How to Use Square to Process Credit Cards & Run Your Business

Square’s credit card processing gives you a variety of transaction options along with a full suite of business management tools. The real trick is knowing how to use Square for your particular business needs. We’ll show you how to use Square for payments and how to use it to expand your sales reach and manage your entire business.

To start processing credit cards with Square, you first need to open a free Square account, which you can set up in minutes. Once that’s done, you can immediately accept what Square calls keyed-in payments using your smartphone, tablet, computer, or e-commerce website. Square also sends you a free mobile card reader when you sign up. Once you receive your reader, you can physically swipe credit cards using your smartphone or tablet, too.

Processing payments just scratches the surface of all that you can do with Square. You get a full suite of tools for inventory and sales tracking, customer and employee management, invoicing, an online store, and more in your free account. But how you use Square’s many features really depends on how you sell and accept payments.

Here’s a look at the six ways that most Square users accept and process payments. We’ll explore how each works for different business scenarios below.

• Mobile payments using a card reader Use Square’s mobile card reader to physically swipe credit cards anywhere using your smartphone or tablet
• Mobile payments without a card reader Square’s mobile point-of sale (POS) app lets you key in credit card numbers into your smartphone or tablet
• Retail in-store payments Square’s retail POS checkout accepts all types of payments, prints receipts, and connects to a cash drawer or barcode scanners
• Online store Accepts online payments for sales made via Square’s free online store or another ecommerce platform
• Online virtual terminal Square’s online dashboard lets you use your computer to key in credit card numbers for phoned-in orders
• Invoices & recurring payments Square’s online dashboard and POS app let you create and send invoices via email and accept online or automated payments

How to Use Square with Other E-commerce Platforms

You can use Square as your online payment processor for other e-commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or Ecwid. If online sales are your focus, these platforms offer a stronger set of online sales features than the free Square online store. These platforms charge monthly fees, but Square charges you nothing more to go this route (you just pay credit card processing fees).

A few platforms, like BigCommerce and Ecwid, fully integrate their inventory, sales, and customer tracking data with Square. This can be a major plus if you sell online, in-store, and via mobile. This integration lets you conveniently manage all of your sales functions within Square. To learn more about this option, check out the BigCommerce and Square integration and the Ecwid and Square integration. To use Square with one of these e-commerce platforms, you need to:

• Open your free Square account
• Choose your e-commerce platform
• Connect it to Square using the platform’s built-in integration app
• Build your online store

How to Use Square to Manage Your Online Business

If you use Square’s free online store feature or an integrated e-commerce store, you’ll be able to manage online orders right from your Square dashboard or POS screen. Square provides several valuable tools that online sellers find particularly useful, including:

• Automated, secure online payment processing
• Customer tracking and management
• Inventory management for both online and in-store sales
• Print shipping labels and track orders
• Virtual terminal screen in the Square dashboard for entering and processing customer phone-in orders
• Sales tracking and business reports

What It Costs to Use Square to Sell Online

Square’s online store feature is free (you only pay credit card processing charges). It also integrates with other e-commerce platforms for free; again, you pay only the credit card processing fees. Square’s online processing fees are simple and straightforward.

The Bottom Line

When someone asks how to use Square, my first response is: What do you want to do? Clearly, Square gives you almost unlimited selling options from the moment you open your free Square account. Here are just a few of your many sales possibilities:

• If you sell in-store, you can easily expand into online sales
• Use mobile card readers to take your retail store on the road to fairs and shows
• Use mobile app payments to cut down on retail store checkout lines
• Let customers pay for meals right at the table with waitstaff using the mobile POS app
• Use invoicing or recurring payments to add classes or specialty services to your product lineup
• Online sellers can use a mobile card reader to accept credit cards in-person for trade shows and sales events

Best of all, once you know how to use Square to manage all types of sales, you’re not held back by troublesome integrations, equipment add-ons, or software learning curves. Everything is streamlined into one tidy package.