Get Started with Google Workspace for Square Online
Square partners with Google to provide a complete email solution for domain names known as Google Workspace. When you have a domain name associated with your website, you can create an email address right from your Square Online Overview page based on that domain.
For example, if you own ‘mybusiness.com’, you can create an email address like ‘help@mybusiness.com’. This allows you to reach your customer-base efficiently with an email address they can trust. From a business standpoint, your audience will better trust an email coming from ‘help@mybusiness.com’ rather than ‘help-mybusiness@yahoo.com’. This is because emails from personal email accounts that are meant to serve as business emails are often associated with spambots and scams.
Owning an email address based a custom domain name is an extra step many businesses take to elevate their brands. It helps others take their businesses seriously, and can also associate those businesses with longevity.
Set up your Email Address with Google Workspace
To experience professional email and get your free trial started, visit your Square Online Overview page. If you enjoy your trial, extend to the full version for £55/year (less than £5 per month).
Learn more details about initial setup below.
To set up your email address based on your domain, first, be sure to have a domain connected to your Square Online site. Learn more about getting started with domains for Square Online.
If Square hosts your domain, then we’ll automatically set up the Google Workspace MX records for you.
If a third party hosts your domain and you connect your domain to Square Online, then it’s necessary to manually add MX records to your domain so you may start receiving emails. We’re unable to add them on your behalf, but you can read more about managing records for Square Online domains for more information on how to approach your third-party domain’s records.
Once the Google Workspace MX records are added to your domain name, you should start receiving emails within 24 hours of setting up the address.
Once you have your domain set up with Square Online, set up your email address by following these steps:
- In your Square Online Overview page, go to Website > Domains.
- Under the domain you’d like to set up an email address for, select Manage > Enable email.
- Select Start 15-day free trial.
- Choose a user name for your email, the domain you want to send your emails from and a password for the account.
- Select Continue only once while your information processes.
- Select Done when finished.
To view email and advanced settings, log in to your Google Workspace Dashboard by going to Manage > Manage email and selecting the Google Workspace Dashboard link. You’ll need to agree to two separate terms of service (a very important step).
Part of the process for setting up your domain with Google Workspace involves verifying that you own your domain. This process is divided into two parts: you’ll start by obtaining a meta tag from Google, and then you’ll paste that meta tag into your domain’s DNS using a TXT record. You can complete this entire process by starting in your Square Online Overview page.
First, to obtain the Google meta tag:
- In your Square Online Overview page, go to Website > Domains.
- Under the domain related to your email address, select Manage > Manage email.
- Select the Google Workspace Dashboard link, and review and accept the ‘Terms of Service’ two different times.
- In the Google Admin Console, select the link to finish setting up your Admin Console.
- Follow the prompts until you see the Google Verification meta tag to add to a TXT record. Copy and save that snippet of code for later.
Next, to update your domain’s DNS:
- In your Square Online Overview page, go to Website > Domains.
- Under the domain related to your email address, select Manage > Manage domain.
- Under DNS Records, select Add DNS record.
- Under Type, choose TXT.
- Under Host, add an ‘at symbol’ (@) into the field.
- Under ‘Points to’, paste the Google Verification meta tag you saved earlier.
- Select Save when finished.
- Go back to the Google Verification browser tab and select the button to finish verifying your domain.
If your domain is hosted by a third party, be sure to add the record with your domain host instead.
Access and Manage Google Workspace
When your setup is complete, you can log in to your inbox by either going to ‘gmail.com’, or ‘mail.google.com/a/mybusiness.com’ (making sure to replace the ‘mybusiness.com’ part of the URL with your domain name). You can also log in to your inbox right from your Square Online Overview page using the Google Workspace Dashboard link.
You might see a reminder to agree to the terms of service in your Admin Console the first time you load your Google Workspace dashboard after signing up (if you didn’t do so the first time). If so, just click the link, log in (using your same username and password) and go through the prompts in the Admin Console.
