Can I change how our business is referenced on customer banking app transactions?

[DigitalPrintEx]

The title of this thread has been edited from the original: How to Change "reference appear as" on banking app transactions.

Hi Community, How do we go about changing how our business is referenced on customer transactions? 

I completed a test transaction on myself and in my banking app it shows the business name, along with part of the suburb/address that I have registered my business on Square. 

I would prefer it only show the business name and nothing else. However, you cannot remove the business address details in Square account as they are mandatory fields.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Katie_SQ · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your question, @DigitalPrintEx!

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to edit the way your charges appear on your customer’s bank statements.

We aren’t able control what specific information is sometimes pushed by different banks on statements and in notifications in-app, and the information that appears can vary from bank to bank.

The transaction should show on your customer's bank statement as *SQ Your Business Name, Location (this may be abbreviated depending on bank statement character limits). Your customer would need to look at the line item in the statement, rather than an app notification to see this.

Sorry I couldn’t be of more help here! Feel free to reach back out if you have any additional questions.


PS - Welcome to the Square Community. ✨

[DigitalPrintEx]

Thank you for the response, that is clear and understood some of this would be out of our control. No problems though, and thank you for your time to respond. 

[Michael_L]

Hi @Katie_SQ,

Can I ask you for a bit more detail to your answer please?

First, is this thread still valid:
https://community.squareup.com/t5/Archived-Discussions-Read-Only/How-can-I-change-how-the-business-n...

It references a "Business type" and I can't seem to find a way to set that in my user settings.

Second, bank statements are coming through to our customers saying "Square Inc." rather than "SQ* SUB Photo" as you suggested, which led to 2 recent disputes, so I'm trying to find which field might not be filled out properly.  I have some guesses:

• There is a "Display Business Name" in My business > About
• The "Branding" under My business > About > Branding
• The "Locations" under My business > Locations
• The developer dashboard somewhere?

If the location name could be the one reflected after the SQ* part that would be ideal, if that is not the case how would I submit that request to your development team?

[Katie_SQ]

Hi @Michael_L,

Thank you for your questions. I'd be happy to provide some clarification on this.

Regarding the archived thread you mentioned:
The thread you referenced is still generally valid in terms of the basic information about how Square transactions appear on statements.

The field that affects how your business appears on customer bank statements is your Location business name. This is what Square sends to banks and card issuers, and it should appear as "SQ * [Location Business Name]" on your customer's bank statements. The Business type is the type of business you select when signing up for Square. For example, a business classified as a bakery, with the business name Sweet Dozen, may appear as “SQ* SWEET DOZEN BAKERY.” So if you have a Location business name set up, this is what should be displaying on your customer's bank statements. 

To update your location business name:
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard
- Go to Settings > Account & Settings > My business > Locations
- Click on your location and select "Edit location"
- Update the "Location business name" field
- Click Save

Why different banks show different information:
While Square sends "SQ * [location business name]" to banks, it's ultimately up to each receiving bank how they display this information to customers. Some may truncate it, modify it, or display it differently than others.

Additionally, digital wallet payments (like Apple Pay and Google Pay) follow different rules and may show geolocation information instead of your business name - which is something we can't change on our side. 

Additional options available using the Payments API:
If you're using the Payments API, there may be additional options available to customise how transactions appear. We aren't able to provide support for API-related enquiries here on the Square Community, so I'd recommend visiting the Square Developer Forum where our developers can provide more specific guidance.

I hope this helps clarify the situation. If you have any other questions, please let me know!