[UK] Square Reporting Q&A: Get answers and influence product decisions!

[tranguyen]

Happy New Year, Seller Community! ✨

Effective and reliable reporting is crucial for the smooth operation of any business, and we recognise that there is always room for improvement with the reporting tools offered by Square.

Participate in the upcoming Square Reporting Q&A to let the team know what's going well and what can be improved — because who better to provide insight on how to improve these tools than the sellers who use them on a daily basis? 😉

This event is an opportunity to speak directly with @annakepler on the Square Reporting team, and contribute to how developments are prioritized throughout 2023.

On Wednesday, January 25, 2023, she and her team will be here to address any questions you may have, and make sure your experiences are documented with their plans for the year ahead.

Not sure what to ask? Here are some example questions: 

• What is the best way to keep an eye on sales trends for my items?
• If I could do "_________" with reporting in the online Square Dashboard, that would save me so much time.
• How can I manage sales reports across multiple business locations?

Click 'Reply' below to ask your question ahead of time, and we’ll answer every question on Wednesday, January 25, 2023. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

[charproc]

Hi, I use a combination of normal checkout sales and invoices. The reporting shows checkout sales on the day of purchase. The reporting also shows the full amount of the invoice on the day of the final payment of the invoice is paid. Is there a way to see reporting on all sales - check out and the initial invoice payment on the day it was paid?

Thanks! 

[amjessey]

For us, in Reports, we are ok with the full amount of the invoice value showing on the day of the final payment of the invoice is made, however, we would like an option in reports that gives the seller the choice for either that or what @charproc would prefer.

(NB We take 50% deposit up-front and the balance about 8 to 12 weeks later.)

An issue we experience is the confusion of what defines 'invoice date'. The pdf we send to the client shows the invoice date as being one thing but in Dashboard, it's a completely different date. (I have an example, #000296 if Square would like to see what I mean). This is confusing for everyone. For us, the invoice date should be fixed and consistent across all points of reference, and crucially it should take into account the local tax and governance.

When an invoice is recorded in the company accounts it and Square should match. So, this means the integrations with the likes of Xero and QuickBooks need to be clearly understood. For us, we would like to see the integration with these external applications (which Square supports with their integration partnership via Amaka, for example) become more visible and transparent within Square, even if it's simply contextual help within the relevant areas of Square, e.g. Reports, Transactions and Balance that explains how Square is treating the data via POS, Invoices, Online etc. Part of this transparency would be the demonstration that the design of Square is complying with the local tax and governance of the various locales of all sellers. We assume you have a person in a department that is tasked with this, which we would like more sight of within the app.

Thank you. 

[amjessey]

When sharing an Invoice via a link or in Projects, the invoice (when paid in full over two or more payments) shows its 'paid' date as being the date of the first payment. This is confusing as in Reports it shows as paid on the date of the final payment (which we find to be much more logical because it is 'paid' when paid in full, and this is the date of the final payment not the first).

There needs to be consistentcy in these areas or else it be becomes confusing for customer and seller.

Thanks 

[annakepler]

Thank you @amjessey ! We will look into adding clarity and consistency within the experience to indicate the date of first vs final payment.

[annakepler]

Thank you for such great feedback @amjessey !
Confusion is definitely something we want to avoid when it comes to business reporting. Definitely understand the frustration here. I will take your notes back to the Invoices team. 

I believe Amaka integration is on the roadmap.  You make a great point about the need to comply with local regulations, clear instructions, and proper integrations. 

[amjessey]

Thank you @annakepler for the reply.

Amaka integration exists - we use the Square/Xero module and it works well even though there are some areas, including the ones I highlight here, which we would like to see improvements. 

I'm surprised the Amaka integration is not more prominent in Square Dashboard, even baked in. Anyone who uses Xero, QuickBooks and other accountancy software would surely benefit.

Thank you. 

[annakepler]

Thank you @amjessey !
I chatted with the team responsible for the Amaka integrations and Invoices sharing all your feedback. 

[LawrenceW21]

Hi,

I’m really keen to start measuring inflation, volume and mix of my sales YoY. Can this be built into a report for me? It would need to be fisher inflation as I would want to see mix separately.

this could be a real value add to your customer base during these inflationary times.

thanks

Lawrence

[annakepler]

Thank you for an excellent idea @LawrenceW21 !
I can definitely see how this type of report can be very valuable. Would you want this information in the existing reports you use today? Which ones?
Or see this being a completely new report?

[LawrenceW21]

Hi Anna,

Yes it should be a metric for any YoY comparisons on the Trend page. But perhaps there can be a specific report too where you can look at inflation, volume growth and mix at a product/category/location etc. level?

Thanks,

Lawrence

[annakepler]

Hi @charproc ! Thank you for your question. Can I ask what report you are using for this?
One recommendation would be to use the Payment Methods report where you can see the total by day based on the time payments are complete.

[GorcottHall]

We would love to be able to select which columns to include on the transactions reports. There's a lot of noise on there that we don't need, and we find ourselves copying and pasting a lot of data in Excel before loading it into our own systems.

[Nethcon]

I totally concur with this comment

[annakepler]

Thank you for your feedback @GorcottHall ! 
Definitely understand your frustration. We are looking into making exports more customizable. Stay tuned.

[RodM1]

1. In Category Sales, can there be a % figure for each category calculated against the total? 

         eg total sales = £1,000, Hot Drinks sales = £200, Hot Drinks = £20%.

2. Can the Labour v Sales report be accessed directly in the Shifts tab? Its awkward going back and forwards between them at the moment. To me, they are both rota/scheduling things. ie you look at last week's Labour v Sales report to write your next rota.

3. In Item Sales is there a way to collapse the row that repeats the same information? There are 2 identical rows for each entry. 

Thanks very much👍

[annakepler]

Great recommendations @RodM1 !

We definitely will take a look at introducing the new data points like percentages per category. 

Appreciate the insight on how you use Labor vs Sales report, I will pass it on to the team to see what we can do to make this report more easily accessible.

[EmilyAutCoach]

The most useful adjustment you could make it to mark each payment with who it comes from rather than simply Square. This would enable me to more easily keep track of who's paid what. Thank you .

[tranguyen]

Hey @EmilyAutCoach, thank you for sharing this with us! To help the team answer this question, can you let us know which report you'd like to see this feature? Is it in the transaction report or would it be within your transfer report? 

[annakepler]

Thank you for sharing your request.
Can I ask what report you want to include this information?
Also if I understand correctly you would like to capture customer's name at the time you take payments. What do you use to take payments today?

[johnsheard]

Hi. We use Square Appointments. We would like to see a report showing the number of appointments booked in a day/week/month and the source of those bookings eg website/terminal/app/Reserve with google and the user (if applicable) that booked the appointment. To be clear - we would like the report to show the number of appointments that were booked in a day - not the number of appointments that take place during that day.

Another useful report would be as above but for appointments cancelled.

Currently the Reserve with Google bookings do not need to be confirmed and do not require a card to allow no show protection. It would be useful to be able to easily identify these bookings, either via a report or in the UI, so that we can perform a manual check on the quality of the booking.