Be warned: Order Export is not accurate (refunded items still included and not noted in any way)

[250986]

Square's Order Export has lots of issues (takes a ton of manual manipulation to do even do the simplest things, like sort by last name, etc.) -- among them, an issue that's been ongoing for years: returned/cancelled items still appear in the export as legitimate, correct order(s)/item(s)...and there's no way to tell in the export that an item/order was actually returned/cancelled. 

Pretty basic, entry-level requirement: to be able to get an accurate export of orders...and yet, it's been years and Square still hasn't fixed this. Difficult to believe @Square has experience working with it's own software in the real world, ya know?

[Candlestore]

@250986 ;

Are you exporting Orders CSV files or are you exporting Transaction CSV files?   Orders are sales you made that need to be picked and shipped, Transactions are Payments, Refunds that have been processed through Square.   So try looking at the Transactions CSV files to see if they have what your looking for.

[250986]

Thanks for the suggestion, @Candlestore. Unfortunately, Transactions doesn't have all the order info.
Looking for all the order info...and for all of it to be accurate -- Square still (after all these years) doesn't provide a way of doing that.

[Candlestore]

@250986 ;

So you just saying Transactions Does not have all the Information is a blanket statement but not helping you locate what information your looking for.  Names of Customers by last name may not come because on a Sales Transaction the data is sometimes pulled from the Credit Card unless you manually add each customer to your orders / sales / Returns etc.  Alot of this is because of Banks no longer providing this information when a Credit Card is processed.  With Power Query you can split First Name and Last name from one cell to two cells in different new columns.  Alot of my credit cards may just say Discover card user if they used a Discover card for example. 

There are 3 Transaction CSV files for downloading, which is why when you say you download the Transactions file it does not contain all the needed information. Which Transactions csv file have you downloaded? 

1. Transactions
2. Items Detail
3. Items Summary

Between all three of them you can get all the Data.

I just Downloaded all 3 and I opened them all. In the one called Items - Column S has  Header Event Type which has either Payment or Refund for the Type in the cell.  As for sorting by Last Name, Square just has a Column Customer name which is First and Last Name combined, so yes sorting by Last name would be an issue. You could learn to Split the singular Column Customer Name into two Columns by watching the 2nd video below. Starting at about 7 min and 50 seconds will show you how to split a column by a Delimiter. Probably a Space in the Name column in the csv file.

I would give you a Screen shot of my Transactions CSV Items showing that the column (s) with Header Event type shows Payment for most sales with a few Showing Refund.  

For the Most part I download the Transactions and Items details csv files from the Transaction area in Square and can use Power Query to merge these 2 csv files to get all the data I need.  I use the Transactions ID columns to match the Tranactions.

Here is just the Headers of the 3 downloadable Transaction Files (Transactions CSV, Details CSV and Summary CSV file headers.  

Transactions CSV headers ( Over 50 Headers):

Date

Time

Time Zone

Gross Sales

Discounts

Service Charges

Net Sales

Gift Card Sales

Tax

Tip

Partial Refunds

Total Collected

Source

Card

Card Entry Methods

Cash

Square Gift Card

Other Tender

Other Tender Type

Tender Note

Fees

Net Total

Transaction ID

Payment ID

Card Brand

PAN Suffix

Device Name

Staff Name

Staff ID

Details

Description

Event Type

Location

Dining Option

Customer ID

Customer Name

Customer Reference ID

Device Nickname

Third Party Fees

Deposit ID

Deposit Date

Deposit Details

Fee Percentage Rate

Fee Fixed Rate

Refund Reason

Discount Name

Transaction Status

Cash App

Order Reference ID

Fulfillment Note

Free Processing Applied

Channel

Unattributed Tips

Items CSV Headers ( about 30 plus Headers):

Date

Time

Time Zone

Category

Item

Qty

Price Point Name

SKU

Modifiers Applied

Gross Sales

Discounts

Net Sales

Tax

Transaction ID

Payment ID

Device Name

Notes

Details

Event Type

Location

Dining Option

Customer ID

Customer Name

Customer Reference ID

Unit

Count

GTIN

Itemization Type

Commission

Employee

Fulfillment Note

Channel

Token

But if your only downloading the Summary csv you have ALOT less data.  Here is the Summary Headers (15 Headers) :

Item Name

Item Variation

SKU

Category

Items Sold

Gross Sales

Items Refunded

Refunds

Discounts & Comps

Net Sales

Tax

Unit

Units Sold

Units Refunded

GTIN

If you look only the Items CSV header row has both a SKU and a GTIN column, but all three have the type of Payment Refund Collumn in Summary and Event Type in the other 2.  

My point here is if you download the correct Transacation CSV files, the data is there. 

Now I use Power Query with Excel to clean up and order my Data for My needs.  So once the 2 csv files (Transactions and Items) are saved on my computer, I replace the previous ones with the new ones, Open Excels Workbook click Refresh All and then Power Query looks in the folder, grabs both of these csv files, Manipulates them as Power Query instructs and spits out a New CSV or Workbook showing the Data I need removing columns that I find unnecssary.  So by doing this the longest part is actually downloading the information from Square depending on your Internet connection.  All said and done this takes maybe 5 minutes for the Cleaned up csv file from Power Query.

 If you add each Customer by hand to each transaction you should be able to search the Sheet to match any text you type in, you just need the correct csv file not the Transactions Summary file as it has the least amount of information.  No Date, No Time, No Transaction ID, No Customer Customer Name, etc... 

