Hi @Whitesquirrel1. I can answer most of your questions here, or at least clarify what is currently allowed and what is not, I think. But first, a little history.
Square Subscriptions, in its current form that I call V2, is an infant feature. It is definitely missing many features that are included in more mature subscription apps. I know that there are plans to continue to evolve this feature to add new features but I can not guess at what that product roadmap looks like. What is available now is heads-and-tails better than V1, but it is still needing a lot to be useful for a lot of Square sellers. Now…
Currently, subscription plans are designed to allow customers to sign up and then start billing them on a date the customer chooses. While it looks like there might be future capabilty (in the “Add frequency option” you mentioned) to override the customer start date to a different date, that capability does not yet exist. The starting billing date is, for now, exactly what the customer specifies. Square Subscriptions is currently not designed to work on a schedule like yours. It was designed to be more flexible than you seem to need or want.
Also, since you mentioned shipment OR pickup, I’ll give you another gotcha. Currently the ONLY fulfillment method is shipping — period. Again, I know there are plans to add more, including pickup, because I’ve requested that one and I know other folks have. But it is not available at the moment.
If you need a full-featured Subscription app immediately, I’d recommend heading over to the Square App Marketplace and looking for one that integrates with Square. PayWhirl is there, so is Submatic which is the one I think I will be using since I require the pickup fulfillment option as well as other features Square Subscriptions does not yet have.
I’m sorry to be the wet rag here and give you less-than-desirable news. But it’s better to know what is what and then figure out where to go from there, IMO. I’m looking forward to Square Subscriptions continuing to evolve, but if you need something right now that will do everything you want, don’t wait. Find another option that integrates with your Square account. That is the reason the App Marketplace to exists.
Hi @Whitesquirrel1. I can answer most of your questions here, or at least clarify what is currently allowed and what is not, I think. But first, a little history.
Square Subscriptions, in its current form that I call V2, is an infant feature. It is definitely missing many features that are included in more mature subscription apps. I know that there are plans to continue to evolve this feature to add new features but I can not guess at what that product roadmap looks like. What is available now is heads-and-tails better than V1, but it is still needing a lot to be useful for a lot of Square sellers. Now…
Currently, subscription plans are designed to allow customers to sign up and then start billing them on a date the customer chooses. While it looks like there might be future capabilty (in the “Add frequency option” you mentioned) to override the customer start date to a different date, that capability does not yet exist. The starting billing date is, for now, exactly what the customer specifies. Square Subscriptions is currently not designed to work on a schedule like yours. It was designed to be more flexible than you seem to need or want.
Also, since you mentioned shipment OR pickup, I’ll give you another gotcha. Currently the ONLY fulfillment method is shipping — period. Again, I know there are plans to add more, including pickup, because I’ve requested that one and I know other folks have. But it is not available at the moment.
If you need a full-featured Subscription app immediately, I’d recommend heading over to the Square App Marketplace and looking for one that integrates with Square. PayWhirl is there, so is Submatic which is the one I think I will be using since I require the pickup fulfillment option as well as other features Square Subscriptions does not yet have.
I’m sorry to be the wet rag here and give you less-than-desirable news. But it’s better to know what is what and then figure out where to go from there, IMO. I’m looking forward to Square Subscriptions continuing to evolve, but if you need something right now that will do everything you want, don’t wait. Find another option that integrates with your Square account. That is the reason the App Marketplace to exists.
@Whitesquirrel1 Here’s the link to PayWhirl’s Square integration. As you were told, they don’t use Square’s infrastructure to manage the subscriptions/plans but they do integrate with Square when it is time to accept payments and such. So you get the best of both worlds — a mature subscriptions platform and you can keep Square for all of the money handling.
I have integrated over the years with a half dozen or so third party apps. I found them all easy to set connect to Square. Just remember that it is the third-party developer who is entirely responsible for managing the integration and its functionality. Square only offers the APIs for third parties to access our Square accounts as needed.
I am looking at integrating with two this season. One called KioskBuddy to offer an optional kiosk ordering system during our busy ice cream weekends, and another called Submatic which is also a subscription app that offers pickup fulfillment, fulfillment tracking and even add-on discounts AFTER a subscription has been fulfilled — all features I need in a subscription system. Until Square gets those features with their product I’m happy with this as an alternative. Over the years I’ve used a few third party apps and always been satisfied. One of the was using Homebase to manage my scheduling and timesheet management before Square Teams/Shifts matured enough for me to switch to that instead. That’s the beauty of the marketplace — I can get the functionality I need when I need it. And, if/when Square adds that functionality into their ecosystem, I have the option of switching if I want. It’s a win-win in my book.
I’d recommend setting up trials for both PayWhirl and Submatic, and for any other subscription integrations that look good. Give them a test run to be sure they have what you want. Then deactivate the ones you don’t want and keep only the one that you do. Most good integrations have trial subscriptions and I’m always leery of those that don’t.
Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. We are here in the Seller Community to help each other!
And yes @Whitesquirrel1 I have a decent grasp on Square Subscriptions. A few other sellers and I made some suggestions to V1 because it just wasn’t good for many sellers at all. It turned out those suggestions were already being worked on and they were released with V2 which really was a major upgrade! With V2 Square has create a solid framework on which to build a useful, mature subscription feature in the future. I’m definitely going to keep a close eye on announcements, signing up for beta tests as they are announced, and in general bugging Square when I see features that I think are needed. I won’t use this as much as some sellers can and will. But I can see where even a business like mine (a soft serve frozen treat shop) can benefit from a subscription offering in addition to a loyalty program. Besides, I’ve been with Square for a decade now. I love seeing how it has evolved and changed from the very basic POS and card processor it used to be. You could say that I’m personally invested. I have quite a few of my business “eggs” in the Square basket and don’t mind putting a few more there. Ha.
