Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Team Management

[katieand]

Hi Sellers,

On July 25th from 11am-12pm PST, we hosted a Live Q&A all about managing your team with the revamped Team Management product! We had Corey Seiderman, Product Manager from the Team Management team, here to answer your questions.

@seiderman is on the product team for Square Team Management (formerly known as Employee Management), which includes permissions, timecards, and team reporting. Prior to this role, he led the Release Operations team which focused the reliability and predictability of the Square Point of Sale app release process. 

 A couple example questions:

• How does the update to Team Management affect my current Employee Management subscription?
• How do I know which tier to I need to best manage my team: Free Team Management or Team Plus?
• What’s are the biggest benefits of using timecards with Square Team Management? 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

[#2]

Hi everyone - thanks for taking the time to leave your comments here. We appreciate your feedback and our product team is closely watching this thread, especially since @seiderman will be here to answer all your questions more fully on the 25th.

For those of you with one employee or one level of access, you can configure Team Management so that you are not being charged at all. The new system allows for a free "Team Permissions" role that you can add as many employees as you want. To see which features are available in the free vs. paid version, check out the chart on the product's landing page (click 'See Pricing Information').

Let me know if you have any specific questions about this, and I'll leave the other ones for Corey's response next week.

[pessosices]

Super cool! Really excited for this update! Thanks @katieand and @seiderman !

Really looking forward to saving a whole bunch of money with this!

What features are included in the new Free version of Team Management, that sellers used to have to pay for with the old Employee Management?

[seiderman]

Thanks @pessosices! With Team Management you can now take advantage of POS integrated time tracking and time card reporting features for free. In addition to that, you’ll get access to one set of permissions, Team Permissions, to grant a single level of access to Point of Sale and/or Dashboard. For more information on each tier, check out our feature breakdown.

[MainSt]

What about the small businesses that have less the 7 employee?? Unless there is an option for a per-employee pricing, you are effectively pricing out all the small guys, which I believe is the backbone of your business! For the businesses that have 1 to 5 employees, and especially the ones that have a few locations with one or two employees in each, your cost would far exceed ADP. What is the reason for us to stay with you at such a humongous price increase?? That's a really bad move and extremely upsetting for the companies that have been with you almost since day one. You are effectively making us look elsewhere for our POS needs and, by extension, merchant services. I really hope that you will re-think this new pricing model!! If not, thanks for the heads-up. I have a few months to look and migrate.

[seiderman]

Thanks for your response @MainSt. Based on the information you provided, it actually sounds like you’d be a perfect fit for Team Management’s free tier. With our free tier you’ll get access to one set of permissions (Team Permissions), as well as time tracking and time card reporting. Definitely let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

[tnpatriot]

In agreement with the previous post. What about small business?  We usually have 3 employees that need a sign-in, 5 has been our maximum. So instead of paying $15 monthly and never more than $25, now we will be paying $35?? 

[seiderman]

Hi @tnpatriot, similar to the post above, it sounds like you’d be a good fit for our free tier. Regardless of how many team members you have, as long as they all have the same level of access, you can use Team Permissions for free!

[DHail]

You should be able to choose the pricing.  I only have 1 employee and will never have enough to compensate for the $35.00 fee.  My current rate is $44.00 per month and the new rate will be $70.00.  You should give us the option of remaining in the current plan.  It will just cost me more for the same service. 

[Cosgrove]

Hi there,

You're a good candidate for our new free tier. Given you only have 1 employee, you can set them up with "Team Permissions" (full customization of permissions) and track their time (if needed) for free. Check it out and please do let us know if you still have concerns or questions.

Thanks,

Chris

[seiderman]

Hi @DHail agree with @Cosgrove, Team Management’s free tier sounds perfect for you! Definitely let us know if you have any follow up questions or concerns.

[Angie1211]

Does anyone else wish Square would notify us in ADVANCE when a product update that will affect your operations is going to occur?  And for them to explain accurately what will happen?

For example, yesterday in the middle of my shops' lunch rushes, my supervisor suddenly can't open the cash drawer to make change.  Weird messages about how a passcode will be required also started appearing on the screens.  It was the most inopportune time for this to happen and I had to give her my owner's passcode to work around the issue because I wasn't onsite. 

