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.

[VanKalkerFarms]

While I understand not wanting employeess to just delete transactions as they want, I think that there should be the ability for the owner of the company to call into Square, with some 2-factor authentication if need be, to delete obviously erroneous transactions like a million dollar transaction.  I understand Square doesn't want to be babysitting customers accounts deleting transactions all day but big ones like this make all the fancy stats Square is great for nearly useless because it still shows as a sale and throws off all charts and graphs.  I have one transaction in 5 years I would like deleted so it isn't a daily thing.  Hopefully, someday it will become a possibility.

[skomeh]

I started by entering the amount of the transaction.  The square automatically added sales tax but this sale is an international one.  I couldn't delete the transaction or edit it on my phone.  I went to my computer and opened my square account.  I tried to process the transaction there.  Square wouldn't process the credit card.  It rejected.  I think that the first entry is blocking my efforts.  I am looking for a phone number so I can call someone who might help me.  So far, I'm dissatisfied with Square's support center, but I will continue to search.

Add me to the host of Square users who need a delete function.

[TomTr]

The response below is insanse considering the number of requests for a feature like this. My company is well within the 30-day return period for your system which we have not invested anytime in setting up. The fact that you can not VOID a transaction once it has been processed through the system is unreal.

"I'm sorry for the frustration @roamingrunway and @douglastonwine. This feature request is still being closely tracked by the Product Team and I appreciate the time you've taken to share how this impacts your business on a daily basis! If this feature does become available in future we'll update this thread to let everyone know. Thanks again for posting. If you have any other comments or feedback please post again! "

Any qualitiy Point Of Sale system should have both a "Refund" option which is for returning money to a customer, and a "Void" option which is used to correct mistakes. Additionally, the difference between how a "Void" and a "Refund" are handled by a credit card company is extremely important in guest recovery. 

"Voids tend to be less expensive than refunds, so a void ends up saving you merchant account fees. A voided transaction will typically disappear from a customer's credit/debit account statement within 24 hours, while a refund may take 3 to 5 business days to appear on a customer's credit/debit account statement."

Please fix your POS system.

[TomTr]

@Russell and @KatM. This is not good advise. This is a sadly nesicary work around. Refunds are when money is given back to the customer for whatever reason. A "void" is to fix an erronious transaction or a fictional transaction like when training. Refunds are not reflected in your gross sales numbers and create an inflated gross sales number when erronious or training transactions are unable to be properly documented as "voided" transactions which would be removed from the gross sales since a void is not a sale.  

[TomTr]

@EJ_ Your reply is sorely lacking. The community is asking for a "Void" button. The square system already has a void button for open tickets. In my use case the ablity to void an open ticket is useless as we are not making product like food and do not have to account for extra items made, like food itmes, due to error or "customer changed mind". However, I do need to train people on how to use your system and people do make mistakes. The "void" transaction is just that, a way to document the undoing of  traing entries and mistakes.

[TomTr]

@Helen Wow, do you even read the posts you reply to? tpmd is not part of this request and has added nothing to the post. tpmd did little more than troll the original post for not knowing the correct accounting term to use to get the desired result they are looking for.

[TomTr]

@Russell while to original post and title say "delete a transaction" I am confident that the true intention of this post was to implement a "Void" option for complleted transactions. The lack of this "feature" is truely mind blowing as you will not find any medium to large business that does not have a way to void a transaction. This feature goes back to some of the oldest POS systems from the early days of cash registers. 

[TomTr]

@Current and future posters. Please refrain from asking for a way to "Delete" transactions and instead focus on a way to "Void" transactions. The ablity to delete a transaction is not something that should be included in any POS system as it defeats the POS systems function as a record keeping system. A "Void" is a documented way to say that a transaction did not happen and most POS systems allow you to control which employees have acces to this option.

[roamingrunway]

Great response!

[GeorgeX]

That makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. I hope Square is working on either a Void function  or creating a “practice” or “training” mode.