Community Resources

Hey everyone!   Check out how to earn Badges and move up through the Ranks in the Square Community!     What are badges? Badges are a recognition of an achievement or milestone reached in the Square Community.    You can earn badges in a few different ways, like: Sharing an answer that helps another business owner resolve their issues Sharing or receiving a certain amount of likes on your posts Asking questions or starting new conversations in the Community — this includes writing your first Best Answer, joining groups, or sharing/receiving a certain amount of likes on posts and replies in the Community.       Where do badges appear? And how do I know if I have one? You’ll see your badges on your personal profile page listed under your username. Depending on your notification settings, you’ll receive an email and notification each time you earn a badge.   What are ranks? Your rank is how you can keep track of your involvement in the Community. If you’re continually active in the Community, your rank will change to show your progress. Ranks are intended to show other Community members your level of expertise and tenure, and to boost your personal reputation.   As you rank up to higher levels, your background color will update as well. For reference, you can identify Square Champions by their avatars and icons.   Where do these ranks appear? Your rank is also listed on your personal profile page under your username. Your avatar is included in every post or reply you make in the Community   What do I need to do to level up? The more you participate, the closer you’ll get to the next level! You’ll automatically move to the next level by staying active in the Community. Keep replying to threads with high-quality answers and starting new conversations. Remember to give out likes for good comments and mark best answers if you receive them. A good place to start is with unanswered questions.   As you progress through the ranks, you'll receive a new rank name and color. Begin as a New Member and strive to reach the highest rank of MVP within the Community.   How to level up to a new rank: 0 - New Member: This is your starting rank for joining the Community. Welcome! 1 - Novice: Tour the Community. That’s all you need to do. 2-4: Keep coming back and engaging in the Community. 5 - Supporter: Log in multiple times, give kudos, start discussions, and participate in discussions. 6 - Contributor and beyond: We can’t give away all of our secrets.     Want to learn more? We’ll continue improving badges and ranks with time. Subscribe to the Seller Community Blog to learn about future announcements and other highlights from around the Community.

As a business owner and member of the Square Community, there are many opportunities where you may have a video call and want to look and sound your best. Follow this guide’s easy steps and you can significantly improve your audio and video quality, and show off your best look.

Hey everyone 👋!   As you start conversation and connect with fellow business owners in the Community, you will start receiving notifications and emails alerting you of what’s happening. It can be overwhelming especially when you’re busy running a business. In this article, we’re going to share a few tips and walk through how you can manage your Community notifications and email preferences so it works for you.      How to access your community notification settings To access your community notification settings, first click your username on the top right-hand corner of any community page, then click My settings.      Next, select Subscriptions & Bookmarks > Notification Settings.     Or, just click here to be taken directly to that page!     Adjust how you would like to be notified At the top of the Notification Settings page, you can adjust how you’d like to be notified. There are a couple of different ways that notifications can appear: Only when you are logged in to the Community — these would be push and real-time pop-up notifications Only by email   You can choose to receive notifications through both channels, or none at all — it depends on what works best for you.    Below this, you’ll see the options of changing what you should be notified of. Here are the different ways you can subscribe to receive notifications: When you post a new topic or reply (“Notify me when I post, reply, submit a review, or comment”) When you participate in a topic (“Automatically subscribe me to all topics or reviews I participate in”) When a new topic is published in a group you are involved in (“Automatically subscribe me to all group hubs that I join”) When a board (e.g. Square Restaurants, Community Corner, etc.) you subscribed to has a new post or topic (“For my forum subscriptions”)   One thing to keep in mind, by default, you will always be notify when the following happens: When someone replies to a topic you started When you are mentioned in a post or a topic When a topic you comment on or start has a solution marked   💡 TIP: The “Automatically subscribe me to all topics or reviews I participate in” is great for keeping tabs on what’s happening in discussions you have participated in, but if you find your notifications are starting to pile up, you might want to try disabling it. You can still manually follow any discussions and/or topics of your choosing.     Adjust how often you would like to be notified In addition to what content you want to be notified of, you can also control how often you receive email notifications. You can hear about things as soon as they occur (“Immediately”), or disable any of them entirely by selecting “Never”.        How to manage individual subscriptions If you no longer wish to receive email notification and have disabled all your settings, but are still seeing emails coming through, you can delete previous subscriptions. Under Subscriptions & Bookmarks, click My Subscriptions.     You can either manually check and delete any subscription you no longer want to follow, or you can check and delete them in bulk by selecting Email Subscriptions Options > Check All > Delete Selected Subscriptions.       How to subscribe to a thread, topic or board In addition to threads you have started or contributed to, you can also manually opt-in to receive notifications for any other threads, topics or boards you are interested in and want to follow along.    To subscribe to thread At the top of every thread, you’ll see the blue button to Subscribe.     To subscribe to a topic If there’s a topic you are interested in, such as updates for Square Appointments, for example, you can navigate to the Product Update, select the label on the right-hand side and click the “Subscribe” option that appears in the green box.     To subscribe to a board Alternatively, if you want to be notified whenever a new topic is published on a particular board or a group, you can simply click the Options box at the top right-hand side on the page > select “Subscribe” in the drop-down.     That's it! Now you're all set to manage your Community notifications like a pro 🎉. Remember, you can always come back and tweak these settings as your needs change.

