thread Re: Terms of Service Question in Payments Troubleshooting

Terms of Service Question

Kwazzy — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 20:51:41 GMT

Hello Square Community! I have a few questions regarding the square TOS!

I am planning on starting a PC Repair/Services company which one of the services that will be offered is: A "remote management" service where I make a one-time visit to the customer's house(excluding any other services the customer purchases), and install a piece of background software where I monitor, perform checks, run anti-virus etc, for a monthly fee.

I was reading through the terms of service and I have concern about two of the prohibited categories and whether or not this service falls into either:

subscription offers or services

Buyer or membership clubs, including dues associated with such clubs

and another question I have, is why is recurring payments a feature, however in the TOS subscription services are forbidden.

Thank you!

Re: Terms of Service Question

isabelle — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 17:29:20 GMT

Hey @Kwazzy!

This is a good question.

You are correct. Advertising your business as a subscription or membership (to a club) based business may violate our terms of service. This is why gyms typically do not seek out Square as a payment processor.

However, you can use Square to set up recurring invoices which is not prohibited. This way you could send an invoice on a monthly schedule to your customers. Many of our sellers use this for their business. Let me know if you have any questions about this.

Re: Terms of Service Question

Kwazzy — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 19:36:21 GMT

Hey thanks for the response @isabelle!

I'm confused. What exactly is the difference between a subscription and a recurring invoice? They sound like the exact same thing but with different wording..

Best regards!

Re: Terms of Service Question

isabelle — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 20:04:37 GMT

Hey @Kwazzy!

I suppose a recurring invoice is what we've created to be able to charge a customer on a monthly basis, but be within our terms of service. Invoicing someone monthly does not fall into the description of:

Buyer or membership clubs, including dues associated with such clubs
Direct marketing or subscription offers or services

Thank you!

Re: Terms of Service Question

Kwazzy — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 00:02:16 GMT

Thank you @isabelle! that's how I'll go about charging them for that service then. Thank you for the clarification 🙂

Re: Terms of Service Question

guz843 — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 16:26:37 GMT

so does the recurring invoice get automatically paid or does the client need to do anything?

Re: Terms of Service Question

MayaP — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 16:05:51 GMT

Hello there @guz843,

Welcome to The Seller Community! Happy to have you join 👋😊 If you set up a card on file for the invoice then yes it will automatically get paid. Otherwise, the customer would have to pay themselves through the invoice link that is sent to them. I hope that helps!