Square "Gift Card Load Fees" and the "Sales Summary" report

[cbrew]

Earlier this year Square started charging a "Gift Card Load" fee when gift cards are loaded.

These fees show up when looking at the details of a "Transfer," however they do not seem to show up in the "Sales Summary" report.  I use the daily "Sales Summary" report to reconcile transactions with my accounting software.  Because the "Gift Card Load" fees aren't present, I have to wait until a bank transfer happens and look there for the amounts.  Obviously this is very tedious.  Is there a way to get this data in the "Sales Summary" report?

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

Hey there @cbrew.  This is currently not available on the Sales Summary report.  However, you can find it by going to your Balance page in your online dashboard, clicking on your location.  Then scroll down to the “Balance Overview” section for the date in question.  There you will see a line “Payment Processing” that you can expand and if there are any GC load fees for the day, they will be listed there.

FYI, I know for a fact that this visibility has been requested on a future version of the Sales Summary report, because I requested it as part of a beta test I’m participating in.  But, currently, the method above is the only way to see that number on a daily basis.

[cbrew]

Thank you!

> ...because I requested it as part of a beta test I’m participating in

Is there a way I can enroll in this as well?

With my current process, I have some software that parses the daily "Sales Summary" CSV.  It's helpful that I don't have to wait until a bank transfer happens, but it's still very inconvenient to have to look up this value in the pending payments section.

I'll be crossing my fingers that this feature makes it into a release soon!!

[TheRealChipA]

@cbrew The feature does not exist in the beta, either.  It’s very early in that process and there is no guarantee that it will be included, even when released.  So, being part of the beta test would not really help you at all, in this case.

But, here’s a link to the test.  

[BofBArtStudio]

@TheRealChipA 

Just to clarify, following your steps above I could not see gift card load fees. It requires exporting the transactions from the balance activity page in order to actually see the gift card load fees.

It appears that the only way to actually see the gift card load fee is by the following steps...

• Go to your dashboard 
• Click Balance in the menu 
• Choose the location and click on it 
• Scroll down to choose view all transfers 
• Then select the location from the dropdown (It won't show you any transfer information if you have multiple locations chosen so make sure you only choose one location) 
• Choose the date that you're interested in 
• If you click on a transfer record the pop-up will come up to show you any instant transfer fees but will not have the individual gift card load fees
• Instead x out of that pop out and click the Export button on the activity page for that date and location 
• Open the export in a spreadsheet 
• You'll see your gift card load fees there for each transaction 

@Katie_SQ 

[TheRealChipA]

@BofBArtStudio So, if you open your Balance Page, select a location, and go to a date you know you sold a GC, the click on “Payment Processing” to expand it, you don’t see the GC load fees for the day as shown in my screen shot below?  If not, that sounds like an issue with your account.  It definitely should be there.

[BofBArtStudio]

I cannot seem to find a balance overview. 

Here's what I'm doing.. 

In the dashboard I go to the menu and click on balance And then this comes up 

 

 then I have to choose a location because it won't show any transfers if I have all locations selected 

 then I click on the transfer 

 and then if I click View Details

I tried it on both my computer desktop dashboard and my phone dashboard. Both using Chrome. 

 what am I missing?

Here it is on my computer dashboard in Chrome 

I go to the menu and click on balance 

 

Then I click on View All Transfers

 

Then I choose a location because it won't show me anything if all locations are selected 

 

Then I click on the transfer record 

 And this pop up comes up 

View details only shows me the transfer record to the bank

[TheRealChipA]

Hmmmm… I’m attaching a screen recording of how I got to this.  I can’t figure out why this won’t work for you.

[BofBArtStudio]

Here's what I have in a video that shows it all. Why is my screen so different than your screen? How can I get mine to be upgraded? Every month when I do accounting I have to run an export into a CSV file that I open in a spreadsheet so that I can see all the fees and it's been that way for years. This screen has not changed for me for many years. 

Is it possible that you're part of a beta testing that has a new screen that I don't have?

@Katie_SQ do you know who can help with figuring out why my screen is so different?

