Square API's - Do you use them?

[WoodCandleCo]

I've been wadding in the shallow end of API's. I'm curious to learn how others may or may not be using them...

• Who uses Square's API's?
• Do you have a favorite?
• How has it changed your business for the better?
• Any tips?

[Candlestore]

@WoodCandleCo ;

I started to try to get the Square API calls for exporting my Sales.  I could see I connected, but never was able to see the csv files of the API export.  I wanted Excel Power Query to pull the reports at a certain time each day, then run a few formulas and change Headers to have the data formatted for my Accounting software.  I use to use Quickbooks Desktop with a CSV importer.  Only issue I had was i had to merge 2 Square Transaction Reports and do a calculation for the Total Sales Tax.  That eliminated rounding errors between Square and Quickbooks.  I was hoping the API calls by Excel to Square would get the sales data, and the reformat it for me to import to QuickBooks.  I know I could try QBO, but I hear horror stories of people having issues with the integration.  

Tax time came upon us for 2024, and that was more important than messing with the API.

I will tag @JTPets, I think he was using API's and told me to ask if I needed anything.

[JTPets]

If you dont mind using google sheets I got a sales export snippet for 91 days export automatically with a "production" api key

https://community.squareup.com/t5/Retail-and-eCommerce/Order-predictions-based-on-91-days-of-sales-h...

[Candlestore]

I do not mind using Google sheets and have been using Google sheets to track Burning Time and other information for my candles.  I also would love to export daily my sales data to have it formatted for my accounting software which can then import this data to my accounting software.  I am like you where my mind sits down to do the Accounting for my business then the dog barks .... and bam  no accounting gets done.  I come back and place orders or try looking into the APIs and then get something else that pops in my head to fix or work on.  So 15 projects all started and nothing finished   lol.

[JTPets]

I combine this data API exports with a catalog export for vendor informationI from the dashboard - then use use those 2 API  codes to extract my catalog data and my sales data to create an order projection tool that allows me to select any vendor and generate an order for 45 days worth of stock based on 91 days of sales.

I also have an audit tool to ensure items have taxes, low stock alerts, out of stock alerts, and a few other checks

I also use those same sheets to build a google merchant center auto updater

I am looking for more use cases myself to improve my business, considering using them to build catalogs for upload to 3rd party platforms like etsy, walmart or amazon shopping.

Happy to collaborate! 

*I used AI to do all of this I can't code much more than an HTML page lol

[WoodCandleCo]

This...is impressive. LOL! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one trying to use AI for API's. I'm having a hard time with the customer endpoint. Loyalty endpoint seems to be functioning correctly. I see your GitHub link...I'll have to take a look at what ya got!

[JTPets]

I have a scatter brain and don't update things like I should and I think 1 of my scripts is missing from there. Perhaps I'll double check today, please reach out if I can help in any way

[Donnie-M]

@JTPets I am going to have to git in your github!  I have been using github for html code to format my digital signage so I can use some free ways to do menus.  Github is so cool.

[JTPets]

I have no idea how to use github properly, but I have several little snippets of code that each do a few powerful things to help me automate processes in my business. Most triggerable automatically and manually to allow for things to self update

Catalog Export every 12 hours - Google apps script

91 days Sales Export every 12 hours - Google apps script

1 manually updated dashboard export of catalog for vendor information  - can't get from api

Allows me to create sheets automatically for:
Vendor orders for X number of days of stock based on 3 months of sales

Image URL's for all my items for building uploads for 3rd party platforms like Google Merchant Center, or Amazon or Walmart Marketplaces

Automated Google Marketplace updater every 24 hours

Google spread sheet to auto populate items that dont have tax, or dont have an image, or dont have a description so I can go and edit them correctly....

These are all things Square should support natively but they are not quite there yet 🙂 This is why i love the Champions program tho, I can help push my needs into the developers directly. I showed my order tool to someone the other day on a zoom call and "We should replicate that" was their reply.

[JTPets]

This code extracts your catalog and image urls and inventory to google sheets:
https://community.squareup.com/t5/Retail-and-eCommerce/Export-your-item-urls-inventory-and-image-url...

[JTPets]

Also going to tell you to use developer.squareup.com if you get stuck they have their own community forum as well seperate from this once. However I have urged them to thin the walls between these two communities

[avanish_patel]

I started building some marketing services around some customer and payment api's to to build my own marketing tools on top of it instead of using Square's marketing email and sms tools which are crazy expensive. 

[JTPets]

I would love to see some examples

[CSprink]

We use Ooma Office as our communications tool (voice, fax, messages, call logs, call recording etc.). They have an integration with Square CRM. If a current client calls, our Square dashboard opens to the client's profile so we can see transactions, invoices, previous communication via Square Messaging. This is a great tool to increase customer engagement!

[WoodCandleCo]

Oh wow, this is awesome! That's a genius use of the API's. And such a cool use case. Do you use the customer endpoint?

[CSprink]

I’m not super techie about this and perhaps it’s more of an integration or data collecting than an API. We use it only to efficiently get up to speed on the client’s previous interactions with us. Our clients are often pleasantly surprised we are knowledgeable about their purchase, service or equipment.

[DinaLRosenberg]

I hear the term API I want to run.

I see people talking about exporting data and my stomach hurts... LOLOL

The only thing we use is the 3rd party sales tax service (which is amazing)- DAVO but I have no idea if it's an API or not.

[CSprink]

Automating Sales tax reporting and filing would help us greatly. We have multiple sources of revenue; not just through Square. Do you know if DAVO can aggregate data from multiple sources?

[DinaLRosenberg]

Not sure but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

[Donnie-M]

@DinaLRosenberg The amount of information on 1 single order when you look at what the api sends....OMG it is so detailed, everything has so many flags for this and that and everything.  It reminds me of a dna code and out comes an order.  You can see almost anything.  I would never be scared, you can't break anything, but then again, I go down rabbit holes like this one.

[BofBArtStudio]

We use the API to manage inventory and also order processing.

I am currently working on a workflow project that allows us to update information about an order at all the touch points.  

It is a system that will be able to tell where the order is in the production process for any given customer or order.

Then at each touch point of production, the team can update the record for each process.

When a customer calls and asks for status, we can pull up their customer record and view the order and let them know where in the production process it currently is.