Enable Account Ownership Transfer for Selling One Business to Another

[RedDoorPizza]

Having one business using square and buying a second business as a going concern using square i thought would be easy as I know how the square platform works

HOWEVER square doesnt allow you to purchase a business as a going concern, you have to create a new business for the account and then you loose lots of the business records! this is absolutley rediculous as i bough an ongoing business expecting customer records sales etc to remain available. 

I will be looking at moving both my businesses off Square if this remains the same as this is a major issue for people who ever want to sell their business and are expected to provide sales records, customers etc as part of the sale of a going concern. 

@Everyone 

[Laurie_]

Hi @RedDoorPizza,

Thanks for reaching out to share your feedback with us.

I empathise with your situation, as I can only imagine how stressful selling a business can be. Square has clear guidelines regarding eligibility for account ownership transfers. Unfortunately, in the case of selling a business to another, Square does not support account transfers because it can disrupt tax reporting for the new owners.

However, rest assured that the data connected to the previous account is not lost. While you cannot transfer existing data, such as transactions or sales summaries, to the new account, you can export this history for your records.

As a general best practice, we recommend completing the following steps in order when preparing to sell a business using Square:

1. Set up a new Square account under an email address that isn’t already in use on Square. This can be a temporary email address created for this sole purpose. For a refresher on setting up a new account and what information is required, check out our Support Centre.
2. When creating the new account, you can use the same business name, ABN (if applicable), and bank account as the original account.
3. Download your transaction history from your previous account.
4. Migrate your item library and customer directory from the old account to the new one. 
5. Deactivate the old account directly from your online Square Dashboard. Ensure you have cancelled any active paid plans prior to completing this step.
6. Optional: Log in to your new account and change the email address now freed up from the deactivated account under Basic Information and click save.

Should the account transfer process change in the future, we will announce it to all Sellers. For now, we are unable to make exceptions, and the advice provided above applies to all Square Sellers.