Square Handheld turn Open Checks into an Invoice

[chilloutseaside]

Hello, 

I'm new to Square Handheld. I've used Square IOS for 3 years. Today I had a large event and wanted to ring people up using my established menu in real time. This created an "Open Check". The event coordinator asked for an invoice. How do you invoice for an Open Check?

The only way I can seem to find is to "pay" the Open Check using "Other Payment Types" and manually entering Invoice. Then Printing a receipt to attach to a new invoice with just the total not an itemized list? Is there any easier way? I can seem to view my Open Checks from my dashboard or my IOS. Only the handheld is able to view the check. When they pay the invoice will this double my income for the day because it looks like I closed a check and sent an invoice? Help! 

[rtfulk · Accepted solution]

@chilloutseaside  Welcome to the community. I did some researching and this is what I found out. Hope this helps.

Square doesn’t currently allow turning open checks into invoices directly on the Square Handheld (such as the Square Terminal or Restaurant Mobile POS), but here’s what you can do, including a couple of solid workarounds:

 What You Can’t Do (as of now)

• You cannot convert an open check (i.e., open ticket or table order) into an invoice directly from the Square Handheld app.
• The Square Restaurant mobile POS is optimized for quick service or table-side payments, not full back-office tasks like invoicing.

 What You Can Do

1. Close the check at the handheld → then invoice it from Square Dashboard

• Complete the sale at the handheld.
• Go to your Square Dashboard (on a browser or full POS), find the transaction under Transactions, and then:
  
• Click Send Receipt or
• Duplicate as Invoice (copy the details into a new invoice manually).

2. Start a check on the handheld → recreate it as an invoice manually

• If you’re not collecting payment immediately, open a check as usual.
• On your desktop or tablet later, open the Square Dashboard:
  
• Go to Invoices → Create Invoice
• Add the same items from the check.
• Send it via email/text for payment.

Workaround (If You Frequently Need This)

If this is something you or your team do often (e.g., taking orders at a fair and sending an invoice later):

• Use Square Invoices app (or Square POS with Invoice access) on a separate iPad or mobile device to send invoices directly, rather than opening a check.
• Consider training team members to create invoices directly at time of order when appropriate.

[chilloutseaside]

Thank you so much for this thoughtful and detailed response. I really appreciate your expertise.

I like the idea of workaround one. (Close the check at the handheld → then invoice it from Square Dashboard) the open check shows date and time of transaction, which I feel shows transparency. That those items were not just added by me to inflate sales for example. 

However if I close the check and then send an invoice, will my income in Square be inflated to show two payments that size? Not good for tax reporting. 

[rtfulk]

@chilloutseaside If you close a check with a payment and then also send an invoice for that same transaction (and it gets paid), your income will be duplicated in Square’s reporting unless you void or refund one of them.

This may solve your problem.

1. Close the check → Duplicate invoice for record only
2. If you already took payment, you can create an invoice as a record or to send a receipt — but mark it as paid manually or don’t send it at all

3. Don’t request payment again.

How to Use The Above Option Without Duplicating Sales

 Method: Mark the Invoice as “Paid Outside of Square”
1. In your Square Dashboard, go to Invoices > Create Invoice

2. Recreate the check details (items, notes, etc.)

3. Under Payment Method, select:

    “Mark as paid” → then choose “Cash”, “Other”, or “Outside of Square”

4. This logs the invoice without triggering a new payment

5. You can then send it as a record/receipt without duplicating income

Result: Only the original POS payment is counted in your sales.