thread Re: Invoices in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

How does invoicing work with Square?

leahsmith1 — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 18:29:12 GMT

How does invoicing work with Square? Do they pay upfront or?

Re: Invoices

VanKalkerFarms — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 20:18:56 GMT

Sending an invoice with Square is just like sending an invoice in the mail. You have to set the terms of payment (due before shipment, due on receipt, net 10, net 30, etc) and they can pay as soon as they get the email with a credit card online.

Re: Invoices

Tianne — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 01:11:14 GMT

I make custom pottery, so there can be up to 3 weeks before shipment. I don't know what the shipping cost will be until it is packaged for shipment. So I have been waiting to that point to contact my client and take their payment via Square on the phone. With the "pay prior to shipment" invoicing on my new Wordpress website using Square, does my customer input their credit card information when ordering, and then I input the shipping and charge their card? How safe is this? I ask, because my site was hacked several years ago and I am very paranoid about customer credit card info not being stored on my website. Thank you.

Re: Invoices

Chad — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 01:31:21 GMT

Hello @Tianne!

Welcome to the Seller Community! Since your question is about the invoicing feature on WordPress, I recommend reaching out to their Support Team. They can walk you through the features of their invoices.

When it comes to payments on Square, I recommend checking out our Support Center Article on Secure Data Encryption.

Re: Invoices

Tianne — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 17:47:52 GMT

Thanks for your reply. I am actually inquiring as to the Square Invoicing as found here https://squareup.com/dashboard/invoices/new

and referenced by VanKalkerFarms as "pay before shipping." I don't see how that works.

Re: Invoices

Helen — Sun, 03 Feb 2019 19:51:24 GMT

Hey @Tianne, I haven't been able to find the post that you're referring to I'm afraid! Can you share the link here or a screenshot of the post?

In the meantime, we recently added a couple of features to Square Invoices that might help you to manage your orders.

You can now send an estimate to a customer from your online Square Dashboard. This would make it clear to the customer that the total amount will change after you've calculated the shipping. When you've finalized the details you can convert the estimate to an invoice, which is sent to your customer to pay online.
Or you could request a deposit to accept a partial payment and then edit the deposit/invoice total when you know how much the shipping will cost.

I'll keep an eye out for your reply!

Re: Invoices

Tianne — Sun, 03 Feb 2019 21:25:15 GMT

Here is my original question: "I am setting up a WordPress WooCommerce website. My client makes custom pottery, so there can be up to 3 weeks before shipment. He don't know what the shipping cost will be until it is packaged for shipment. So, on his old site, he has been waiting to that point to take their payment via Square on the phone. With the "pay prior to shipment" invoicing on my new Wordpress WooCommerce website using Square, does my customer input their credit card information when ordering, and then I input the shipping and charge their card? How safe is this? I ask, because my client's site was hacked several years ago and he is very paranoid about customer credit card info not being stored on the website. Thank you."

Helen, I am interested to learn more about the 2 new features you speak about (send an estimate and request a deposit) to see if those could be answers to the pay prior to shipment issue. My client is insisting that he wants their credit card info when they place their order, but he does not use it until he ships so that he only charges once. And he does not want the cc info on our site at all. It does go directly onto the Square site protection when his customer inputs it, right?

Re: Invoices

Helen — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 18:40:22 GMT

@Tianne Yes, any time a customer pays you with Square, via the app, online or through an invoice their card information is sent to Square, encrypted and securey stored. With Square Invoices you also have the option to allow your customer to save their card information on file, and then you can use the saved card.

It sounds like you might be building website for this client? I just want to clarify that Square Invoices is a separate feature and at this tiem Square Invoices do not currently integrate with eCommerce partners.

How can I set up delayed payment to process prior to shipment?

Tianne — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 16:41:04 GMT

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: How can I set up delayed payment to process prior to shipment?

In 2017 you wrote: "Sending an invoice with Square is just like sending an invoice in the mail. You have to set the terms of payment (due before shipment, due on receipt, net 10, net 30, etc) and they can pay as soon as they get the email with a credit card online. " I do not see how to set up delayed payment. Custom-made pottery can take up to 3 weeks to create and package before I can add shipping cost. I would appreciate knowing what steps to take on my new Woocommerce website and connected to Square for payment. Thank you.

Re: Invoices

Tianne — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 19:40:14 GMT

Yes, I am building a new WordPress WooCommerce website. My client has had an old website for years, but was hacked and now very hesitant about connecting his Square account online. He only uses it via his phone, and sometimes it can take weeks for him to complete an order and know the full amount of the invoice. He requested that I set up his new site to receive an order, with notation of shipping to be determined, and customer input credit card info for him to charge (possibly a month later) prior to shipment.

So, if I'm understanding you correctly, Square Invoice is not an option for us yet? Do you have any other suggestions?

Re: How can I set up delayed payment to process prior to shipment?

Helen — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 16:39:45 GMT

Hi again @Tianne! If you've saved a customer's card on file then yes you can set a date in the future to charge the card with Square Invoices.

If you haven't saved a card on file you can send the Invoice to the customer and set the due date for 3 weeks in the future. In that case your client will receive reminders to pay the invoice (depending on your settings) and will need to pay the invoice according to your terms using the link emailed to them.

Re: Invoices

Helen — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 16:49:34 GMT

@Tianne I've merged your post toegether in this thread to help keep the Community organized!

Square Invoices would be an option, but those would have to be managed and sent from a Square Dashboard. I'm not an expert in WooCommerce so I'm adding someone who is - @Woo_Phil can you take a look at Tianne's post and point her in the right direction (please!)?

Re: Invoices

Woo_Phil — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 22:15:41 GMT

@Tianne if you use the WooCommerce Square plugin, then you could set your transactions to authorize only. That would capture payment information, but not actually charge the customer. Then at a later time, you could capture the payment by updating the status of the order. I believe Square only holds those authorizations for 6 days though, so I'm not sure if that's enough time for you.

When we initially launched our plugin, Square didn't not support saving payment data for future use so that feature isn't in our plugin. They have since added support for that, so our team is working to add that to our plugin however I do not have a timeline for when that would be available.

Re: Invoices

Tianne — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 20:23:04 GMT

Thank you so much for your response. I just heard back from my customer, and he does not in any way want to do automatic charges on his website. Oh, this is so discouraging! His current old website http://www.stevecoburnpottery.com/ allows customers to place an order, input card information, and stops there. He inputs the card info on his phone with Square, like he does at remote art show locations. How can I set that up in just eCommerce? I have everything in except I don't know how to allow for the credit card info to be input without Square. This is my efforts so far http://christiannedesign.com/w2/ . Thank you.

Re: Invoices

Woo_Phil — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 20:58:10 GMT

@Tianne - for WooCommerce we do not have anything for Square (or any other gateway) that would allow customers to input credit card information and store that locally on the site so that the site admin could then copy that info. This is because storing that information is a very large liability and requires much more strict PCI compliance level than most businesses can achieve or afford.

If your client is looking to do that, I would strongly caution them as it would be a massive financial liability for should their site or that information ever be compromised. Fines for PCI compliance violations can be as high as $100,000 per month.

Any properly made plugin should have credit card information entered directly to your payment processor, then store only a token locally that references the information stored by the processor.