Square Banking Q&A: Let's talk about how Square Savings can help you prepare for tax season💰

[Tom]

Hi Seller Community,

With the 2022 tax season in the rearview mirror for many of us, we're eager to catch your questions and get your feedback on how Square Savings can help you stay on top of taxes in the year ahead!

Whether you pay your business taxes monthly or quarterly, Square Savings offers automated saving, which helps to take the guesswork out of withholding amounts, and folders, which help to organize and keep money set aside for taxes.

We were grateful to have @jmonfort from the Square Banking team address your questions and share solutions for automating healthy habits with Square Savings on Wednesday, May 4th.

A few example questions:

• How do folders in Square Savings accounts work?
• What’s the benefit of setting up an account with Square Banking versus my existing bank account?
• If I could do "_______" with Square Savings, that would help me run my business much more smoothly.

Note: We can't share specific details on our product roadmaps, though this information will be helpful as we continue to make improvements.

Block, Inc. is not a bank. Banking Services provided by Square Financial Services, Inc. and Sutton Bank, Members FDIC.

[jmonfort]

Yep, that’s how automated savings works! Tell us how much you want to save and we’ll automatically transfer a percentage of your sales into your savings. Whether that’s 1% or 20%—it’s all up to you. You’ll also be able to track your progress, adjust goals—and pause automated savings at any time. You can watch our tutorial to see how it works and set it up here.

[coastalclick]

Would LOVE to use new feature but square still hasn't figured out how to let us change our names on our accounts. So my name on my Square account is my previously married name from 12 years ago...which is not my legal name now. Such a shame that they can't figure that out so that I can use more of the services they offer. And no, creating a new account is not an option either because you can't set up a new account with the same tax ID number. 

[jmonfort]

Hello, apologies for the inconvenience. Have you tried creating a Savings account here? You can’t set up a Savings account with a different taxID number, but we re-collect your legal name to verify your personal and business information through third party data sources. If it doesn't work, we currently can’t support this new service, unfortunately. Thank you for your interest!

[WCCG]

Why can I only transfer whole dollars and not change to external accounts?

And why can't we delete or archive folders?

[jmonfort]

Hi there! We currently allow transfers with cents. Can we learn more what transfer you were not able to initiate?

Thank you for feedback on folders. Delete or archive is currently not supported, but we’ll look into this feedback!

[Bodyoflight]

Are there any fees? How are funds transferred? Are there any interest earnings?

[jmonfort]

There are no monthly maintenance fees, sign-up fees, or fees associated with minimum balances, as there are no minimum balance requirements. There are also no overdraft fees or withdrawal limits fees that are associated with traditional business savings accounts. You can transfer your funds to a linked external bank account with ACH which typically takes 1-2 business days. 

We’re currently offering an Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of 0.50%, which is 8x the national average for business savings accounts.

[Mobil1]

I am interested in Square Savings, how do I proceed?

[jmonfort]

Glad to hear it! You can see how all of our features, including automated savings, folders, FAQ, and more work here – and when you’re ready to sign up you can do that here or you can visit your Balances dashboard, where you’ll see a button to enable Square Savings.

[vbenedict]

Would my money be available to withdraw at any time? Is there a fee for this service?

[jmonfort]

Great questions. You have 24/7 access to manage your business savings. You can instantly transfer funds to your Square Checking in order to spend it on your Square Debit Card immediately—for free. You can make standard, cost-free ACH transfers to external bank accounts and expect funds to settle within 1-2 business days. Please note: ATM withdrawals are not enabled for Square Savings, however, you may use ATM withdrawals through Square Checking.

Regarding fees, there are no monthly maintenance fees, sign-up fees, or fees associated with minimum balances, as there are no minimum balance requirements. There are also no overdraft fees or withdrawal limits fees that are associated with traditional business savings accounts.

[Micheler]

How exactly are the amounts that are transferred into the square savings figured? I see they are figured individually on each transaction, but I cannot get my calculations to match what square actually puts into my savings. I keep an excel sheet at the end of each day and I would like to know exactly what will be transferred. It is usually only off by a couple cents. I understand I have the ability to set the %, but say 5% of my cc transactions don’t match what square deposits into the savings . 

[jmonfort]

Hello, automated savings is a percentage of each credit card transaction. There are certain transactions we don't support, such as cash and gift cards. You are able to view each transaction to determine if automated savings was applied. Thank you for your feedback! We’ll look into how we can provide more visibility.

[Heartnsoulsalon]

Is this a good retirement option?

[jmonfort]

While everyone’s retirement goals and current situations are unique, you can set up a Savings folder to save for retirement to keep those funds separated from your other business revenue. Without knowing specifics, here are some articles about retirement planning, how Square Banking customers are leveraging their savings folders, and how Gen Z entrepreneurs are approaching retirement.

[DJP2]

How do I change the percentage I would like to be taken out of my daily totals-from what I originally set it to? 

[jmonfort]

Hello, you can adjust your automated savings rate by clicking on your folder and toggling the feature on/off or clicking on the amount to adjust. 

[angiemiller8060]

Will there be any fees to withdraw our savings? Will there be more fees if the savings hit a certain amount? 

[jmonfort]

Hi Angie! There are no monthly maintenance fees, sign-up fees, or fees associated with minimum balances, as there are no minimum balance requirements. There are also no overdraft fees or withdrawal limits fees that are associated with traditional business savings accounts.

[belltower]

Hello,

Do we have to have Square Plus to be able to use Square Savings? I am not seeing the sign up options right now or specifics about its features. Thanks.

[jmonfort]

Currently, Square Savings is available to eligible Square sellers, for business purposes only. You can see how all of our features, including automated savings, folders, FAQ, and more work here – and when you’re ready to sign up you can do that here or you can visit your Balances dashboard, where you’ll see a button to enable Square Savings.