Square Info for Bookkeeping

[Electrician]

I use Square invoices, my customers pay a deposit and then after the job is done they pay the remainder. so for each job I do I have to make two entries into my bookkeeping software, which I use Wave. 

Since Square takes the fee out before it deposits the money into our business checking account, I have to enter each transaction by splitting it. I have to enter the amount I charge the customer, the fee that square took, and then the deposited amount.  I will have to enter those three amounts along with the invoice number into my bookkeeping software. 

Typically I will find the information through the transaction menu in the Square Invoices app on my iPhone. 

I find it odd that the Square website makes it very hard to see all of this information. You have to dig around to find it for each transaction and sometimes it’s hard to figure out because it will show two unmarked transactions for a single invoice and you’re not sure which one the fee goes along with. 

I’m wondering if there is another way to do this, a way where the information I need (the three transaction amounts) is laid out in a better way. if I had a real bookkeeper doing this, would they really spend all this time clicking through multiple windows for each transaction and trying to figure out which fee is associated with which deposit?

[MayaP]

Hey @Electrician Thanks for reaching out! I am sorry you are having to do extra work. 

Is there a reason you aren't using the deposits on Invoices? Instead of creating two invoices for each job. 

[Electrician]

That’s what I do, I only use one Square invoice. I have a deposit set which they pay, then they pay the remainder later on when the job is finished. 

That equals two transactions (two different times that Square deposits money in my bank account) and each deposit needs to be entered into my bookkeeping software.

[MayaP]

Thanks for clarifying @Electrician. I know in our Sales report, it shows as one line item. I am not sure how to go about doing that if you are using a third-party integration. I will tag some super sellers who can share their insights: @SammyGrace2414 @wajiha @alexandriak @sugarlab @timberhillwine @keicollective. 

[Electrician]

I don’t use any third-party integration. I simply have to enter the transactions into my bookkeeping software. I do that manually.

What I’m asking for is where am I supposed to find all of those transactions in Square?

I’m sure Square has a lot of customers, and just about all of them have to account for all of their transactions. So you would think this information would be easily available, no?

[MayaP]

If you are using our system to send invoices but entering the transactions into a separate software, those entries will not appear in Square.

Based on your first post, if you are looking for the amount you charged, the fee that was deducted, and what was ultimately deposited, this information is available in our reports. You mentioned you are already using the Transactions report, which shows the amount charged and the fees taken out. From there, you can determine what was deposited.

The Balance report will show you exactly what was deposited into your bank account, and you can export that report for your records. While you will need to reference a couple of different reports, this is the most straightforward way to get the full picture. At this time, there is not a simpler method within Square to consolidate this information.

I am sorry I wish there was better way, but nothing right now @Electrician  🙁

[Electrician]

This is my entire point, why does someone have to reference multiple reports just to do basic bookkeeping? 

Using your method, think about how much work you have to do to connect the information on the transaction report (the amount charged and the fees taken out) to the other required info on the balance report (the leftover amount that was deposited into the bank account). 

I don’t get it, it makes no sense that this information can’t be pulled up so a bookkeeper can do his or her job. 

[sugarlab]

I'm definitely not the best person to ask. I really only use my quickbooks for keeping track of transactions. And then I use excel for my real numbers. It's annoying but I've made it work for me. HAHA. Mainly since we get wedding payments sometimes months before the actual wedding and I haven't figured out how to indicate those payments in the month they actual are used. 

[Electrician]

I don’t use QuickBooks

[MayaP]

No worries, thank you anyway @sugarlab!

[alexandriak]

So I just have my book keeping software pull all transactions from my bank statements. 

I use a third party software integration to record inventory and determine my consignor payouts. 



Can you share more about why you're entering each transaction manually vs just pulling the information from your deposits? Also since the card fees aren't included I just simply don't have a credit card fee deduction on my P&L. my accountants have never issued any complaint about this. 

[Electrician]

In order to keep accurate books, you have to account for the total amount you charged customers, matching the invoices.  