Here is a Quick video of how Power Query can do this for you automatically Merginging CSV files.  

Merge CSV files 

Here is another video on how to use Power Query : Files from Folder 

Now if you download your Customers CSV file you should be able to add that to a Merge to get the First and Last Name of your Customers, using a customer Refrence or ID column to match these in Power query.  If YOU typed n the customer information at the time of Sale but not  be available if their information is coming from another source.  From the credit card for example.  So you are correct there is not One csv file to get this information from but if you use Power Query or maybe even some AI powered tools you could get the answer your looking for after merging a few of these csv files together.

[250986]

Wow. And instead of doing all that (and also hoping no human mistakes happen along the way), wouldn't it be great if Square would just fix Order Export to delivere reliable, true data? 

Not having to do a ton of manual manipulation along with cross-referencing and combining between multiple exports seems an extremely reasonable ask...which Square customers have been making for years already.

If @Square doesn't know which issues to fix first in Order Export, we'd reference our original post and suggest fixing how cancelled orders show no indication of having been cancelled and how returned/cancelled item quantities are not reflected in Order Export either. 

Like you, we've figured out manual ways of making up for Square's shortcomings in this an other areas, too -- that's a testament to both of us as real-world business owners, but it doesn't mean we don't expect more (especially something as basic as an accurate Order export) from Square.

[Candlestore]

@250986 ;

Which Order.csv File are you downloading?

Do you have Filters Applied?

On my Orders Page it shows All Orders

under that I have 

AllActiveScheduledCompletedCanceled

When I select ALL (not Completed) then Export I can see Cancelled orders and see that in the column 

Fulfillment Status..... when I have a Cancelled order It states Cancelled.  See the Below image of my Export of Orders ALL   I sorted the Fulfillment Status from Z-A  to get the Completed then the Canceled Orders.

Fulfillment Date	Fulfillment Type	Fulfillment Status
11/08/2024, 11:35 AM	Shipment	Completed
03/26/2025, 12:30 PM	Shipment	Completed
09/01/2024, 12:42 PM	Pickup	Canceled
09/01/2024, 12:42 PM	Pickup	Canceled
09/01/2024, 12:42 PM	Pickup	Canceled

These Tabs seem to filter your Export so if you select Active then Export you do not see The Canceled ones.

Whatever shows on the page of Orders is what will Export.

This is why it would help to see what You are actually looking at so I can point you in the correct direction.  You can eracse or blackout amounts or ppls names but it helps us know which Sheet or report or in this case Export you are actually trying to get.

[250986]

Customer places an order for 3 items. Customer returns 1 of them. We process return and refund. Export orders (no matter what tab) and the export shows that same order for 3 items...no indication anywhere in the export that 1 was returned. 

Yes...like you, we can piece together an accurate order export with lotsa manual manipulation, cross referencing, multiple downloads, etc. 

To be clear, we're not looking for (even more) ways we can make up for Square's shortcomings. We're hoping to get @Square's attention about the shortcomings of their service and what they need to fix. We've tried contacting "support" multiple times and it's fruitless (and frustrating). Order Export is not accurate: returned/refunded items still included and not noted in any way. 

Appreciate ya taking the time to share detailed info, but we've already worked out all the multiple steps and extra time we have to take to correct Square's Order Export. 

If we don't say anything about what Square needs to do better, it never will.

[Candlestore]

@250986 ;

Ok I am kind of getting the idea but I am still wondering some things that you may clear up in your Process.

Customer places order for 3 items.  They get the 3 items but return 1 of them,  for whatever reason you refund or replace the item.  Would'nt that create a new Transaction for this order because refunds exchanges are through transactions not orders?

When you do the Refund and Return of Item you can not do this through Orders, you need to do this return Through Transactions which Notes which Item was Return and Amount Refunded.  

Orders are for Items to be packed and shipped, Picked up.  So when Exporting the Order why are you looking for items to be returned or exchanged before delivery, or the order is completed.  I have that happen once in a great while where Order comes in after we close, and they want A item but clicked B item.  Then when we open ther is an email asking for Item A instead odf B.  I find their transaction do the exchange and print out the receipt, and place this (staple it) with their printed order.  

If you have more details you may want to put in an Ideate, that after a Return or exchange of an Order through the Transactions process, the effected Order is adjusted by the Returned Item and updated replacement Items.  But like you have said there is no place on the Order CSV that shows this.  Then again there is no way to do an Exchange or Refund for an Order either, you need to do Refunds Exchanges through the Transactions Tab.  So I am not sure which Idea you would like to have Square use to fix your issue.  Which is why I reccomend doing an Ideate here : Feature-Requests 

This would get the pocess started of your idea, where as this forum is more meant for people like us to show people how to work around Square's short comings till a feature is created from an Ideate of the short coming.

So I do agree with you that Refunds / Exchanges should some how be noted on an order, but at what stage?  Or should a completed Order that have items Exchanged also go through the Orders Tab instead of Transacions Tab?   

[250986]

p.s. after chatting with "support" for over 80 minutes about this, all chat reps did was ask our name and email address over and over again and then either transfer us to a new rep or stop replying so the chat ended b/c of their inactivity... Nobody at Square "support" could answer when they're going to fix this known issue that's been ongoing for years and years.