We're here to share how to build your profile in the Community, and how you can use profiles to quickly learn about your fellow sellers in the Community.    Take advantage of this opportunity to promote your business and use your profile to get to know other business owners.   Update your profile and biography   Your profile is visible to everyone who visits the Square Community.    To build or make changes to your Square Community profile:  Sign in, then click on your username in the upper righthand corner of the screen. Click My Settings. Review the Personal Information and add details like your business name, company, describe your role at the business or enter your job title, and include your website too.     You can also use the ‘Biography’ field to share more information about your business, your background or your interests. Feel free to use this section to share the Square products that you need help with, or that you feel comfortable answering questions about.    After you click Save you're good to go!     Update your bio in My Settings. Text entered here will be visible on your profile page.     A profile displaying details entered into the ‘Biography’ field.   Update your Community username   You can update your Community username by signing into your account, clicking on 'Settings', and then you'll see a tab for 'Username'.   From here, you can update your username. When done click on the button 'Change Username' and you'll be all set!   Please note: Usernames are first come, first served so the one you want may not be available. There is a 16 character limit.   Use profiles to learn about current Community members   If you hover your mouse over any avatar in the Community a box will pop up with more information about that Community member, including their job title, website, their Community level, when they joined the Community, and the recent badges they've earned.      Hover your mouse over any avatar to view their profile.   From this pop up, you can also send the member a private message, or click View Profile to learn more about them, including their ‘bio’. You can also get an idea of how experienced they are with the Community by checking the number of threads they've authored, how many best answers they've been awarded, and how many likes they've received.

Hey there!   I’m happy to share how you can now add a signature to your Community profile and include links to your websites/other resources using HTML. Kudos to those of you who have already added a signature to your profile! 🎉   You can use the signature setting to share your name and/or your business name to let other sellers know a bit about you. If you like, you can also include a link to your website, Instagram profile or other social media handles (see below).   Keep in mind that when you update your signature it’ll show on every single post you share in the Community!   How to update your signature: Click your profile name in the top right.  Click Personal Information > enter your name, business name and website URL in the Signature field. (Use Enter to start a new line.) Click Save.   Pro tip: If the ‘window’ for the Signature field is too small click the bottom-right corner to drag and resize it.   Finally, if you'd like to add a hyperlink to your signature you can use HTML. In the example below you could replace the red text with your website URL and the green text with your business name.    HTML pasted in the signature field: Preview:  <Line 1>John <Line 2>John’s Retail Store <Line 3> <a href="https://YourInstagramHandle">Follow me on Instagram</a>     Please let us know if you have any questions or problems updating your signature.   Thank you again so much for being a part of the Seller Community!

