Can I backdate, edit, or delete a transaction?

[AC]

The title of this post has been edited from the original:  Can you delete a transaction?

How do you delete a completed "Cash" transaction? I ran it just as a test.

[AC]

The title of this post has been edited from the original:  Can you delete a transaction?

[#3]

Hi @TheGlencafe,

Right now we have no plans to add the ability to backdate, delete or manipulate transaction information after a sale is complete. 

For context, the ability to manipulate transactions can cause issues for reporting and chargebacks. Also, it would make it easier for fraudsters and scammers to commit crimes using Square Point of Sale. 

If you have test cash transactions in your transaction history, you can always refund these payments to balance your books. See our help article on how to refund a payment.

Hopefully this has provided some transparency on this request, and why it's not available. 

[#4]

Hello @alexaiezza, welcome to the Seller Community! 

Currently adding the ability to delete a transaction is not on our road map. The reasoning behind this is we use this information to submit 1099-K's to the IRS. I'm not saying you would do this, but it would be easy to cook your books if this ability was available. 

Another request on this thread is to be able to void transactions so they don't show on reports. Currently we are in the process of collecting feedback for this request. I don't have a timeline on when it might be available. 

If you have any other questions please let me know! 

[#5]

@TomTr

I appreciate your feedback in regards to this. I know you've probably read this multiple times within the Seller Community, but we really do send customer feedback over to our Product Teams, and advocate for changes for you.

I absolutely agree that a void feature would help with training and testing, and also make reporting look a lot cleaner as well. You make a great point that with test payments, or payments made by mistake, nothing is ever actually sold, so your gross sales report shouldn't reflect a sale (which is what results when issuing a refund).

As you've alluded to in your previous post, there are two different requests within this thread. Some folks are looking for the ability to completely remove or delete a transaction, which isn't possible at this time. We don’t have any new information around whether or not this will ever become available.

The other option that folks are looking for, having an option to mark payments that have been completed as voided/cancelled rather than refunded, would help sellers a ton and we’ll continue to reiterate that to the team on your behalf.

We know this request is important to you, so as soon as there are updates that we’re able to share publicly, we will.

I hope this provides more clarity, and thank you all, again, for your feedback!

[#6]

Maybe the Square team can find a way to mark the transactions as Void, so that they do not affect sales totals, but neither are the transactions erased.

From an accounting standpoint, I can see why they would not let a transaction just be deleted. There has to be a documentation trail.

When I have to make test transactions, when I refund the transaction I make note that it was a test transaction and that is why it was refunded. There is also the "Accidental Charge" notation available.

Then when I download my sales reports, I sort the test transactions out and make a note in my saved spreadsheet.

[Sean]

@AWS - I don't think so, but I might be a little biased. 🙂  This is definitely a popular feature request. We're continually making improvements, and we'll be sure to update this thread if this is something that is added in the future. Welcome to Square! 

[morganarae]

I discovered m long time Square account disappeared when I was at a live event yesterday, wanting to run payments. I tried setting up a new account. Square was demanding I enter an amount, so I tried running a test of my product $997. The Square DID NOT WORK and didn't run a single credit card, but it's showing $998 in sales.

I don't want to pay taxes on a fake transaction. How do I delete it?

[VanKalkerFarms]

Square accounts don't expire so as long as you know the email address that was used to create the account you can recover the password. 

Transactions can not be deleted, cash, credit card, or otherwise.  You can refund the transaction to fix the balance of the books.  Deleting transactions can be an easy way to hide employee fraud.

[Shibumi]

This might be the dumbest aspect of using square.

The problem isn't lack of transaction deletion.  It's that square refuses to acknowledge the "refund" in any other reports.  This destroys inventory counts and sales totals across the board any time an employee makes a mistake or customer changes their payment method at the last second (they pull out cash then switch to credit card once the employee inputs cash sale).

