Switching Accounts Without Logging Out

[positivetouch]

I'm coming from a thread that referenced this, though I can't seem to add onto it as a feature request. I work at a small private naturopathic doctor's clinic that also sells tinctures and supplements, and between post-insurance billing for our two doctors and the joint supplements account, we have three different Square accounts that have to be signed in and out of constantly. This has only gotten more annoying with the addition of TFA, which, while obviously a good security measure, means I sometimes have patients waiting for me to type in multiple passwords and codes for what could be a single item and quick copay.

It would ease the flow of transactions if I were able to sign into multiple accounts under an admin profile, or with short passcodes for switching stores. Any security risk from giving someone else your account password has already been taken on in just about any use case where this would be used - honestly, it's more precarious to be typing it in over and over throughout the course of a day, often in full view of patients. 

I've seen other users ( @sugarmama  @shetang @kdallen431 @AllisonBBz @CocoHairAK @Sgresell @Pirates_Bones )  mention similar use cases for other brick-and-mortar locations that house multiple independent small businesses but run clients through one payment spot for ease, like hair salons, arts collectives, or even just one person with a lot of side hustles who uses separate accounts for tax purposes. Constantly signing in and out of accounts is inconvenient, and even if individual members don't already have their own accounts upon joining the location, setting up one group account is a much bigger risk than allowing controlled access to one admin/front desk profile.

For different privacy concerns/work settings, there seem to me to be a few options that dovetail with settings already in the app.  An employee role for holding open multiple accounts on a POS with no access to back-end payment or account changing info could be created for front-desk salon-style situations, and another that passcode-locks between accounts without a full sign-out process for artist collectives and others that use one device between multiple partners but don't want to allow unfettered access. Honestly, just having an account memory feature would be a step - typing in the password and potentially a TFA code is annoying, but having to type a full email if the autofill fails (which it often does) is what can really get me irritated.

I hope this is a helpful suggestion! It seems others have made it before, and there may be issues I'm not seeing, like added memory usage from keeping multiple accounts loaded. It seems like it would be worth it, though, for the number of users that would likely benefit from a hotswitching mechanic - I, for one, would certainly appreciate no longer having to eat the higher fees of manual credit card entry from keeping one account open on the desktop, just to keep wait times down.

[LagunaLuxe]

I have Two Square accounts - one for my gift store and one for my beauty room.  It would be great to switch between the two dashboard accounts open at the same time on my computer.  Currently I have to sign out each time I need to access a different account.  It's very time consuming!!!  Am I doing something wrong?  Can anyone suggest a way to get around this, other than buying another computer?? - Thanks Chantal

[Arie]

Hi @LagunaLuxe,

Thanks for writing in, and welcome to the Seller Community, we love seeing new faces here!

Your web browser will only allow you to be signed in to one Square account at a time. A workaround would be to use two separate browser, e.g Google Chrome, and Safari, for example. I hope this helps, let us know if you have any other questions 🙂

[mikesclub]

This is a FEATURE REQUEST

I own two companies, and use Square for both. When I’m using Square Dashboard, and want to switch from one account to the other, I have to sign out of one account and then sign in to the other. This is inconvenient. 

On my bank website, and on my Google website, I can be logged in to multiple accounts, and then just switch back and forth. This is very, very helpful. 

Please add this feature to the Square Dashboard website. I’m sure there are many Square users who have multiple accounts. 

[VanKalkerFarms]

My best recommendation is to open the Square website in multiple browsers.  have one business open in Safari and the other open in chrome.

[RobynR]

Hey @mikesclub,

You can set up multiple businesses under one account using Multiple Locations.

You can create unique business profiles for each location with specific business hours and individual bank accounts or tags to differentiate transfers. Location-specific reporting also gives you more granular insight into each location’s performance.

When you sign up, your account will automatically generate your first location.

To create additional locations:

Visit Account & Settings > Business information > Locations in your online Square Dashboard.
Click Create Location > add details > Save.

Learn more about Multiple Location Management.

Let me know if this helps!

[Donnie-M]

@mikesclub The other way to do what van said is to use an incognito browser (ctrl-shift-n) in chrome and it will sandbox the sessions and you can have multiple open.  The switching will be much much faster using 2 different browsers or incognito screens (if you split the tab off you can alt-tab quickly through the programs/screens) than any type of implementation square could do that would require you to select location and it load that location.

[mikesclub]

Ok, I've started setting this up according to your instructions, but I have a few concerns.

I already have a Square account set up for the second company, and I've already linked the new account to a bank account for that company.

Now, as I go through the steps of setting up a new "location" as you instructed, it's asking me to link the bank account. 

Is this going to create any problem, since the bank account is already linked? Is there going to be any conflict?

Just for additional information:

My original company is "Mike’s Club LLC". That company has a Square account, and is linked to a bank account.

The new company is "Mike’s Club Foods Inc". It has a separate (but fully operational) Square account, and is linked to its own bank account.

All I want to do is be able to switch back and forth between the two companies in Square Dashboard, without having to log out and log in each time.

[Donnie-M]

@mikesclub On the bank accounts, no it did the same thing for us and just shows the same last 4 account number for each location.  I think you only really get 1 deposit each day for the locations on deposits so you have to track that yourself.  But we have a master company and branded locations and just use our company name DBA order up cafe...and have no problems.

[RobynR]

@mikesclub @Donnie-M

You can link the same or different bank accounts to each of your locations. Having a separate account tied to your bank account will not affect your having another location linked to that same bank account.

You can link multiple external bank accounts to your Square account, so you can easily switch between bank accounts when sending your transfers across your business locations. This information and steps can be found in the article I linked in my last reply.

 Please let me know if you have any further questions. 

[JJ_]

Hi @positivetouch, that’s an excellent feature request. We appreciate you sharing your business use case and why it would be valuable for you. If you know of any fellow Seller Community members who would like to see this built out as well, feel free to tag them in your post so they can share their thoughts as well! The more sellers chime in to the request, the more likely it is to catch our product team's eye.