If I do a job for a customer for $1000, my job income must match that in my books. then the $30 (approx) fee taken out by square must be accounted for in the “Credit card fee” expense account. and then finally, the $970 amount that goes into my business checking account needs to be accurate as well.  I can’t just report $970, I have to report all three of those numbers. 

I suggest you talk to your accountant about this. if you’re not accounting for those fees that square is taking out, then you are reporting 3% less revenue than you are actually making. While it’s not changing the amount of tax money you pay, it’s still inaccurate reporting to the IRS.  

If you do $200,000 per year in business, and square takes $6000 out of it for fees, then you receive $194,000, you need to still tell the IRS that you took in $200,000. The fees that square take out are the same as any other business expense. You must report the total gross revenue you took in and then list each expense. 

like I mentioned, this is not tax evasion since it doesn’t change the amount of money you pay in taxes, but it’s still very much against the IRS rules and you could be fined for it and it could start off a more intense audit. And you should also have more accurate numbers for yourself so you know exactly how your business is doing.

just because Square takes the fee out before they transfer the money to you, it doesn’t change anything.  That fee still needs to be documented and handled like any other business expense. 

[MayaP]

Hey @Electrician I understand where you're coming from, but at this point, it may be best to speak with a tax preparer or accountant. They can help determine the best way to use the available Square reports to file accurately. We don’t have any additional reporting options or workarounds to offer at this time. Feel free to submit your suggestions on our Ideate Board as well. 

[Electrician]

Why would you mark your own reply as the best answer? You haven’t given an answer at all. It’s clear that all you care about is raising your stats, that’s why your signature says to mark your post as the best answer. I think it’s really unfair when you abuse your power to mark your own posts as the best answer when you haven’t provided an answer.
I’ve already spoken to my accountant. This is not about filing, this is about bookkeeping. And he says that the information needed should be found without going through multiple different types of reports to obtain it.

Now how do I escalate this to someone who could fix this issue with your fraudulently marking your own posts as the best answer?

[MayaP]

I understand the frustration here @Electrician. I marked my reply as the Best Answer because it reflects the only option currently available. The Super Sellers suggestions above also didn't address your question. I will tag one more seller, @Candlestore, to see if they can share any additional insight.

I also want to make it clear for anyone else who comes across this thread that, at this time, there are no additional reporting options available for what you are looking for. Please submit a feature request on our Ideate board. Thank you! 

[Candlestore · Accepted solution]

@MayaP  and @Electrician :

I download my Transacation CSV files and import them into my Accounting Software as a Sales Receipt in Quickbooks, and as a Sales Order into Odoo accounting.  You should be able to Import a csv file into something similar in Waze Accounting.

Here is a Youtube video Showing this for Square Setting Up for Importing Square Sales. 

How to import Paypal and Square Sales to Waze :  Square and Paypal to Waze 

My accounting software systems are more complex as I keep track of actual Items being sold so My accounting software can track BOMS ( Build Of Materials) and Build Assemblies to reduce the inventory of what I need to make a Candle ( 1 Jar, 1 Lid, Amount of scent, LBS of Wax etc). So in my accounting I have Sales Order and a Sales Receipt which look like:

Now where I get this data to import as a CSV file is from Transactions > Export >  Details and Items.

I merge these two CSV files to get the Items have the line items and Quantities of each item sold and the details has the Totals for each Transacation for Taxes, Fees, Discounts etc.  You could also just enter these totals as Daily Sales and merge by date to sum these totals up to import to Waze.

Here is how I did mine using the 2 csv files and Power Query its about a 20 min video because I was explaining things too.  Normally it takes about 10 minutes to do this and the longest part is downloading the 2 csv's from Square.  Power Query merging and manipulating the two files takes under 1 minute once its setup.  

20 min video   This shows how I did my import to QuickBooks to basically get a Sales Receipt Like above.

[MayaP]

You're amazing! 

I went and changed the best answer to your reply 👏

@Electrician