Automatic percentage of sales as charity donation

[HungryBuffalo1]

The title of this thread has been edited by a Square Moderator from the original: Giving to Charity

Is Square ever going to allow setting up automatically giving 10% to charity? Having customers give a set amount is fine for some, but we want to give a flat 10% of sales and according to Square representatives, that isn't possible. I know that threads like this have been circulating for years and Square doesn't seem to respond or care, but we would really like to be able to setup Square to automatically donate 10% of sales to a specific charity and to be able to have set days and times where that 10% goes to other charities. When will Square get with the times and actually make this happen? We switched from Toast to Square because we wanted to give Square a chance and we like some things with Square, but there are a growing number of things that we are finding that Square doesn't do and doesn't listen when suggestions are made. From a software standpoint, it's not that hard to setup the 10% donations as a feature, so I really hope they get their developers on this soon.

[Stacelyn24 · Accepted solution]

I totally get where you’re coming from—having an automated way to donate a set percentage of sales would be an amazing feature, and it’s surprising that Square hasn’t implemented it yet. Right now, the only built-in option is asking customers to round up or donate a set amount at checkout, but that doesn’t help when the business itself wants to contribute automatically.

While there’s no direct setting for this, here are a couple of potential workarounds:

1. Manually Allocating 10% in Reports

   • You can pull Sales Reports in Square and set up an automated calculation (using Excel/Google Sheets or a Zapier integration) to track 10% of total sales. While not automatic, it helps streamline the process.

2. Using a Tax or Service Charge Hack

   • Some businesses have used a custom "service charge" labeled as "Charitable Contribution", which applies 10% to each sale. However, this isn’t ideal since it appears as an extra charge to the customer rather than an internal donation.

3. Submitting a Feature Request

   • If you haven’t already, I’d recommend submitting this as a feature request here. The more businesses that ask for it, the more likely Square will prioritize it.

I really hope Square listens on this one—it’s a simple yet impactful feature that could help so many businesses contribute to causes they care about. If anyone finds another way to automate this, definitely share 🙂

[MayaP]

Wow, thank you again, @Stacelyn24, for these fantastic workarounds! Your insights are always valued here. 😊👏

[HungryBuffalo1]

Thank you Stacelyn, I appreciate these creative ideas and think I'll use the reports one for now. I agree that I hope Square listens and implements this feature. Hopefully enough of us request it for them to listen!

[MayaP]

Hey @HungryBuffalo1 - Thanks for reaching out! @Stacelyn24 provided some great suggestions above. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to reach out 😊

[RobynR]

Hey @HungryBuffalo1,

Thanks for joining the Community. 

This would be a great feature for businesses that want to automate charitable giving based on sales. At this time, Square doesn’t have a built-in option to automatically donate a percentage of sales to a charity.

While there are workarounds as mentioned by @Stacelyn24  Best Answer above, such as manually calculating and donating, I understand that’s not as seamless as having an automated system.

When you get a chance, please submit this as a feature request and encourage other sellers to vote on it.

[HungryBuffalo1]

I absolutely will submit it as a feature request and hopefully Square will listen!