ACH Payment Option for Subscriptions

[RIGERO]

Hi, I do not see an ACH payment option when creating a subscription on my Square Dashboard. I just spent over an hour on the phone with customer support for to see if we can offer an ACH payment option for subscription payments.  I spoke to support for both dashboard and online platforms, and both said that there is no ACH option for subscription payments. This contradicts the response I saw on a thread from May 2023. Can someone please confirm whether it is available or not?

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

@RIGERO One of the payment options for subscriptions “send an invoice.” Square Invoices allow for ACH payments. So ACH is available but only if you invoice the customer for the subscription. 

[RIGERO]

Hi Chip,

Thanks for the response and solution. Very appreciated! I gave it a test run, but this approach has an issue. When you create a subscription and select "send an invoice by email" and then press Save, it automatically and immediately sends an invoice to the customer that provides an option for paying with a credit card or debit card, and not an option for ACH. I can then go into the invoice that has already been created and sent to the customer, change the payment method, and then resend it.  This means a new customer receives the initial invoice and then the 2nd invoice.  That is not a good experience for the customer.  I am working on setting up new invoice templates and or setting up a new "location" with those templates to see if I can solve this issue.  We ask our customers to let us know which payment method they prefer, Card or ACH, and that affects how we will set up the Subscription.  Therefore, I need the invoice to send with only the specific payment method our customers has told us they want. If you have any further suggestions, please let me know.  

[TheRealChipA]

@RIGERO That’s an easy fix.  You just have to change the invoice template(s) to automatically include ACH payments as an option.

From your online dashboard, go to Payments > Invoices > Settings.  Under the button “create new template” you’ll see a list of templates you have, probably containing only the default “Square Invoice.”  Click on that, then click the Edit button in the bottom right corner.

Scroll down to the payment options section and enable ACH payments.  You can even enable gift cards if you have those, disable Cash App pay, turn on tipping, etc.  Save the template and all future invoices will be configured as you have defined!

[RIGERO]

Chip, Thanks again!  That invoice edit button is in a weird spot.  I did edit it and removed all options except for ACH.  Then, I created another test subscription. However, even when I selected email invoice and pressed send, it did not go through and asked me to choose a method of payment that did not include ACH.  I tried changing the invoice template to include credit/debit cards and ACH.  Then, I created a new subscription (to myself), and it went through.  I opened the email with the new test subscription, and it provided a link to update my payment method. However, the link only allowed adding a Credit / Debit.  So, I am still faced with the same issue.  I'm not sure if there is another way to approach this.  The original problem that led to this is we wanted to give all of our customers the option to use ACH for any transaction.  It would be nice if we could have an auto discount when a customer selects ACH or an additional fee is added when a Credit Card is selected (not sure if that is permissible).  Even if this kind of functionality is possible, it seems like Square won't allow us to provide ACH as an option when creating a subscription.  Thus, a credit card option is still sent initially before we have a chance to update the invoice on the dashboard. 

[TheRealChipA]

@RIGEROOk.  So, the problem here is that you are trying to do things that Square currently doesn’t offer.  For example, the only type of payment method on file allowed is credit/debit card.  ACH payments can not be stored for later use except in one specific scenario — Square Bill Pay, for now.

As for auto discounts for ACH, that falls into the realm of a feature request.  But there’s no short-term solution for that.

As for adding fees if card payments are selected, Square does not currently allow this, per an announcement made last year.  There seems to have been a crack-down my Visa/MC, etc, on card surcharging and as of the last thing I heard Square is reworking surcharging to give it guardrails that are required by the card issuers.  For example, they don’t allow surcharges on debit cards or pre-paid cards.  Anyway, for now, you can not do this.

I guess the best summary here is that you are trying to be too creative, I think.  Simplify things.  Here are a few suggestions:

1. Just add in card fees to your cost of goods calculations.  Yes, everyone pays them now (including cash/ACH customers).  I’ve been doing this for over 10 years and never heard a peep.  Most people know that card fees are one of our costs and that they are going to pay them somehow.
2. Expanding on #1, your objection might be that cash customers now pay the fees.  That’s really no different than online customers paying part of your rent, which is built into your costs.  Sure, it might be most fair for only local walk-in customers to pay a higher fee to cover your rent, but it’s just too complicated.  Make your prices your prices and if you want to give walk-in customers or cash customers a discount, do that.  The point is don’t over-think things here.
3. You might want to submit a feature request on the Ideate Board to ask for saving ACH On File information for recurring invoices. However, bear in mind that feature requests are a long-term process.

Unfortunately, I think you might be stuck here.  You correctly determined that you can’t ONLY have ACH as a payment method — that you must have ACH and card, for some reason.  But, for now, your customers will have to enter their ACH every time they pay an invoice.  They won’t be able to auto-pay with ACH.