Square Banking Q&A: Ask us anything about transfers!

[Tom]

On November 4th, we were delighted to have @aiqiliu with the Square Banking team join us for a Q&A focused on sellers who are new to Square Banking — specifically to address questions related to account setup, transfers, and cashflow. 

Aiqi Liu has been with Square for 3.5 years and she is the Product Manager for Transfers. Before that she was a Software Engineer at Square building the Square Debit Card and Web Payments SDK products.

Aiqi responded to your questions about receiving funds from processing, managing linked bank accounts, and transferring funds in and out of Square.

A few example questions:

• What are the benefits of banking with Square vs. sticking with my current bank account when it comes to accessing, moving, and spending my money?
• I need a transfer option that does "______" — what is your best suggestion?
• What are the differences between transfer schedules?
• How do I know which payments were included in my last transfer?

Square Inc. is not a bank. Banking services are provided by Sutton Bank or Square Financial Services, Inc.

[keicollective]

Square always charges their 2.6% on the total charged to the customer. So when you added the $.65 to the customer's total, Square charged their 2.6% on $25.65 and not just $25. That's where the extra 2 cents comes from. 

$25 x 0.026 = $0.65 

$25.65 x 0.026 = $0.6669 (rounded up to $0.67) 

then add their $0.10 charge and you get the $0.77 fee listed in Square 

There's not yet a good way to fully pass your fees onto the customer from what I know, but maybe someone on the Square Banking team can chime in too? 

[Thevioletfox]

Hi @GrandmaTess - do you charge Sales Tax? That might be the missing number in your math.

[GrandmaTess]

Hello Violet! Thanks for your response. 
Great thought! And I have just double checked in the app and no, there is no sales tax set up. The only additional amount set up is the Square surcharge of 2.6% to be charged to the customer. 

[ericd_photo]

Hi GrandmaTess.

You are paying more because you are giving square a higher base once you add the 2.6 onto your price

EX: 25*.0026 = .65

so now the price is 25.65 when you enter it which means Square charges the 2.6 based on 25.65 which equals .67 (rounded up) + the .10 = .77 

Im not sure why people think that adding a fee helps them, it only helps Square (i'm sure they appreciate it) but in the long run its better to just pay it and talk to a good CPA who understands how to deduct bank fees. 

[GrandmaTess]

Eric- you are amazing! Thank you for helping me figure this out! Agreed- I’ll talk to my CPA tomorrow about this. 
And if I had some banana bread or cookies on hand to send you I would!

Thanks again!

[aiqiliu]

Glad you figured this out with help from the community!

[Trishmua]

I show an amount transferred under my transactions, however when I go to reconcile it is off .40 cents.  When I look at the actual transfer it shows a different amount.  There is no explanation for this as I never do an immediate transfer and nothing explains why my deposit is off.  This is not the first time it happens.  

[aiqiliu]

Hi @Trishmua, typically the amount you transfer should match with the amount settled in your linked bank account. Square also sends you an email when a transfer is initiated to confirm the transfer amount.

The amount you can transfer out should match your sales minus the Square payment processing fees, refunds, and Loans repayments (if you are taking a Square Loans). You can look at the breakdowns by going to Reports -> Sales Summary. 

We are also looking to help sellers to better reconcile sales, Square balance, and transfers. Please let us know if you have suggestions on what we can do to make this easier for you!

[Mimea1184]

I put in the wrong address too many times and now can’t get the checking acct with square. So I need to open a new square acct and if so how do I get my money from this acct to the new one or am I just screwed in receiving my money today. 

[MayaHope]

Hi @Mimea1184, sorry to hear that you got stuck entering the wrong address. Our bank partner requires us to verify every customer’s identity before they can open a checking account, and that includes verifying your address. If you put in your wrong address too many times already, yes, you can try again on a new Square account. 

If it’s important to you to get access to your money today and you already have an external bank account linked, you can use Instant Transfers to send the money to that external account.

[GlazedKilnfused]

I would prefer to transfer funds once a week, rather than every day.  But, when I tried that, the report of the transfer only listed the amount collected, and the amount deposited.  It did not include the amount for the taxes, and the amount for the fees.  Is there any way you can set up a multi-day transfer report to look more like the daily transfer report?  

[aiqiliu]

Hi @GlazedKilnfused, unfortunately we don’t support an automated weekly transfer schedule and don’t have this on our roadmap. I would love to learn why you’d like to have this feature. Can you tell me more please? 

Sounds like you are currently getting around by switching to the Manual Transfer schedule and you are manually initiating transfers on a weekly basis. We aren’t able to provide a detailed breakdown for this report as we do for the daily transfer report because you may transfer a customized amount and we won’t be able to tell which payments, fees, or refunds are included in this transfer amount. I would recommend that you check out the Sales Summary report (located at Reports -> Sales Summary) to see the breakdown.  

[GlazedKilnfused]

Yes, you do have an automated deposit schedule that can be set for once a week.  It would be so much easier for me to do the accounting for a weekly deposit, rather than a daily deposit.  Seriously, how hard is this to understand?  

[aiqiliu]

I was trying to understand why you prefer an automated weekly deposit schedule over daily because most sellers we have talked to want faster access to their funds. Thank you for sharing that it's mainly for easier accounting purposes.

[golden_pond_llc]

Hi Tom,

My question: Is there an ability to link any additional business bank accounts to the Square account (besides the initial one account and now the available Square savings account)? We use more than one account external to the Square accounts so wondered if we would be able to link another external account to the Square account.

[aiqiliu]

Hi @golden_pond_llc, looks like you and @BXgirl72 above are both interested in linking more than one external account. We don't support this today but we are looking into this!

I'm interested in learning more about how you manage and use multiple bank accounts outside of Square. Can you tell me more please?

[ThingsDublin]

Some of my transactions are still cash. I have a local bank account to process cash, what would be the advantage of having a square account as well?

[MayaHope]

Hi @ThingsDublin, some sellers like to keep two business bank accounts, and that’s totally okay. Think about what works best for your business.

The biggest advantage of having a Square Checking account is that you can access the money from your sales processed with Square instantly instead of waiting for it to transfer to your bank. Here’s an example. Imagine that today, you made $1,000 in credit card sales and $100 in cash, and you want to go buy $300 worth of supplies. You don’t have enough cash on hand to buy those supplies, and if you use a standard transfer schedule, you’d need to wait one or two business days for the $1,000 to show up in your local bank account. Instead, if you keep your credit card sales in a Square Checking account, you can instantly access those funds and buy the supplies on your Square Debit Card. 

Another nice thing about Square Savings is that you can automatically set aside a portion of your credit card sales for savings. Some people like the automatic part because it helps them set that money aside for things like taxes before they can spend it.

[alhstudio2021]

Can you Deposit checks electronically? or Write checks off of this account? If not, can you link another checking account to it to transfer money out?

[MayaHope]

YES! 😁We are so excited about Square’s brand new mobile check deposit feature. You can deposit a check into your Square Checking account in your Square app. Go to Balance > Add Money > Check deposit. You can also check out the FAQ here. Try it out and let us know what you think!

We don’t currently offer the option to write physical checks off of this account, but we’re looking into it. And yes, you can also link another account to transfer money into.

[jakes1]

Is Square Banking still only available to sole proprietors?