What Square Features Can You Not Live Without — and What’s Missing?

[Vanilla]

For those in beauty & wellness, what Square feature has helped you the most with scheduling, payments, or client management?

And what feature do you think needs improvement or isn’t currently available that would make running your business even better?

[Vanilla]

I rely heavily on Square Appointments, automated reminders, automatic contracts, deposits, and built-in Square Messages. I also love the ability to approve or decline appointment requests because it allows me to review contracts and intake forms to make sure a client is eligible for a treatment before charging a deposit, which has been huge for my business.

My main challenge is the loyalty rewards program. It’s very retail-focused and not ideal for service-based businesses. The points system requires a lot of manual work, points reset after redemption, and deposits don’t automatically count, which makes tracking loyalty frustrating.

I’d love to see a visit-based milestone loyalty option instead (ex: 5th visit = 50% off, 10th visit = free service) so rewards grow with client loyalty rather than resetting. That would feel much more aligned with how salons and spas actually operate.

[APRS1]

This does in fact sounds very ideal, in maintaining client focusing.  Whereas, applicable individual services, service/needs maintenance, and service/needs management.

[Studiolux]

The loyalty program is terrible. We are 100% prepay so it doesn’t work for us and I’ve been paying for it for a month not knowing why it wasn’t working. It only works when a customer check out in person and we barely have that. 

[Studiolux]

The loyalty program is terrible. I was paying for a month wondering why it wasn’t working but because our Salon is 100% prepaid, it only works if a client checks out at the salon

[iluvskn]

We need a way to combine appointments for payment. Sometimes clients come together and one person pays for both of them. 

[Vanilla]

@iluvskn 

Thanks for sharing! I love that paying individually works easily, but it would be really nice if there was a group booking option too — it could make things even smoother when friends, family, or even a bridal party book together.

[studio219ink]

I use most of what Square has to offer like Appointments, Team, Messaging, Payroll, etc., however, I don't like having to pay for everything a la carte. I think there should be a package that includes all of these things or a way to put together your own business suite package. That said, I've been asking for the same things for years:

1 - Give us the ability to change who gets credit for a sale in the event it's accidentally credited to the wrong person.

2 - Give more control over the percentages when it comes to paying commissions. We should be able to decide for ourselves if we want to pay a flat rate for everything or if we want to set up different commissions for different services or service categories and for different items or item categories. The best you can do right now is one rate for all items and one rate for all services.

There's more but those are the main 2.

[Vanilla]

Square now offers three simplified plans instead of an a la carte menu. This new three-tier structure (Square Free, Square Plus, and Square Premium) replaces 18 separate subscriptions with all-inclusive plans designed to grow with sellers as their businesses evolve and their needs change.

I personally subscribed to the Square Plus plan, which includes everything I previously paid for separately and in my case, it actually saved me money. You can check out all three tiers here: https://squareup.com/us/en/online-store/plans

[isabelle]

I love this question 💬!! 

[Vanilla]

🤩📝

[morethanapretty]

having the ability to book two appointments same time slot for different people with different employees would greatly help as alot of times people want to come to appointments together

[Vanilla]

Great news — this feature is already available in Square 😊 You can allow multiple people to book at the same time with different team members by making sure each staff member is properly set up for online booking.

Here’s how to enable it:

1. From your Dashboard, go to Staff → Team → Team Members.
2. Select a team member, then click Appointments at the top of their profile.
3. Make sure “Bookable by customers online” is toggled on.
4. Select the services bookable online for that team member.
5. Set that team member’s bookable hours as needed.

Next:

1. Go back to the Dashboard and select Appointments → Calendar & Booking.
2. Scroll down to Online Scheduling.
3. Ensure “Remove team members from the online booking site” is disabled.

Once this is set up, clients can book the same time slot for different people with different employees, making it much easier for friends or family to come in together.

[morethanapretty]

hi there thanks for the response but i think i was misunderstood i mean
add an option for a group appointment booking 
person 1 - headspa
person 2 - headspa 
appointment at same time but with different employees

one person booking not having to book two different appointments

sometimes people book 1 appointment go back to book the 2nd and realize that the other staff member is not available
does this make more sense?

[Vanilla]

I get it now! You mean a simultaneous, multi-staff group appointment booked in a single step. That would be a nice feature to have!

[morethanapretty]

exactly! alot of times people like to book for themselves plus others as surprises etc

[Studiolux]

And it would be great if they would allow customers to add on more than one add onto the service

[mballier]

I absolutely love that Square has combined a lot of a la carte subscriptions I was already using into Square Plus! I'm looking to get a little more control of the automation they have been created wether its the automated messages my clients recieve when they text me in the system (or even a notification that there's a message) or the automated campaigns in Square Marketing. Since we are adding AI to everything, we should be able to create personalized automated messages.

[Vanilla]

I agree that Square Plus is a great value and there’s definitely room for more advanced automation and personalization, especially with AI.

Just to clarify — are you not receiving message notifications? If that’s the case, Square does currently send message notifications. You can enable email notifications, push notifications, and also use a Do Not Disturb (DND) option for Square Messages.

Instructions here in case it helps:

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/8416-manage-notifications-with-square-messages

Where I do agree is that having more control over automated replies, notification logic, and personalized messaging (especially AI-assisted or conditional messaging) would be a big improvement and help reduce manual work even further.

[MALqueerhair]

We couldn't live without the Waitlist! Its a gamechanger if you have limited hours and book up quickly. We don't have a front desk so clients book their own appts, cancel or reschedule fully online. As someone cancels, the waitlist automatically notifies anyone on it and the opening usually gets booked within the hour. 

This has saved us soooo much time and reduces the hand-holding you would need to do with other scheduling systems. 

I think the booking could be even smarter by prioritizing "appointment snapping" for new appointments. Instead of listing all available times, Square could suggest available times that are only next to already scheduled appointment. This would prevent un-bookable gaps in our day where no services will fit. 

[johnson_1320]

I think it would be great for all those that only use the online website to have the ability to split payment types for appointments like you can for items.

Not sure if it’s allowed but linking my feature request so I don’t have to explain it.

Dual Payment Feature Request Thread 

drop a kudo if you are inclined