When I got to a computer I checked the dashboard and noticed the Guest Access options that I usually worked with were gone so I called Customer Service.  I was told that an email had gone out earlier in the week to introduce Team Permissions and that a shared passcode will now be required, and, as a result of the change, I may need to update the permissions I had previously set up under Guest Access to avoid issues with my staff not being able to open the register.

Funny...the email arrived TODAY, long after the issue surfaced.  It also doesn't explain any of what the customer service rep told me yesterday.  In fact, it states "no action is required by you."  

To the powers that be at Square, can you stop doing this?  I'm glad it doesn't happen very frequently, but in the several years we've worked with you this is not the first, second, or third time this has happened.  You routinely update your system with new features, which I'm glad to see continual improvement.  However, it is incredibly frustrating to not be told in advance, and in some cases (like this most recent one), the changes you make bring our operations to a grinding halt at the worst possible times.  

[MainSt]

Turning off automatic updates should help. Just remember to update after hours once you are comfortable that the new update is solid. It also helps because sometimes they find out bugs after the update is pushed out so giving yourself a few days will also help you avoid those.

[seiderman]

Hi @Angie1211, glad you flagged this. Maintaining a seamless experience for sellers is a top priority for the team. While the update to Team Management should not have caused disruption to your operations, it sounds as if this was not the case for your business. This is something we will investigate to ensure it does not happen in the future. Can you confirm the issues you encountered are resolved? If not, let me know so our engineering team can hop on this ASAP.

[plumbfarms]

How will the new $35 flat charge affect employers who have only 2 or 3 employees?

[Cosgrove]

Hi there,

Assuming those employees have the same level of access (e.g. they're all Cashiers), then you're a good candidate for our new free tier. You can set them up with "Team Permissions" (full customization of permissions) and track their time (if needed) for free. Check it out and please do let us know if you still have concerns or questions.

Thanks,

Chris

[seiderman]

Hi @plumbfarms, thanks for the question. Believe @Cosgrove pointed you in the right direction, but let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.  

[oatbean]

I also only have one additional employee. And, we operate on a very thin margin. The reason I chose Square was for affordability. We can't afford the extra $30/month for this service. Why don't you adjust your plans $5 per employee for up to 6 employees and then have a plan for >6 employees for a flat rate of $35/month instead? 

Your email says, "We’ve heard your feedback and made some changes to Employee Management to better help you grow your business."  Well, I sincerely hope your are reading this feedback too because you are going to end up doing the opposite of helping me grow my business as you will price me out. Please keep an option for us little guys. 

[katieand]

Hi everyone - thanks for taking the time to leave your comments here. We appreciate your feedback and our product team is closely watching this thread, especially since @seiderman will be here to answer all your questions more fully on the 25th.

For those of you with one employee or one level of access, you can configure Team Management so that you are not being charged at all. The new system allows for a free "Team Permissions" role that you can add as many employees as you want. To see which features are available in the free vs. paid version, check out the chart on the product's landing page (click 'See Pricing Information').

Let me know if you have any specific questions about this, and I'll leave the other ones for Corey's response next week.

[oatbean]

Hello, I currently have myself and one employee (+ $5) on my account. Are you saying that my choices are either to pay $30 more per month to keep my exact same level of service OR, I can pay only $0 now (because there's no longer a $5/employee plan), but if I do this $0 option then I MUST give my employee(s) limitless permissions to the SQUARE account? 

I really hope that I've misunderstood. But, I think that's the current offering. Correct? 

It seems a bit harsh to me. For us +1ers, it's a bit like going to the gas station each month and filling up the tank for $40. Then suddenly, the next month, the price has jumped 7X! It's like being told it's now going to cost $280 for the same tank of gas. 

[plumbfarms]

I really hope that you've misunderstood too. 🙂

[Cosgrove]

The new free tier of Team Management gives 1 level of access, *not including the Owner*, so you sound like a good candidate for this tier given your 1 employee. You'll be able to assign your 1 employee to "Team Permissions", and will be able to configure permissions for this role however you see fit. Please check it out and let us know if you have any concerns or additional feedback.