Can we charge based on hourly use?

[TechExpress]

If our business model requires charges by houly rate (... $20 per hour at .3 hrs = $6.00 charge) where and how can we set this up.  Our currant invoicing software computates our total hourly billing this way, and upon multipal charges for different task requiring increses or decreces in time provides us a total for the hourly charges.   

The other itemised things such as materials, like nuts or bolts + markup and taxes are also computated and generated within the "Balance Due" total line.

any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

[bpcmarket450]

Any update for charging rentals by hour? My friend has a restaurant business, serving foods and renting a party room. He is looking for new POS, and I recommended Square. But one of major features he needs is charging a room hourly base. For example, a private room is rented from 3:15 PM and 4:30 PM at $40 rate per hour. The system automatically computes hours (1 hour 15 minutes) and charges to a customer ($50). If this feature is available, I will strongly recommend Square. Thank you.

[Dustin0621]

If you setup a custom unit type and call it per hour, then make the accuracy “.00”. Then you will just use a 100th scale for the hours. You can easily find the scale online. Just search “minutes to 100th conversion chart”. I charge $64 an hour for automotive labor and use this all the time. 

[Serge1]

Dear friends,

I am planning to open a business where I want to charge customers by the time they use my service.

For example, the customer is swiping his/her CC, pressing a “Start” button and it starts the timer, when customer presses “Stop” button, the counter value is sent to the system and it calculates the amount to be charged, the receipt printer is printing the receipt and the customer puts his signature.

Can it be automated or I need a cashier/operator?

Would you please help me to get an idea how to make it?

Thank you for sharing.  

Please let me know if you have any questions.

[Valentina · Accepted solution]

Your best bet would be to grab a little desktop timer to track time, and then charge your customer by the hour.

If you need to charge by smaller time quantities than hours, you can select an option from the Precision dropdown:

It wouldn't be possible to automate this using the Square app or your Dashboard, @Serge1.

I hope this helps, but let me know if questions come up!

P.S. Welcome to the Seller Community ✨

[Serge1]

Thank you for this information.

If I understand correctly, there is no way to automate this operation that it can be done without a cachier. The easiest way, probably, would be taking a card from a customer, swiping it, turning a timer on,  letting castomer to use a service, and stoping the timer when it finishes?

 I have never used this system and it is unclear for me:

• How long can I keep CC information waiting when the customer finishes?
• Can I process another customer when the previous one in not processed?
• I am planning to use free CC reader connected to a cel phone. Do I need to collect customer signatures and how? Do I have to print out receipts and how?

Thanks for your help.

[Valentina]

Yes, that is correct, @Serge1.

• How long can I keep CC information waiting when the customer finishes?

It sounds like you may want to keep your customer's cards on file - learn more here.

• Can I process another customer when the previous one in not processed?

I'm not sure what this question means, but you can only process one payment at a time. 

I'm unsure what your business model is, but you would need to charge the card after you know how much you want to charge the customer. You would not be swiping the card, then providing a service, then charging at the end. You would be swiping the card (or charging the card on file) after providing a service. The exception here would be if you are using Square Invoices to charge for a service before providing it, or using Square Appointments and requiring prepayment.

• I am planning to use free CC reader connected to a cel phone.
  Do I need to collect customer signatures and how?
  Do I have to print out receipts and how?

You may have heard that credit card brands are no longer requiring signatures for transactions. This is made possible by improved security/authorization solutions in the credit card processing world, such as chip-enabled cards and EMV card readers. We always recommend a Square Reader for contactless and chip for the safest processing for both you and your customers. If you do want customers to sign and tip, you can learn more about this here.

You do not have to print receipts - you can also send them digitally.

[TechExpress]

Say just wanted to say think you for your insights on the  billing conundrum.   I want to pose another question regarding "Form Fields" .. your know like the data inputted by the customer within the forms field, then submitted.  This submitting of the data is parsed and provided in the layout the form owner specs either for CRM data or what not.   Is there anyway to add an additional (10) fields within my GUI Square's platform..?  At the moment, I fussing with FMP 19 Server, and Square API's to get this seamless while a maintaining "I think" proprietary components of the data cashe.      Have you got any  thoughts on the plan..  I need editable definable field at the frontend of the customer's experience..