Welcome to the Square Community! ✨ Join us to learn how to use Square to run and grow your business, be the first to hear about new features, and collaborate and connect with your fellow sellers.   The Community is free to everyone with a Square account. When you create a Community profile you can: Start a new thread or reply to an existing thread ✏ Kudo a post 💚 Subscribe to a thread for updates 📰 Join a group 🙌   You can join the Community in these three easy steps:   Step 1:  Sign up for your Square Point of Sale account at squareup.com or download the Square app to your mobile device. Already using Square? Skip to step 2!    Step 2:  Visit sellercommunity.com and click Sign In. You’ll be prompted to enter an email address and password — enter the email address and password that is tied to your Square account.   📱Visiting the Community on mobile? Tap the three-line on the top right-hand corner of your screen to open up the menu and click Sign In.   Step 3:  You’ll be prompted to set a username and you’ll be assigned an avatar (this is your profile image!). Keep in mind your username will be visible to everyone!  And that’s it. When you’ve followed these steps you can sign in to Start a thread or Reply to a thread to join a conversation.

The Startup Guide was created to help Community members discover all of the useful areas of Square Community and connect with one another. Learn more below about how to use and complete the guide. How to complete the guide: Each drop down includes a Startup Guide task that contributes to the overall "% Set Up" bar at the top of the guide. To move your progress closer to 100%, you must complete the listed task items.    Example: When you click the downward arrow on the "Introduce yourself and your business" task, the prompt reads "Share your name, where you're located, and a little about your business." with a link to the Community Welcome board. Once you have posted to this board, the Startup Guide bar will gain % of completion.        That’s it!

When you join the Community you’ll have the ability to send private messages to other Community members.   You’ll have access to an Inbox where you can send messages, and read the private messages you’ve received. To send a message: Sign in at sellercommunity.com. Click on your username in the top right corner. Click Messages. Click on the pencil and paper icon to draft a message.    Why send private messages? Private messages can be useful if you want to connect with another member to ask about their specific experience with one of Square’s products or about their business for example. You might also receive messages about events happening in the Community or from a Community Moderator following up on a specific question or comment.      Tips and Tricks   Pro-tip 1: Keep your inbox ‘tidy’ by using the checkbox to select messages you want to delete or mark as read. Click the three dots at the top to manage your messages!      Pro-tip 2: You do need to know the username of your recipient to send them a message! You can’t use email addresses or phone numbers to contact someone with Community private messages. For that reason you can also start a private message by hovering over a username (don’t forget to sign in!), then click Send Message. This will take you directly to the Messages section of the Community, as soon as you click the icon to write a message, the username of your recipient will be populated in the ‘To’ field.      Keep in mind that everyone also has the option to choose not to receive private messages. You can manage this setting any time you are signed in to the Community. Click on your username in the top right corner, then click My Settings. From the Preferences tab select Private Messenger from the dropdown and update your settings as needed. If you make any changes here remember to click Save.      

The Community has a wealth of great information about using Square — whether you’re just getting started or you’re a seasoned business owner. This post will help you find the best answers to your questions in the Community.   Searching in the Community 🔍   When you start typing in the search box from you’ll notice a list a list of existing threads will automatically display. You can click on the title of an existing thread to read it.   However, if you type your question or topic to the search box and then hit enter you’ll see list of results on a new page. The results will include a long list threads, including unanswered questions and links to Support Centre articles. But did you know you can filter your Community search results by Best Answer?     ✔️ Best Answers are posts that have been answered and verified as correct and/or helpful by another seller from the Community and by the Community team.      Here’s an example: If you need help with refunds type ‘refund’ in the search box and then hit enter. From the dropdown in the upper right click All and then select Best Answer.         Hey presto ✨ all of the search results will be filtered to show only posts that have been answered and one reply has been marked as Best Answer. Posts with a Best Answer have a green check mark next to the title. Click on the title to read the answered post.   Thanks for reading and happy searching in the Community! ✔️

We strive to review and attend to every post and we also value your feedback to ensure the Community remains a respectful and valuable space. In this post you’ll learn how you can flag inappropriate or abusive content in the Community.   How to Report Inappropriate Content  If you believe a post or reply shared has violated our Community Code of Conduct, please report the post to the Square Community team by clicking the Report icon that is visible immediately below the post. If you haven’t signed in, you will be prompted to sign in to report a post.      Alternatively, to report a post as inappropriate you can click the three dots to open the options and select Report from there.      Selecting ‘Report’ will send the post to a Community moderator who will review it and take the appropriate next steps. Note: Selecting ‘Report’ does not escalate an open case to the Square Customer Success team. Learn how to contact Square’s Customer Success team.   How to Contact Square Customer Success If you need help with your Square account please contact the Square Customer Success team directly. The team is available through live chat and by phone. The support number is 1-855-700-6000 and team members are available from Monday to Friday, 6am to 6pm, PST.