[TheRealChipA]

@BofBArtStudio I think I know your issue here.  There’s a little weirdness on the Square Dashboard if you hit the “Go to Balance” button and you have sales for the day already.  Instead of hitting that blue button, go to your dashboard Navigation menu and choose “Balance” from there.  Then, you should see what I see.

[BofBArtStudio]

That's what I did.  Dashboard Navigation menu choose Balance. As shown in the beginning of my video. 

Frustrating that I am not getting the same result.

I will try at midnight when I have no sales yet for the new day.

[TheRealChipA]

Ok.  Sorry.  I missed that you had done that part.  Duh.  One suggestion.  Instead of clicking “view all transfers” have you tried scrolling to the bottom of that location screen?  I’m wondering if since you are a multi-location account, if the “balance overview” might be located further down the screen?  It’s worth a try!

[BofBArtStudio]

Scrolling down on that first screen after I hit balance from the dashboard navigation menu, there is just another box that says square savings and a link to "set up savings", and then there's another box with loans and their balances for the square capital loans, and then there's another box below that that says Bitcoin and I can convert some of my daily sales into Bitcoin.  There is no other links or buttons regarding the balance or balance transfers.

Maybe this will be one of those examples of when I actually call square support to look at it together and find out why.

[TheRealChipA]

@BofBArtStudio  Let’s take this offline.  I sent you a private message.

[BofBArtStudio]

I would think that it would be in the transaction export, which is what we use to do our accounting.

There is a fees column in that export. 

However I just did an export and it doesn't look like from what I can tell that the fees for gift card loads are accounted for in that export.

I was looking at it on my phone in Google Sheets, so maybe I missed it.

Otherwise, hopefully that is something that is going to be updated very soon.

[TheRealChipA]

@BofBArtStudio Unless I missed a memo in the past few months, the only place that shows GC Load fees is the balance overview report I mentioned above.  I know that many sellers have brought this up (along with other “hidden” data that needs to be made more accessible), but so far it is what it is.  

FYI, I checked the last two gift card sales I did (both online so the processing fee is 2.9%+$0.30) and the Fees listed in that CSV’s fees column are ONLY the processing fees.  The GC Load Fee is not shown anywhere in that CSV.

[BofBArtStudio]

@TheRealChipA 

Thanks for clarifying that. Darn. 

I probably need to make sure that I'm getting that entered into my accounting properly.

Perhaps many of us might want to be double checking our accounting entries.

[TheRealChipA]

@BofBArtStudio This is why I no longer do my accounting entries manually.  Last year, I subscribed to the third-party app Bookkeep which makes all of my daily accounting entries for me.  I just have to check the clearing accounts each morning to be sure they are at zero, which tells me that all monies were accounted for.  It is not a free subscription.  Currently it costs me $60 per month, but after the first of the year they are modifying their pricing structure to allow those of us who do basic stuff to pay less.  But, even at $60 per month, it is well worth eliminating the morning manual work and hassle of tracking down when things don’t balance.  I’d continue to pay $60 per month, gladly, but I’ll take a discount!

[BofBArtStudio]

I will have to check into that. That sounds really good. 

I tried to do the QuickBooks integration with Square long ago and it messed everything up so I've been a little gunshy on having any kind of accounting integration. But I will definitely check on that.

[TheRealChipA]

@BofBArtStudio If you want to Zoom with me sometime after the holidays and see how it works, I’d be more than happy to give you an overview and answer questions.  I don’t use QuickBooks (because I hate Intuit and consider it one of the great tech evils on the planet! LOL) but the principles are the same even though I use different accounting software.  Anyway, if we Zoom I can also fill you in on the few manual pieces that will still remain — at least until Square adds more visibility via APIs to things like savings folders.  Honestly, in this case, Square is the only reason why Bookkeep isn’t able to do a perfect job — sad but true.

Take me up on the offer.  I can get you a free month to try it out, too — better than their standard 14-day trial.

[BofBArtStudio]

@TheRealChipA 

I will definitely take you up on that offer. After the holidays of course. I'll put a reminder in my calendar to reach out to you and set something up.

I love seeing ways to be more efficient and utilize technology and tools, so I am kind of a geek that way. 🦋