Customise receipts using the phone app to process payments - Is that possible, and how?

[John-au]

I only use the SQ phone app to process customers' credit card information; they have given me over the phone...

Once processed; I use the "email a receipt" function on the phone SQ app to email myself; as "proof" that the customer's card details have been successfully processed in my business...

Because most of my customers are small sales, paid for over the phone; the customers don't ask for receipts..

But this is where the problems / inconveniences and big time wasting starts...

Approx 1 in 20 actually do request a tax invoice / receipt.

I go to the copy I have emailed myself; forward that to my customer's email.

But before doing so, I have to:

1.  Type in "Tax Invoice" below my company name - already on that receipt

2.  Increase the point size of both the above, to 22 points.

3.  Copy Paste my ABN that appears elsewhere below, on the receipt; and paste under "Tax Invoice"

4.  Delete a block on the receipt that has smiley faces and asks the customer to rate their experience.

5.  Delete another block - that has a google map of my business location.   

6.  (Remember - I am wanting this thing to resemble a professional looking tax invoice)!  

7.  Then further below; in a section that has "Return Policy:" - delete those words; which are a permanent fixture on the SQ generated receipt - because after this; I have a customised message relevant to my business in situ; that starts with "Kindly Note:"

8.  Then the part that says "*Custom Amount" I change to read "Card Fee"

9.  Then I have to edit the total sale amount processed - to reflect the amount I quoted the customer over the phone; (void of the 2.2% Fee SQ charges).   

10.  Also have to increase the point size of the tiny dollar symbol.  $. 

11.  Then I have to edit the dollar value SQ has at the line I have changed to "Card Fee"; and increase the point size - so it doesn't look like it's fine print hiding...

12.  Then finally,  at the very bottom of the SQ receipt; I delete all the footers etc regarding the SQ logos and other SQ information.

13.  Then worse than all of the above - sometimes then, this particular group of tax invoice requesting customers will still reject the SQ hack I have done.  And quite rightly and reasonably request I send them a pdf style tax invoice as an attachment.   Which I do, using MS Word.

14.  But that is even more time consuming to build up;  because most of the information in these MS invoices has to be manually entered, by me..

So in 2025; it is reasonable to expect that all of the above could be custom templated  to SQ merchants' individual business needs...

[Laurie_]

Hi there @John-au!

Thanks so much for this incredibly detailed breakdown of your use case, it's super helpful!

Just to make sure I’ve understood correctly: your current workflow involves manually keying in a payment over the phone via the Square app, then choosing to email the digital receipt to your customer. From what you’ve described, it sounds like you're currently sending that receipt to yourself first, so you can manually edit it to customise certain fields (like the ones you mentioned), and then forwarding the updated version to your customer.

If that’s right, I can definitely see how that would become a pretty cumbersome process, especially if you're doing this often. That’s a lot of manual steps just to get a customised receipt out!

To answer your main question upfront: yes, Square digital receipts can be customised but only to a certain extent. Here’s a quick overview of what’s possible:

• Logo
• Brand colour (note: this only appears on digital receipts and invoices)
• Item information (also only on digital receipts and invoices)
• Business location
• Contact information
• Return policy
• Custom text such as announcements or special promotions

Anything beyond that would currently be considered a feature request.

Now, in terms of your current workflow, have you considered using Square Invoices instead?

I know you mentioned that not every customer requires these additional details, but in situations where they do, creating an invoice (even after the payment has already been taken) might be a much smoother workaround. 

You can create a Square Invoice and mark it as “paid” using the 'Other' payment method. This way, you’re still capturing the payment over the phone as normal without duplicating records, but also taking advantage of the invoice customisation features. You could even create a custom invoice template specifically for these kinds of requests, so you’re not starting from scratch each time. Just note that this feature requires an upgrade to the Square Invoices Plus plan.

Let me know your thoughts in the meantime, and for now, I'll be happy to pass on your feedback to our team.