What are the most important tools you use in square for your business and why?

[Eddiemunster]

As a new Champion, I've had the time to review what I'm using on the square platform, what works well for us and what we want to work on implementing.  I'm in Australia so things are a little different here.  I'd love to hear what you use, what you couldn't live without and why if you have the time.  We use:

• Square for Restaurants POS QSR,
• Square register,
• Square Online-for online ordering
• Square marketing for email marketing-though most of our customers haven't opted in for this. 
• Square Loyalty though I am reseting this up and going through the steps to promote it. 

I love the Square POS ecosystem and we've been using it since we started this business 8 years ago.  It can be a lot of work to set it up, but I love how over the years the items, modifiers etc have improved. 

Square online is good-but it's a little slow and doesn't get a good review from google etc.  I wish we could change a few things around with it.  We often get customers on their phones-the text is small- often ordering from the wrong location.

I really want Square SMS Marketing in Australia - anyone know someone who could flick the switch on in Australia!!!??? 

Loyalty is new to us so I'm working on building this at the moment.  

Reports are great but I find their not always that accurate-seems better the next day!

What do you love and what are you using?

[Minion]

I'm one of the handful that probably only use the basic Square features.  Invoice/estimates/Appointments are my main ones. That worked extremly well for me.  Because I only use a handful of the things from square, I think that this is why it bugs me when the small (but large) things aren't implemented like tax exempt customers, update to customer directory, better accuracy when searching, etc.

I tried Loyalty briefly, but currently it caused more work and headaches and since I can't integrate it into my website for purchases it's just not a good fit at the moment where a simple punch card does the trick just fine.  

This year I have been helping out a restaurant 5 days a week and 2 days for my own business only for another 4 weeks.  They use Restaurant, so it is actually really nice to see first hand how that works so I may be able to help a few people out down the road here at the community. 

[JTPets]

At this point for me its the APIs

[ascoach]

I have been with Square for quite some time now and the biggest benefit for my business was Invoices.  Being able to email the invoice directly to who needs to pay it helped our turnaround on payment.  Before we had to rely on coaches, teachers, employees, etc. to get a paper copy to the right person and we were always chasing down payments.  

Having the Square website has also been a great benefit.  We set up online links for different teams, programs, schools, etc and then parents are able to go in and order their gear and pay for it.  This has also helped us and coaches financially as it is now all on the parent to make the purchase instead of a coach/teacher rounding up order forms and payments.

I use Square Banking for everything now but cash.  I still have to keep a local bank account open, so I do have the ability to get cash.  Other than that, I do everything else through Square.

Square Payroll - this has been so easy to set up and use.  I like that it has an app that employees can use to clock in and out and then can also track what they are making through the pay period.  I also like that it takes care of all the payroll taxes.  All I have to do is run payroll.  I also use the work schedule so employees can see it through the app and are updated with any changes.

I did use Square Loyalty when it first came out, but I didn't stick with it.  I have been thinking about going back to it to try to set something up as I do have a lot of repeat customers.  If anyone has any advice on what works great for them, I would love any tips.

[Lovewell]

Loyalty is our absolute favorite! It gets a weird rap when I check out the discussions on it which always has me confused because we genuinely love it so much. 

[ehflower]

The reporting is lightning fast and can give quick snapshots or very in-depth information.  Also cannot live without the time tracking for staff.

[LukeNieuw]

I dabble in almost everything in the Square ecosystem. By far my favourite is Loyalty, it's allowed me to track transactions to specific customers in ways that would have never been possible before (in person) and customers love getting rewarded!  

But I feel you on the Square Marketing product side of things. It's a bit basic, not a good opt-in flow IMO, lacks port purchase or post opt-in automated campaigns and there's no tracking as to how many ppl who land on the opt-in page actually follow through. No SMS is the same for me in Canada. I'm thinking about using a 3rd party for my email marketing and SMS marketing (from the square marketplace of course) but not 100% sure I will pull trigger, adding another platform isn't ideal but might be necessary. 

Other than that I really like everything else, Invoices, POS, Restaurant POS for our Bar/Restaurant, I use Square Online for my entire website and that has gone great, I use Square Appointments for our Pro Services (Golf Lessons) and Square Online for event registrations/payments. I use Square Teams and the Team App for internal communications and scheduling. There's really nothing else out there that compares. from 2010 to 2019 I had switched POS systems like 4 or 5 times before I got to Square and I'm grateful I got there 🙂 

[ReturnFlow_HQ]

 

Hey @Eddiemunster,

Congrats on the Champion status! It's great to hear you've been with Square for 8 years — the ecosystem really does grow with you. We're in a similar boat with Restaurants POS + Register + Square Online. The improvements to items and modifiers over the years have been huge.

What we couldn't live without:

• Square for Restaurants POS — the speed and modifiers make service smooth during rushes.
• Square Online for online ordering (though like you said, the mobile experience can be clunky with small text and occasional location mix-ups).
• Loyalty — we're resetting ours up too. The points and rewards drive repeat visits once customers get used to it.
• Reports — super useful, even if the real-time accuracy sometimes lags until the next day.

On the marketing side, we feel your pain with Square Marketing — email opt-in rates are low for a lot of us, and the lack of SMS Marketing in Australia is a big gap (it's still US-only as far as I know). Many sellers in AU and Canada are in the same spot and end up looking at third-party options from the Square App Marketplace.

We've been using Return Flow HQ for our SMS needs. It's built specifically for Square users — one-click OAuth connect, then the AI runs personalized SMS marketing on full autopilot (unique messages per customer using order history, smart timing, etc.). No manual writing or fighting clunky schedulers. It handles compliance (opt-outs, TCPA-style rules) cleanly and has helped boost repeat visits without extra work.

Setup takes under 2 minutes, it's month-to-month, and the ROI dashboard shows real revenue lift. If you're tired of waiting for native SMS in Australia, it might be worth a look: https://returnflowhq.com/signup

Would love to hear how your Loyalty reset goes — any tips on promoting it that have worked well for you?

Cheers from the other side of the world!

[ReturnFlow_HQ]

Solid setup! We run multi-unit Square Restaurants too and feel your pain on SMS in Australia.

We couldn’t live without:

Square POS + Register (super reliable)
Square Loyalty (just resetting ours as well)
Square Online (though mobile ordering needs work)
Biggest missing piece for us was SMS marketing.  We use ReturnFlowHQ.

ReturnFlowHQ connects in one click to Square, then runs AI-powered SMS campaigns on full autopilot — personalized re-engagement, birthdays, lapsed customers, etc. It has a central dashboard for franchises but keeps messages sounding local. Strong early results with our Straws locations on repeat visits.

If you’re waiting for native SMS in Australia, definitely worth a look: https://www.returnflowhq.com/

Curious what others are using for SMS or loyalty boosts?