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.

[red-barn]

I have not found any solution.  Square has been quiet on the matter.  I read where they are not able to take fake sales off the record so that folks won't be cooking their books.  Folks will always figure out a way to cook the books if they intend to.  They can do daily refunds for all sales I suppose.  Anyway, the honest folks (who simply need to have an erroneous charge removed) are being limited by rules applicable to the dishonest folks.  It's like airport security:  All the normal folks are gettting groped and spending hours in lines and the terrorists continue to laugh.

Hey Square, here is a solution:  keep the fake charge if you must, (who has a sale for $999,999 anyway?) but allow a modification to the sales trend report, with a note of course, explaining that we aren't trying to hide this sale for any other reason than to keep the reports meaningful for our business. 

With my huge "sale" in my sales trend reports, it's going to be hard next year to top this years sales.  I suppose next year I could add an even bigger fake sale and then I could refund it real quick but it would still jack the yearly sales figures way up.  Hey I think I found a way to cook my books to make my sales look bigger than they are!  Maybe I will just keep doing this and when I sell my business I can flaunt my gloriously inflated sales trends! 

I did the refund but it did not balance out and fix the sales reports. 

[Submagician]

What about archiving a transaction?

[nika]

Hey @Submagician! There's no way to archive transactions. But your past transactions will always be available for you to reference no matter how long ago you processed them. 

[gariston]

Lack of this ability is something people should be aware of before chosing Square POS. I haven't seen this in any reviews while doing my POS research. I still haven't decided what I'll use but erroraneous reporting of refunded items as sales is a significant obstacle to choosing Square POS.

[cmusicshop]

@red-barn Something like this is definitely needed.  Dishonest people will always find a way.  We need a way to void a sale, add a note and move on.

Also, a training mode would be nice.  It is hard to walk someone through the sales process when you have to stop before the actual completion.

[twinsygirl]

I created a fake transaction just to test everything, but now it's showing as a $360 sale that I cannot delete or get rid of. It would be incorrect on my 1099 for this transaction to be factored into my tax responsibility because it was only a test, not a true sale. There's got to be a way to delete this transaction. Please advise on what I'm supposed to do about this.

Thanks!

[VanKalkerFarms]

just refund it, there will be no tax liabilty for the transaction.

[JAM1907]

This comment was created by merging the thread "Deleting transactions from my account"

I realize there are lots of discussions about deleting transactions/invoices, none with a resolution. As well as a professional photographer who uses square for business invoicing and sales, I'm a member of an art group that sells at local sales, fairs, etc., and the only one with Square. Some of our older members don't have access to accept credit card sales (don't even have cell phones) so I take those payments on their behalf, and now would like to delete them from my account.

I simply pay them, minus the transaction fee, but inclusive of the sales tax, which they take care of as of course they are earning the income.

I don't want the amount recorded on my 1099 as it's not my income.

I just want a simple solution to deduct this from my list of transactions and not have it show on my transactions at the end of the year.

Is this possible?

Thanks,

Julie

[Chad]

Hello @JAM1907, I went ahead and merged your thread since this question has been asked a few times. Currently we do not offer the ability to delete a transaction. If you were able to delete your transactions you could potentially cook your books to owe less money to the IRS. 

In your situation I recommend signing your members up for their own accounts. You can still take payments on their behalf, but they have their own reporting and transactions. 

[Gjc]

I totally agree. Ridiculous that you can’t delete a test. Now I have to start my new business off on a sour note. May end up deleting the app. Excel can do a better job of keeping track.