Did you know that Seller Community is home to several different business-related groups? Joining a group is free, and any member of the Community can join an open group or request to join a private group.   Check out the Seller Groups home page for the current group lineup. You can also use the Seller Groups tile on the home page to access groups.   Here's an overview of the current groups:   Square Readers Book Club Are you looking for a new way to level up your business skills and have some fun while you're at it? Then get excited, and get ready to join the Square Readers Book Club! This group picks one book every two months to read and chat together with helpful resources and content along the way.   Artists and Makers Whether you're selling your own work or selling items made by others, this is the group for you. Join the group to connect with fellow creative entrepreneurs, ask questions, share tips, knowledge, ideas, and more.   Leisure and Entertainment The Leisure and Entertainment group brings together a wide range of business owners from across the leisure, entertainment, and recreation spaces. Join the group to chat with other members about the ins and outs of running a business.    Retail and eCommerce Are you selling items online or in person? The Retail & eCommerce group is a place for all retail sellers to ask questions, share advice, and chat about the ins and outs of running a retail or eCommerce business.   Beauty and Wellness This group is a place where anyone in the beauty and health industries can connect, share ideas, and help support each other with their unique knowledge and insights.   Food and Beverage Join this group to meet fellow food & beverage business owners. Ask questions, talk about your business, share a customer story, or tell us about the awesome service and products you provide for your customers!   Pride in Business: LGTBQ+ This is a private forum where people in the LGBTQ+ community can collaborate and share business resources. Learn more about Pride in Business or request to join.   Uplifted Voices: Black in Business This group is a dedicated space for Black Business Owners and Entrepreneurs to connect, share resources, and chat about anything. Read this post to learn more about Uplifted Voices or request to join.    Between Shores: Asian Pacific Islanders This group aims to highlight the work and resilience of the Asian Pacific Island (API) community, create a business resource hub, and build a place where API sellers can connect.   togetHER togetHER is a group for women-identified business owners. If you'd like to connect with other women in business and allies, togetHER is for you. Read about TogetHER, request to join, and start a thread!    Square Champions Lounge  This is an invitation-only area for our Square Champions . Square Champions are Square advocates who are passionate about small businesses.    Thanks for reading and see you in a seller group!

Here in the Community, we get a lot of feedback about what’s working well—in addition to things we could improve. It is incredibly insightful for us to hear firsthand what’s not working for you and how we can fix it. When we receive feature requests in the Square Community, a few different things happen behind the scenes. We thought we’d pull back the curtain and share some of our processes with you.  The Life of a Feature Request   Customer Advocacy — The first thing we do internally is share your request with the people building our products. From data-centric approaches like tracking the request in our internal databases, to more qualitative methods like the community moderators talking directly with the appropriate product team, we make sure your feedback and ideas get to the right person. Look for an Alternative — We always try to provide a workaround when it makes sense. Even if our products don’t do exactly what you need them to, we want to help you get closer to your goal (see an example of a work-around in this thread). Many times, we’ve heard the request before and have an alternative solution in mind. When we don’t know of a great workaround, we turn to the community to get advice from other sellers. Share a Resolution — The best days for us (and we hope for you, too!) are when we get to share with the community that a feature request has been built into the product. We’ve been able to do that several times, including this thread about incremental improvements we're continuing to make for Square Online deliveries. If you’re interested in seeing a resolution, make sure to subscribe to the thread so you’re notified if we update it. But what if there isn’t a resolution? Even the best feature requests take time for our team to build. Our Product Managers take a lot of things into consideration when developing new features and addressing limitations of current features. Customer feedback is one huge piece of the puzzle that impacts prioritization, but it’s not the only piece.   In cases where a resolution is not yet available, we continue to take our jobs as customer advocates seriously. We’ll keep sharing your stories internally and funneling your feedback to our developers. If we can’t prioritize a feature, we also give feedback to our Partnerships team so they can look for great opportunities to partner with other companies who specialize in the features you need. If you would like to get involved in a deeper level with the feedback process, be sure to join the Beta Community — a space where you get access to newly designed features before everyone else!   Sometimes we don’t have an update for weeks or months. In those cases, thank you for bearing with us. We know it can be frustrating, but we are continuing to work on your behalf. As soon as we have an update, we’ll post to let everyone know. Thanks again for sharing your feedback with us!   How to submit a feature request in the Community    Note: The steps below may vary slightly as we work to improve the Community.   Sign in at sellercommunity.com and click Ideate from the homepage.  Use the search bar search to see if your request exists already - or browse existing requests by product name.  Click Submit a Request to create a new feature request. If your request exists already, click the star icon to like the request. Or, click on the title of the request – from there you can click Subscribe to follow the progress of the request. You can also add a comment to share how the request would benefit you.   That’s it! The status of your request will be changed overtime, e.g. from ‘New’ to ‘Needs Beta Testers’, or it may be merged into another matching request.   Examples   Here's a look at the current feature requests for the Square Point of Sale app.   Here's an example of a new feature request:      We're looking forward to receiving your feature requests! 