I simply use square as my POS cash register for the store.  We have Quickbooks enterprise run Square as a customer, with a daily invoice.  The delete transaction problem occurs with reporting sales item totals.

WHY DOES SQUARE COUNT REFUNDED ITEMS IN THE REPORTS?  It completely butchers the inventory.  

I look at my item sales for yesterday totaling 105 item sales.  But we only had 100 in stock.  Square not allowing the deletion of a transaction mistakes it the most horredous oversight I have seen from a major piece of software.  The refund should trigger an adjustment in the item sales report.

Simplier situation, I accidentally charge $100 cash sale on a day we are closed.  I can refund the $100.  My gross sales are $100 but my net sales are $0.  However looking at any other reports, you see $100 in sales.  What good is an inventory report, item sales report, category sales report, etc. if nonsense accidental transaction are always included.

I sell 20 apples at $1, however an employee ran up 5 apples as cash instead of credit card.  Looking through the reports it looks like I sold 25 apples for $25 and only got paid $20.  Item sales reports states I sold 25 apples for $25 with 0....zip...nada...no ackniowledgment of the refund/mistake.  

This is an inventory tracking nightmare...Please fix this.  Users should be able to delete transactions OR have square reflect refunds/item totals in other reports.

edit:  There is a way to view "Net Sales" aka the proper dollar amount in item sales reports.   It's a filter.  However it still states the incorrect amount of items.  It's reporting "Gross Items" and I can't find a way to report "net items."

I can view 25 apples sold at $1 totaling $20 "net" and $25 "gross."  But ramp those numbers up across dozens of items and the simple arithmatic becomes impossible to figure out.  It remains an inventory nightmare.

[MTSU]

Like everyone else with a new account, I created a transaction during the walk-through that I cannot delete.  We got this account for my girl scout troop (It's Girl Scout Cookie Time!!) and this is going to show up on my Council report, for which I will most probably have to fill out explanations in triplicate for why my account has a $1 cash transaction on it.  (thank goodness I didn't actually mark it as a charge)

I see Sean's response that "this is a very popular feature request" repeated ad nauseum.  I also see the implied reason Square refuses to fix the problem is concern over employee theft.  Remarks from business owners are right on point that the OWNER should be allowed to delete or void a transaction.

Alternately, why are transactions completed in the walk-through showing up AT ALL?  If Square is concerned about employee theft, and won't "fix" this feature because of that, why not ensure that users can safely practice with the software in a "Practice" Mode before trying to use the account "for real"?

[tmeccariello]

Any news on deleting a transaction?  My OCD is not letting me sleep at night with these errors in my books. Please offer something to fix this soon Square!

[creatorofstuff]

It's incredible to me that you said, "This is a very popular feature request we've heard from our sellers!" on April 25, 2016. You realize that is 9 months ago. And nothing has happened!

And since your post, there has been a continuous, ongoing thread with people literally begging for this feature, with a post as recent as January 28, 2017. (Two days ago.) 

When is Square going to prioritize this? You surely must understand by now how many people are struggling with inventory problems and bookkeeping problems because of the inability to delete a transaction. I understand why you would want an employee to perhaps not have this level of privilege but come on. The owner of the company? 

Had I known this in the beginning, I would have found another solution, but I spent so much time setting up my inventory in Square, I keep hoping you will fix it. At some point, though, I will move on. As, I presume, will others. 

[Sean]

@tmeccariello @creatorofstuff - Thanks for taking the time to reach out with your feedback. As you mentioned, this a top feature request we hear that causes a lot of pain for our sellers. This is something top of mind for us, rest assured. I will definitely post in this thread in the future when I hear any updates. Thanks so much for sharing your feedback, it's important that our product teams receive it. 

[Whiticus]

No you won't. This thread has been going since 4/24/16 and you keep giving the same answer. What kind of customer service is that? The simple fix of having the refund correct the inventory should have been done, at most, a month after the first post. But go ahead and "pass this on to the development team". 

[tbures]

Is the customer notified of the refund by Square?