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.

[Sarah310]

I vote to allow the owner to have the authority to delete transactions and maybe even be able to assign the permission to an employee, but the owner at the very least should be able to delete a transaction.  

I did a test, like other Square users have, so I didn't look like an idiot the first time I used it in front of a client and now I can't delete it. I will follow the instructions for a refund.  Did I mention that it would be an awesome feature if the owner could delete a transaction? ;}

Thanks!

[Metroyal]

"I did a test, like other Square users have, so I didn't look like an idiot the first time I used it in front of a client and now I can't delete it" 

Exactly.. Thank you!

[creatorofstuff]

I just read all of the comments, and I want to chime in here, too. I am new to square, and I, too, thought I was in "test mode", and now I'm stuck with several test transactions. Like everyone else, I don't want to simply issue a refund, as it will show my sales totals as misleading. Frustrating.

I also can't delete a fake customer I entered when being walked through the tutorial. He doesn't show up in my customer list, but he was there when I did a cash transaction to see how the receipt thing worked. 

It's crazy that you can't do a practice transaction and then delete it before actually using this device in public. So far not impressed with Square. 

[Sean]

@creatorofstuff - Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback! I'll be sure to pass it along to our product liaison team. While it would be a tad cumbersome, you could create a new account, and then deactivate this one if you wanted to start over fresh. 

[creatorofstuff]

Thanks, Sean, but I've already entered about 75 products into the inventory, so there is no way I'm going to start all over again. I sure do hope your team listens and allows people to delete a transaction. Clearly it's a hot topic. 

Incidentally, on Safari, when you go to post, the instructions in the text box do not go away, so you must type over it, and you cannot see what you are typing. 

[Spenser]

Just want to let you know we're looking into the issue with the comment box, @creatorofstuff! 

Here's another post on the topic. We'll update when we have more info.

[creatorofstuff]

Thanks! Glad to know you are working on it. And glad to know I'm not crazy. 🙂 

[1brunswick]

Real simple to add a void button or delete transaction that would track the employee that hit the button. Refunds don't fix quantities if you are tracking inventory and you have to manually change the quantities.    

[sugarbear]

I agree. As an owner it is a quirky inconvenience to NOT be able to delete a transaction completely. When reports run it still seems to show that the quantity of items were sold, so when I run reports to see which items sold the "refund" option does not credit the quantity sold or inventory numbers. I would like to see an option perhaps with an owner given "admin" function to delete transactions, if not on the app on the computer dashboard....somewhere...anywhere.

[AWS]

I am new to Square as well and don't understand why there is no delete function. I chose Square on the recommendation of some other users but was unaware of this issue. Reading through all the responses, it appears this is an issue for a lot of users and has been for a while. I have seen the comment that it will be brought up, thanks for the comment but it doesn't appear to matter to Square. Have I gone with the wrong credit card processing company?