[MayaP]

Hi @TechExpress,

Thanks for reaching out. I am happy to help.  But I want to be honest, I am not quite understanding the request. 

Do you mind clarifying your question one more time. I want to make sure we providing the most accurate information. 

[TechExpress]

Yes, sorry im not a writer at all.   Is there anyway to add an additional (10) fields within my GUI Square's platform..? Like this..  where i can add fields that become part of the form data thats handed off to me upon submission.

[MayaP]

No worries, sometimes it can be hard trying to explain these things. But I got it!

At this moment there is not a way to add additional fields to the Square Forum for your third party API. This would be a feature request . We would love for you to elaborate your suggestions on our ideate board. Our Product Team is constantly improving our products based on feedback like this.

Let us know if you have additional questions on this inquiry. Happy to assist. 

[CleanSlate]

How can we get Square to add hourly billing? Threaten to leave to Quickbooks? 😃 (Dead Serious) Other ideas welcome!

[Minion]

Hi @CleanSlate

Would this solution here work for you to add/charge hourly billing? 

[CleanSlate]

Thanks for the tip, but I don't want to do a workaround and in 2023 I don't think we should have to. Square has the resources and platform already set up to easily add this function.  I just want to see them do it. It would be a win win for everyone.  

Javan

[RHarr]

I charge customers time and material.  I have my hourly rate set up under items as "labor rate".  I charge customers the hourly rate but charges are accrued in fifteen minute increments.  When I attempt to bill them, I can only add time in whole hours.  I would like to be able to charge for 2.5 hours, or 3.75 hours.  Square will only let me charge for 2, 3, 4, etc. hours.  Does anyone know how I can accomplish this?

Thanks,

Ryan H

[Feedback2016]

@RHarr Change your "Hour Rate" to a "Unit Rate" and charge 4 units per hour?

[Sean]

@Feedback2016 - Thanks for your help with this one! 🙌

@RHarr - Since Feedback2016 was able to help answer your question, would you mind marking it as "Best Answer"? That'll help the rest of the community find this thread if they have the same question. Thanks! Also, welcome to the Seller Community! We're happy to have you. 

[noahphense]

Just getting around to setting up my square.  I am trying out different methods for labor.  I have created a single item.  Called it Labor Rates, no Category at this time, and created 4 "Variations" with this item, they are as such:

1 Hour

3/4 Hour

1/2 Hour

1/4 Hour

This way for me is less tapping on my iphone.

i.e.  4 and 3/4 hours .. a qty of 4 of the 1 Hours + 1 qty of the 3/4 Hour

**

EDIT .. I'm not sure who this would show on a reciept.  But if it creates multiple line items, I would not like that. 

[Jhillman]

We charge hourly rates for design work as well as editing, and sometimes we charge for 2.5 hours or 3.75 hours. We should be able to show that on the invoice and have the software create that calculation. Apparently we can't enter decimals and get a calculation. That needs to be fixed. So I don't want to bill a customer 2 hours @ $40 each and then 1 hour @ $20 each to get a total invoice of $100. That's confusing to the customer. Their contract with me is for $40 per hour or $50 per hour.

[Tom]

Hey @Jhillman, welcome to the seller community and thanks for taking the time to share your experience with this as well.

I went to check on this request and, while we don't have any updates, I wanted to point out another option that would prevent confusion for the customer: create a variable-priced item. If you leave the price blank, you can determine the appropriate amount for the design or editing work, and add it at the time of the sale. I realize that this would require the additional step of calculating the hourly rate manually, but hope this helps.

Keep in touch as we'll circle back with any developments — please don't hesitate to let us know if you have any other questions!

[betty]

Dear Square,

Please add the ability to input decimals (to 3 decimal points, 0.000) to the QUANTITY field on invoices.

It's ridiculous that we can't easily show our customers that we spent .75 of an hour of our time, or that they bought 1.125 yards of fabric or 2.344 pounds of granola using the invoice feature.

I resort to inputting the full amount as the price, then explaining the math in the custom note.

Thank you!

[AlanA]

Square, please when will we get this simple fix?