Can Square be set up to manage a 'custom currency' for a school store?

[wildernessgreen]

We are setting up a school store, but are using a custom currency, 'Trail Treasure', not US dollars. This is a fake currency that students earn throughout their school day, with which they can 'purchase' school store items once a week. 

I'm wondering if one can manage a custom currency like this with Square, as we have some Square hardware that we'd love to use for this purpose. We were hoping to give students more retail experience through use of the Square register, the receipt printer and bar code scanners we currently have. 

I'd also love to be able to order plastic swipe gift cards that students could use as debit cards to keep school store dollars on, and swipe to purchase. 

Is it even possible to use Square in this way?

[ryanwanner · Accepted solution]

Hello @wildernessgreen !

The answer to both of your questions is YES!

For your custom currency, there is an Other option when you go to cash out a sale. It's one of the tender types. You can't change the name from Other to Trail Treasure, but you can have your students use this for all those purchases. The other challenge is that the Other tender type won't show you how much change you need to give back, but then it turns into a math lesson, too!

As for the gift cards, you can order them directly from the Square dashboard. Look for the Gift Cards link on the left side of the screen, then Physical Gift Cards. Follow along the path.

As an aside regarding gift cards: if you dig through the community here, you'll see a few posts about the costs of gift cards, especially the customized ones. Here's why I don't worry about it: with every other gift card provider I've used, I've had to pay for the card, their special terminal, a load fee, a redeem fee, a balance check fee, and a settlement fee. (this may have changed in the years since I've used another service). With Square, we pay for the cards themselves. Nothing else.

Happy selling!

[wildernessgreen]

Ryan, 

Thank you so much. . . this is promising!

So would we just not connect a bank account to the account? And we would use 'other' for all checkout transactions and would load 'other' onto swipe cards? But we lose some functionality and analytics is sounds like. 

Does the cashbox feature still work with 'other'? and other reporting? I know it kind of defeats the purpose of giving the kids experience using real currency, making change, all of that. 

Seems like alternatively, we could convert our 'Trail Treasure' into $ before they shop. $ could be loaded onto swipes. That would at least maintain the full functionality and reporting capabilities of Square software. And it would allow us to track the cost of the School Store Program. 

[ryanwanner]

With the gift cards, you'll still need a bank account for the initial load of the cards. In fact, I'd recommend having a bank account linked anyways. You never know when you'll have the chance to sell to the parents, and us adults love our credit cards... 😉

The cash box won't pop open with the Other tender type. Your only real way around that would be to have a key in the box so your team could open it as needed. Of course, if you're not giving change to those Trail Treasure bucks, the majority of cash drawers have slots where you can put things in the drawer without opening it.

All sales reports will have the Other tender type broken out so you can match sales.

Your conversion idea would work, but that would add an additional layer to the transaction, which means more room for errors.

What I would do for your situation:

• Set up a bank account (if there isn't already one for your group)
• Order gift cards so students can preload for future purchases. (the preload $ paid by credit card would get dropped into that bank account. Any cash sales will end up in the drawer)
• Have the Other tender type for the Trail Treasure Bucks
• Sell, sell, sell!

Have fun!