You may perform other actions from your Square Online Overview page such as changing your username, changing your password and setting up aliases.
Aliases
Creating email aliases enables you to receive mail from different addresses through the same inbox. Each Google Workspace inbox you purchase through Square Online includes the option of creating up to 30 different aliases of that primary address.
For example, say you create a primary Google Workspace email like ‘help@mybusiness.com’. You can also have aliases of this primary address like ‘name@mybusiness.com’, ‘contact@mybusiness.com’ and up to 28 others.
Aliases are different from the standard email address in that all the messages sent to an alias are simply forwarded to the primary address. In the example above, mail sent to ‘name@mybusiness.com’ and ‘contact@mybusiness.com’ would be forwarded to the primary inbox of ‘help@mybusiness.com’. This makes aliases useful for one person who wants multiple addresses, but not useful for creating addresses for different people (since it’s unlikely you’d want different people accessing the same inbox).
Create an alias
To create an alias:
In your Square Online Overview page, go to Website > Domains.
Under the domain related to your email address, select Manage > Manage email.
Select Add alias and enter your preferred alias.
Select Save when finished.
The aliases should start working immediately, but give it up to an hour for Google to update their servers. Any message sent to an alias will show up in the inbox of the primary email account.
Send email from an alias
You can send mail from any of your aliases in addition to your primary email address. Learn more about how to send emails from a different address or alias in Google’s support centre.
Use Google Workspace on Other Software and Hardware
It’s easy to access your Google Workspace email directly at ‘mail.google.com/a/mybusiness.com’ (making sure to replace the ‘mybusiness.com’ part of the URL with your domain name).
You can also connect your email with programs like Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird and several others. Learn more about checking Gmail through other email platforms in Google’s support centre.
For setting up Google Workspace on your mobile device, check out the guides from Google’s support centre below:
Recover your Google Workspace Admin Account
If you ever forget the password for your Google Workspace Admin Console, there’s a recovery process you can use through Google. Learn more about recovering your Google Workspace admin account for Square Online.
Billing
Purchasing Google Workspace from Square through Square Online will give you its basic tier plan and is billed annually.
Reactivate Google Workspace
If your billing has lapsed for any reason and you need to reactivate your Google Workspace email address:
In your Square Online Overview page, go to Website > Domains.
Under the domain related to your email address, select Manage > Enableemail.
Confirm the email address(es) you wish to renew.
Select Purchase to finish.
Note: If you encounter any errors in step #4, you’ll need to go to the Account settings area of your Square Online Overview page, and select My Services to add or change the payment method on file for your Google Workspace service. Once complete, go back to step #2 to retry the renewal process.
Deleting Google Workspace users
Google Workspace has a prorated billing system, meaning billing will update automatically to reflect the number of email users in your account. As long as those unwanted email users are removed from your account prior to your next renewal, you’ll only pay for the remaining users.
To make sure unwanted users have been properly removed, review Google’s guide about managing and deleting Google Workspace users.
Troubleshooting
When determining who is best equipped to help you when it comes to improving your Google Workspace experience, consider the points below before you contact Square Support:
Square can help you with some basic troubleshooting questions, such as those related to billing, navigating to Google Workspace in the Square Online Overview page, or recovering your Google Workspace admin account. Put another way: the majority of what’s in this article is what we can assist with.
With anything regarding Google Workspace itself, such as its tools, features, functions, etc., it’s best you get in touch with Google directly, or visit their support centre.
Reasons to Contact Support
If you have concerns regarding Google Workspace, here are some reasons you might need to contact Square Support:
You were charged automatically for a Google Workspace email service when your 15-day free trial ended, and you want a refund because you no longer need it.
Square hosts your domain and you need your MX records reviewed.
You want us to move your Google Workspace subscription out of Square’s reseller account and into direct billing with Google to take advantage of Google’s other services and features within Google Workspace.