What’s one Square feature you ignored for months, but now can’t live without?

[emilyz123]

Hi everyone! Would love to hear something you can't live without 🙂 Might inspire myself or others to start using that feature if we don't already!

[MudFire_Dex · Accepted solution]

SUBSCRIPTIONS all day long!!!! Payroll is pretty great too - we were doing that ourselves before and this is much easier to have everything integrated.

[DinaLRosenberg]

I really really want to get subscriptions going.... we need a little more functionality before we can pull the trigger. 

[perkits]

"Payroll" while I don't exactly ignore it, I may take it for granted. It's been a life saver and Square Payroll does an excellent job! 

[SVLFever]

This was going to be my answer as well!   We just started using Square payroll at the first of the year, and I'm wondering why I waited to so long.

[BrianaJo]

Ugh, I'm so excited to use this soon. I'm going back and forth with my 3rd party payroll services, so I haven't fully setup Square Payroll yet, but I'm SOOOOOO looking forward to it! I hear all sorts of great things about it!

[balmonte]

I love Payroll, but they need to give this some love as it has been a minute. Especially for those of us that run multi-locations. We need to be able to assign multiple bank accounts so that each location pays for its employees> The limitation of only being able to add one bank account means only one location pays for all of the payroll. Hoping this is something that is added soon - as we are in the process of opening a 3rd location and it will only get more difficult for us to manage.

[DinaLRosenberg]

Holy Cow- great question!

When we started entering inventory we entered them like absolute donkeys.

We sell a ton of crystals & minerals.. many one-off pieces. When we first started we'd label them as $312 specimen instead of weight and measurements LOLOL... big mistake. 

[JUYBoutique20]

Square Marketing....With shifting my business to more online I don't know what I'd do without it.

[Eddiemunster]

Just started setting up Menu's and I can see how it will help in the future.  Waiting on the menu update to come through and then I will play some more!!!

[Bronze_Palms]

What a great question!

I ignored Low Stock alerts FOR EVER! One day I ran out of product, set it up and the fact it runs on autopilot now and alerts me when we're running low on product is incredible.

FYI I set up my Supplies as items and mark them as $0.00 and plug in the amount of inventory I have. Then, when I use these supplies, I expense it so it counts down.

[ehflower]

 I love the time tracking for staff.  It is game changing versus how we used to do it.  Also the reports, especially Item sales, category sales.  They are used almost every day in some aspect or another, whether for cost analysis, forecasting or just making sure I am sane.  there is a new "Reconciliation report" or maybe I just found it.  That seems that could come in handy also.  Square has come a long way since I started using it in 2020.  Improvements frequently (however, I would like a little more heads up on where sometimes small things get moved or changed)  but I guess it keeps me on my toes.

[encsportscards]

Variations. We have a retail sports cards and gaming shop where we might get 1 item with several options. We have over 3k SKU's in the store, so being able to make 1 item with several variations has helped to make it easier for the customers to find items on our website and really scale back the general size of our inventory catalog. 

[ehflower]

We use the variation also if we have two different bar codes, sometimes vendors update their barcodes.  We also use it for inhouse products that we create (floral arrangements) Petite, Deluxe, Premium.  - Plant material that comes in different colors - However, most of our plant material will have just one barcode per type of plant regardless of color - therefore we will create variation of color and change the barcode ourselves to reflect the difference in color.  This allows for me to create invoices/orders catered to the clients needs.  This main bar code will be the top variation and we often call it gn(generic-general) it is also the barcode that is used by our cashiers for walk in clients. - Online when we offer, we make the generic option - Best available color, or we don't (unavailable) allow for it to be on the website.

[BrianaJo]

This is a tough-ie to narrow down since there's so many! But I'd probably have to say for our coffee shop.... Square Appointments. We only just started using it and I haven't even explored the full use of it yet, but it's already been such a lifesaver having all our private events, roasting classes, and cupping classes in a calendar format where all our baristas can see it. 

The other would be Square Dashboard App! We'd been using Square POS app, but the Dashboard app has all the right numbers we need to see at our fingertips, and my absolute favorite part is seeing who is clocked in right now. It's streamlined my communications so I'm only reaching out to the barista I need to contact in that moment.

[balmonte]

For us its text marketing. Being able to shoot customers a text with an offer last minute when having a slow day has proven to be super beneficial. Love that feature.

[HandsomeMuscle]

Variation name doesn't show on the calendar tile!

When adding a service in square appointments, we have been upgrading services with variations only to find out that NO practitioner can see them! It only shows the main appointment one the calendar. For example:

Service Name 1 (main entry) then after entering details, we scroll down to "variation". 

Service Name 1 + New Variation

Service Name 2 + Another Variation

Once we do this, it looks great BUT no one can see it until they go to check out the client. Variations listed for the service are CLIENT facing so they can make those upgrades/selections but they can not be seen in the calendar view at all. When the practitioner goes to checkout, then they see that the client actually chose an upgraded service that costs more $$ but it is too late, the session has ended and the practitioner was not able to perform the more upgraded service.

[DaveH5050]

One Square Feature that I ignored for months, but can definitely live without, is the Square Dispute process. Just got our first disputed charge in over a year (which is why I ignored it for months). I'd really like to see Square work with the credit card companies and banks to even out the playing field, putting business on an equal footing with the customers who experience remorse over their purchases when the credit card bill comes due.

In this instance, a customer who checked out of our nail salon on Saturday, March 7th just before we closed, and whose name does not appear on the credit charge info from the bank (i.e., anonymous), checked the "goods or services were not as described" checkbox on their banks charge dispute page, on April 23rd - over 6 weeks later - presumably when the $145 charge for her manicure & pedicure services showed up on her monthly bill. This has happened before, usually at this time of year when we have lots of customers with tax refunds coming in and parties or proms to go out to. We have notices posted in the salon and on the credit receipt stating "please bring any concerns or problems to the attention of the manager" and our business phone number. If there was genuinely a problem with the service, a simple phone call to us would have taken care of the problem.

Pedicures and manicures usually last only a month anyway, due to the nail growing out or the polish wearing off or chipping from doing chores, etc. We still encourage customers to come in anyway and we'll fix the problem free of charge. So when they don't bother to call or come in after 6+ weeks, then I suspect it is either fraud or buyer's remorse. 

Letting the banks get away with anonymous disputes like this only encourages the same behavior in the future, at our salon or another in town. And it's the businesses that come out short on this. The employees get paid no matter what. It's the business that suffers. At least put the business on an equal level with the customer. 

[littlenightmare]

One thing I honestly can’t live without is dark mode 😄 It makes everything easier on the eyes, especially during late-night scrolling or work sessions. Curious to see what everyone else says too!

[littlenightmare]

One thing I honestly can’t live without is dark mode 😄 It makes everything easier on the eyes, especially during late-night scrolling or work sessions. Curious to see what everyone else says too!

[Bronze_Palms]

Marketing! I used to export emails out of Square and into a CRM, then would draft the emails. Using the system that our booking system comes with just makes so much more sense!!