appears in your reports.

Team Setup

To Do Why?
Subscribe to Team Management Access robust employee and location management, including team member permission sets, passcodes and advanced reports.
Create Permission Sets Create Permission Sets with specific access permissions. You’ll assign team members to these groups when you invite them.
Set up Square Shifts Square Shifts enable you to track your team’s timecards, create rosters, track commissions and more. Free and paid versions available depending on the size of your team and features needed.
Assign Permission Groups, Passcode and Location After a team member is created, assign them to the appropriate permission group to restrict their access to parts of your online Square Dashboard or the Square Point of Sale app.

View Analytics

To Do Steps Why?
Yes Transaction History, Summaries and Reports See how your business is performing by the hour, week, year and more to make informed business decisions.
Yes Match Deposits to Sales Click a deposit in your online Square Dashboard to see all transactions included in a deposit.
Yes Learn about other Reports Create reports from your online Square Dashboard that include items, discounts, taxes, payment method, team members and more.

Step 3: Set Up Hardware and the Square App

Once your hardware arrives, you can connect your compatible iOS or Android device to start taking payments. This section will show you how.  

Device Setup

To Do Steps Why?
Optional Create Device Codes to Sign Team Members into other Devices Pair devices to specific locations and log into the Square app without using your Square email address or password. Pro Tip: Securely save the Device Code as a note on the device, for easy access. Also note that Device Codes cannot be re-used on additional devices.
Optional Configure Items Grid, Tile Colour and Name Customise the layout of the Square app on an iPad or Android tablet to locate important items, discounts, and categories quickly.

Square Point of Sale Settings

To Do Steps Why?
Optional Set up Tipping Prompt your customers to enter a tip and customise how tips are added to a sale (% or custom amount), or disable tipping if it’s not customary.
Optional Set up Cash Management Track how much cash should be in your cash drawer at any given time. Note: Return to Permissions in your online Square Dashboard if you wish to allow team members to ‘View Expected Amount In Cash Drawer’.
Optional Turn on Team Management If you’ve created team permissions, roles or set up Team Permissions in your online Square Dashboard, it’s now time to put passcodes to work, enable shift tracking, get detailed team member reporting and more.
Optional Create Guest Access Create access for anyone to take payments in your Square account and manage the permissions of this guest group.
Optional Turn on Open Tickets Create tickets you can modify before charging customers. Close out the ticket when the customer’s ready to pay. Return to Permissions in the online Dashboard if you wish to allow Team Members to ‘Manage all Open Tickets’ or ‘Delete or Void Saved Items in Open Tickets’.
Optional Set up your Customer Directory Add customer profiles to your directory from the Square app. Know more about your customers’ past purchases and preferences.

Hardware Setup

To Do Steps Why?
Optional Connect a USB Printer Print customer receipts and order tickets with a receipt printer. USB printers connect directly to a single Android device via a USB OTG (On-The-Go) adaptor. Make sure your device supports USB OTG or USB Host mode. Note: USB printers can only be connected to compatible iPads via Square Stand.
Optional Connect an Ethernet Interface Printer Ethernet printers are a great option if you need to connect more than one printer to your iOS or Android tablet or smartphone(s). Connect multiple printers to a single mobile device, or multiple devices to a single Ethernet printer, all via a shared Wi-Fi network.
Optional Connect a Bluetooth Printer Bluetooth printers are a great option for iPads and iPhones if you don’t have an Ethernet interface, and for businesses on the go.
Optional Connect a KDS screen You can use a Wi-Fi Android device as a kitchen display screen. It appears in the Square app like a printer so you can customise which items or categories of items are printed. If you’ve connected multiple printers and KDS screens to the Square app, designate which items or categories of items print to which printer or show on which screen.
Optional Connect Cash Drawers Configure your cash drawer to automatically open after a cash sale when connected via a compatible receipt printer, so you can keep track of your cash transactions. Note: Cash drawers are not compatible with mobile receipt printers.

Step 4: Train Your Team and Go Live

Now that your account, online Square Dashboard, and hardware are set up, you’re ready to train your team. We recommend running through a few simple scenarios to make sure you, your managers, and your team members are ready to jump in. 

Team Training

To Do Steps Why?
Yes Accept Payments and Split the Bill with Square Point of Sale Let your team members practise adding items with modifiers and discounts to a sale. For food and beverage businesses, practise splitting the bill, selecting a dining option and saving items to an open ticket.
Yes Accept Cards with a Square Reader Whether you’re using Square Reader, Square Stand, or Square Register, let your team members take a few chip + PIN and contactless payments to practise using the Square app and hardware.
Yes Manually Enter Card Info Learn how to enter the card number manually if the card or customer isn’t present, for phone orders for example, or if you don’t have your reader. Review Best Practices for Accepting Payments, as well.
Yes Accept Other Tender Types Practise recording cash, cheques, third-party gift cards, and other tender types. When a payment is recorded as Cash or Other Tender, money for these transactions is exchanged directly between your business and your customer and will not be deposited by Square. If you’d like to reorder your payment types or there are some you don’t need, you can customise your checkout screen in the app.
Optional Clock In and Out If you’ve subscribed to Team Management, give each team member their own passcode and show them how to clock in and clock out.

Manager Training

To Do Steps Why?
Yes Issue Full or Partial refnds If you’ve restricted permissions for issuing refunds to managers, review steps to process a refund.
Yes View and Print In-App Reports View, print, or email your daily sales summary directly from the Square app.
Optional View and Modify Shifts If you’ve subscribed to Team Management, show managers with Dashboard access how to modify shifts, view reports, or clock out forgetful team members.
Optional View and Manage Cash Drawers If you’ve connected a cash drawer, learn how to start and end a cash drawer session, allow for cash paid in/paid out, and print a cash drawer report.
Optional View and Reply to Feedback If you take a test payment, you can leave sample feedback and view it in your online Square Dashboard. Practise replying to feedback and refunding the sale.

Step 5: Grow your Business with Square

Once you start accepting payments with Square, expand your business with partner integrations and more. 

Connect with Third-Party Apps

To Do Steps Why?
Optional Create Custom Apps Square’s existing tools are just the start. Create custom apps for your data or connect with the services you already use.

Engage with your Customers

To Do Steps Why?
Optional Set up your Customer Directory Manage your customer information from your online Square Dashboard or the Square app.

Sell Online

To Do Steps Why?
Optional Set Up Square Online Create a powerful, professional eCommerce website with Square’s eCommerce partners and track all your sales in one place. Connect your Square account to accept online payments and sell your items. If you’re working with a developer, integrate with Square using Square’s Developer Tools.

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Use this guide for reference or share it with your employees by emailing the team this article link or printing this page. Right-click anywhere on this page to save as PDF or print. 

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