Can I create a custom form for customers to input data as part of the Square payment process?

[sportaviation1]

I conduct in-person training courses and take credit card payments using Square payment links and 2D barcodes. For each newly-scheduled course, I create a new Item and set a stock level to reflect the maximum number of students I'm allowed.

I maintain a separate email list of prospective students (which currently has more than 50 people on it). For previous courses, when I've scheduled a new course, I sent a bulk email to the people on the list and attached a PDF course registration form that included a good bit of text information about the course, fields for students to enter their contact information, and a Square payment link and 2D barcode for the course fee. The idea was that they entered their contact information on the form, emailed the completed form to me, and then used the Payment link or 2D barcode to pay the course fee.

That process worked fairly well for previous courses. However, I'm enjoying much increased demand for my courses (which I expect to continue) and that process has become cumbersome and confusing. For instance, the course I announced yesterday filled up (via Square payments) in about 10 minutes! As a result, I had to spend a good portion of the day reconciling those payments with the completed registration forms I received.

I want to streamline the registration process by eliminating the PDF registration form and including its information in what the student has to complete as part of the payment process; i.e., I want to develop a custom form containing the text information and fields to enter contact information that the customer must complete as part of making the payment. I also want to be able to easily retrieve the contents of each student's form (either one at a time or over a date range) for my own records. Is that possible within the Square app on my laptop? If so, please provide detailed instructions for how to set it up. Thanks very much! G. Michael Huffman

[Stacelyn24 · Accepted solution]

Hey there! 👋 First off, congrats on the booming demand — selling out in 10 minutes is a fantastic problem to have! 😄 Totally understand wanting to streamline things now that your courses are in high demand.

🎯 Here's What You're Trying to Do:

You’d like to:

• Collect student details at the same time as payment

• Replace your PDF form with an integrated form

• Easily export or view that student data later (per class or over time)

✅ What You Can Do (Right Now) in Square:

Unfortunately, Square's standard Payment Links and checkout flow don’t allow you to add custom data-collection fields by default, but here are some built-in or workaround options that can help:

---

🔹 Option 1: Use Square Appointments + Intake Form

If you could use Square Appointments (even without a physical location), you'd be able to attach custom intake or booking forms that students fill out before checkout. This works well for service-based bookings but may not suit a class with multiple attendees and fixed capacity.

---

🔹 Option 2: Use Square Online Store + Custom Item

Create a Square Online “Course Registration” item:

1. Go to Square Online > Items > Site Items

2. Add your course as a “Shippable” or “Event” product and set stock level

3. Enable the “Ask for customer information” setting (checkout > More Settings), so they’ll provide name, email, etc.

4. You can then manually collect additional info through an embedded Google Form link, displayed on the item page or confirmation email.

✅ This keeps payments + contact info together, while letting you export data from the linked form.

---

🔹 Option 3: Square + JotForm (or similar app integration)

Use Zapier or a direct integration (like JotForm or Wufoo) to:

• Create a custom registration form (name, email, etc.)

• Embed your Square payment link right into the form — Boom! One combined experience.

Once the student completes the form and pays, you’ll get:

• A form submission record (exportable)

• A Square payment confirmation (reconciled)

📤 You can even set this up to automatically email you or store in Google Sheets.

[sportaviation1]

Stacelyn24, thanks very much for your thoughtful suggestions!  I believe your Option 2 might be best to do what I want to do; I don't currently have an Online Store, but I researched them on the Square website. and found there are four different levels of capability available ranging from free to something like $78/month.  It seems that most of the features provided by the three more advanced levels relate to larger businesses than mine that sell physical products rather than events such as my training courses.  It seems that perhaps the free option might do what I need, but it is hard to tell from the general description; are there ways of finding out more details or should I just sign up for the free option and see if it allows me to do what I need?

Mike Huffman

[Stacelyn24]

Hey Mike! 😊 Thanks so much for your kind words — glad the suggestions were helpful!

You're right — many of the higher-tier Square Online plans are built for physical product sellers, so for offering training courses or events, the free plan could very well meet your needs. Plus, there’s no risk in trying it out — you can always upgrade later if you find you're missing a feature you need.

I’d recommend signing up for the free version and doing a quick test run. You’ll get a clearer idea of how it handles your course listings, bookings, and checkout flow. If you run into any roadblocks, you can always explore add-ons or ask here for help!

Let me know how it goes! 🙌