Does Square have test credit card numbers?

[johnhappy3]

We are renting most of a Square POS system from a large fireworks distributor for the fireworks sales season this year. We are open for 9 days and run lots of transactions. we arenew to Square software and hardware. We will be use the fireworks company's merchant account. I am wondering how I, and my team, can learn how to use the system before we open for business. I don't want to use my credit card or have my staff use their credit card just to run two or three transactions in order to get used to how all the pieces work together. I know that some companies have test credit card numbers; one number for each card brand. Does Square have what I call test credit card numbers?

[Chad · Accepted solution]

Hello @johnhappy3, welcome to the Seller Community! 🎉

Currently we don't offer test credit cards, but I see how this could be a useful training tool. I'll make sure to pass this feedback along to our product team.

For training I would recomend doing one dollar test transactions with your personal credit card. It's great practice for accepting credit cards and issuing refunds. 😉

Please let me know if I can help with anything else. 

[johnhappy3]

The test credit card idea was really helpful when we had a couple of different merchant accounts. We worked with authorize.net and elavon who provided a test card number for each major card brand. The 16 digit credit card number, a expiration date and a CVV number. The system automatically approved the transaction and we got to see the whole process play out on the terminal and the receipt printer.

[WorkoutBuddies]

I agree with you on this. I highly recommend they get on-board, as most of Squares competition have.

[MagicD]

It's been a year since this question was asked, why hasn't this been addressed yet? Every major CC Processor has this for testing the transactions. I'm currently setting up a Square payment form through Jotform and need to be able to test that the form is working before it goes live. 

[bfcstore]

Yes, we need a test card mechanism that doesn't charge fees on a $1 transaction.  The lack of a test card makes it hard to train cashiers.

[katcorn181]

Has this ever been fixed? I'm trying to train a cashier now and I'm running into the same issue. I don't like using my personal credit card for much of anything

[Helen]

@katcorn181 I'm afraid we don't have test credit cards though I can see how they would be help! In the meantime you might find the Employee Training section of our Get Started Guide useful. This outlines how to take different types of payments on with a Square reader or using the a Square Stand. Your employees could review or refer to as this guide as they learn how to accept payments.

[hundleybk]

I wasn't thinking of test cards when I was searching this topic out, but it's an interesting approach.  I was thinking more along the lines of a demo version, or an option you could select to turn off the live functions. It could let you train without filling up your transaction history with refunds for test transactions. It would be best if it were a seperate thing so you could keep test records, but it could also just erase and not save the data when you went live again. In my case, I resorted to creating a 2nd account that isn't attached to a bank and utilize it for testing work flow. It just requires updating the test account as well as the real account with any changes. Instead of running actual cards, I just use cash or "other tender" so no real money is exchanged. Training someone to enter credit cards, in theory, should only take a couple times in real scenarios while they are guided through it if they know the system already.

I assume there are no demo versions, but is this something being considered by the development team?

[Helen]

Thanks for your post @hundleybk and for letting us know how train people to use Square. We are constantly looking for ways to help people learn how to use Square. 

Are your employees finding a particular aspect of Square counterintuitive? We currently have a walkthrough in the app to show you how to take a payment, but it does prompt you to complete payment with a card. Your idea of selecting Cash/Other tender is great. 

To see the payment walkthrough on a tablet, go to the Settings section of the app > tap Help > and then tap Take First Payment.

To find the walkthrough from a phone, go to Settings > tap Help > tap Payment Flow Walkthrough.

If there's another section of the app that you think warrants a walkthrough please let me know! 

[hundleybk]

I think the basic functions of taking a payment, entering a specific sale, very basic ideas aren't hard to train and don't necessarily need a demo version. For me at least, it is more the specific details of our transactions that could use some reinforcement with repetition. I suppose we could train and get to a point before we actually take payment and cancel the sale, but that reinforces bad habits of not completing the task. Perhaps I was overthinking a little bit on training. But it seems as though other people may have similar issues in wanting to train their employees how they specifically use their set up. That is the beauty of square, you can create a very unique system off of a general platform. Perhaps with a little creativity and ingenuity, but you can basically set it up to sell anything. Again, perhaps I'm just wanting something that isn't exactly necessary, and would probably only marginally improve the process of training, but it would be a nice feature.

[RHatch]

It would be nice if there was a Training location for each account.  One you can mimic with another location settings so you can have inventory etc.

While the walkthroughs are good they don't reflect our business.  I have actually created my own video training walkthrough based on how we use Square.  These show how to use Square and trains our employees on our complete sales process.

After they watch the videos they are teamed up with an employee for a few days for some live training.  Square is simple in itself it is just knowing where everything is and the process of doing it.

[sellerking]

Can I use test credit card details on third party website like https://www.vccgenerator.com/

for Square?

[stc_]

So totally +1 for this. I really need a way to test the new Square Online offerings without having to change all the prices to $1 and doing refunds. Please!!! Please!! 

[Company_Owner86]

Do you have a training software that can be used to process transactions? Cash or credit card?

[Company_Owner86]

I am having the task of training my employees on the square app. Not a bad app, very user friendly. My problem is, when trying to use the debit/credit card feature, I am having to use my own card. Is there a dummy card that can be used for training in the near future? Would help a whole lot.

[VanKalkerFarms]

Training mode has been something that has been wanted for years and years.  It sure would be helpful because any transaction actually finished while training someone is permanently in your transaction history.  I sure hope it comes one day, but I'm not sure it is a high priority.

[SkipGSav]

Square has been behind on this issue for years. ALL of its competitors have the facilities and functionality for testing. This would also apply to building out a Square online site. I guess you are expected to turn checkout on without any testing? This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and is just an open door for support issues. Why isn't there a sandbox for online Square sites? Am I missing it? 

I know for a fact that developers do have a sandbox in the development toolkit when testing transactions, complete with test credit card numbers. This should be available to any merchant that needs to test and train.

[JJ_]

Thank you for taking the time to share your interest in this feature @SkipGSav I recommend you submit a Feature Request here. This will help our product team get visibility and track other Sellers with similar interest in your request. 

Important: When submitting a request, make sure to include the desired feature, and provide the details of how this feature will help your business succeed (how would you use it and what you expect from it).

[whacbeal]

I know it's only been a month since the last person posted about this, but I'm wondering if there's been any headway made regarding test credit card numbers for online sales testing. I've used other platforms before that offer this testing feature to assure the store is set up appropriately. Could be a disaster if that's not the case! Thanks in advance.

[SocialSpark]

It's been SIX years since someone asked for this! Could someone from Square answer whether this is in development, or just being ignored? I just want a simple "fake" credit card number to use, that I don't have to refund and pay processing fees on. Like 1111 1111 1111 1111 cvv 999. Please.