Let's take a quick tour of how to start a new thread in the Community.    Search first! 🔍 The first thing to check is whether or not your question has already been answered. You can do this by searching in the search box on the homepage. As you start typing, threads will appear below the text box.         If one of the search results matches your question you can click on the title to open the thread. Otherwise, you can click on the Start Thread button to make a new post.        Start a new thread! ✍️ If you start typing and threads don't pop up for you or the results don't answer your question you can start a new thread! You can do this right from the homepage or from the top of any board.   From the homepage search first and if you can’t find the post click Ask the Community underneath the search box.          From the top of any board, click Start Thread to create a new thread with your question!       That’s it and happy posting!

Explore the exciting variety of programs available right here in the Square community. From engaging events to collaborative initiatives, there are plenty of opportunities for you to connect and contribute with other sellers.    Let's get started!  Square Readers Book Club     Are you looking for a new way to level up your business skills and have some fun while you're at it? Then get excited, and get ready to join the Square Readers Book Club! This group picks one book every two months to read and chat together with helpful resources and content along the way     Mentorship Program     The Square Community Mentorship Program is designed to connect experienced entrepreneurs and business owners with business owners who are just starting out. Through this program, you will have the opportunity to network with fellow business owners, share your knowledge, get one-on-one support, and establish yourself as a business leader in your field. Subscribe to the blog to learn when applications open.   Square Champions     Square Champions are members of the Community who manifest its culture. They are helpful, kind, knowledgeable about Square products, and are always eager to engage in the Community! We currently have between 100-150 Square Champions, across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia.     Events     Webinars, forum Q&A's, and more designed to support and inspire you as you grow your business.     Beta     The Square Beta Program is where you can test upcoming Square features before we release them. Beta features are hardware or software we test with a subset of customers (YOU!) before being released to the public.     Community Blog     The Community blog is your ultimate source for the latest Community news, including upcoming events and inspiring Square seller stories. Subscribe to the blog to stay informed and inspired.     Question of the Week     Each week we ask a question on a small-business topic. We can't wait for you to join the conversation!     Members of the Month     The Members of the Month series celebrates some of the amazing community members and all of their incredible contributions that make this community a great place to be.    Can’t wait to see you in the community!  

If you recently joined the Community and started a new thread, you’ll have noticed that you have the option to make a reply (authored by someone else) as the ‘Best Answer’.    To mark a post as Best Answer, just scroll to the bottom of a post and click the button that says Mark as Best Answer. That's it!       Marking something as Best Answer gives the question a green checkmark to show others the question has been solved, and includes the reply in search results so that others can find the same solution.          Why mark Best Answers? Best Answers help the author of the answer to rank up in the Community. They're also a nice way to say "Thanks" to the person who took the time to share an answer to your question or a possible solution to a problem.