Can I backdate, edit, or delete a transaction?

[AC]

The title of this post has been edited from the original:  Can you delete a transaction?

How do you delete a completed "Cash" transaction? I ran it just as a test.

[AC]

The title of this post has been edited from the original:  Can you delete a transaction?

[#3]

Hi @TheGlencafe,

Right now we have no plans to add the ability to backdate, delete or manipulate transaction information after a sale is complete. 

For context, the ability to manipulate transactions can cause issues for reporting and chargebacks. Also, it would make it easier for fraudsters and scammers to commit crimes using Square Point of Sale. 

If you have test cash transactions in your transaction history, you can always refund these payments to balance your books. See our help article on how to refund a payment.

Hopefully this has provided some transparency on this request, and why it's not available. 

[#4]

Hello @alexaiezza, welcome to the Seller Community! 

Currently adding the ability to delete a transaction is not on our road map. The reasoning behind this is we use this information to submit 1099-K's to the IRS. I'm not saying you would do this, but it would be easy to cook your books if this ability was available. 

Another request on this thread is to be able to void transactions so they don't show on reports. Currently we are in the process of collecting feedback for this request. I don't have a timeline on when it might be available. 

If you have any other questions please let me know! 

[#5]

@TomTr

I appreciate your feedback in regards to this. I know you've probably read this multiple times within the Seller Community, but we really do send customer feedback over to our Product Teams, and advocate for changes for you.

I absolutely agree that a void feature would help with training and testing, and also make reporting look a lot cleaner as well. You make a great point that with test payments, or payments made by mistake, nothing is ever actually sold, so your gross sales report shouldn't reflect a sale (which is what results when issuing a refund).

As you've alluded to in your previous post, there are two different requests within this thread. Some folks are looking for the ability to completely remove or delete a transaction, which isn't possible at this time. We don’t have any new information around whether or not this will ever become available.

The other option that folks are looking for, having an option to mark payments that have been completed as voided/cancelled rather than refunded, would help sellers a ton and we’ll continue to reiterate that to the team on your behalf.

We know this request is important to you, so as soon as there are updates that we’re able to share publicly, we will.

I hope this provides more clarity, and thank you all, again, for your feedback!

[#6]

Maybe the Square team can find a way to mark the transactions as Void, so that they do not affect sales totals, but neither are the transactions erased.

From an accounting standpoint, I can see why they would not let a transaction just be deleted. There has to be a documentation trail.

When I have to make test transactions, when I refund the transaction I make note that it was a test transaction and that is why it was refunded. There is also the "Accidental Charge" notation available.

Then when I download my sales reports, I sort the test transactions out and make a note in my saved spreadsheet.

[George]

This is a very popular feature request we've heard from our sellers! While we don't currently offer the ability to delete a transaction, you can refund it.  While it won't remove it from your history, refunding the transaction will balance your books. ⚖

You can check out this article for details on how to process refund. Also, we'll be sure to pass along your feedback to our Reporting team. 

[mikesobay]

If it's refunded will it send a refund notice to the buyer?

The entry was added twice because sending a receipt is more complicated than it should be.

[Tom]

@mikesobay — Nope, the app will not send a notice for a cash refund. 👍

Sorry to hear about the receipt frustration. Please feel free to reply with any other feedback or insight on how we can improve — would love to surface with our product liaison team. You can also contact our Support Team directly if you'd like. Hope this helps clear things up! 🙂

[haldi]

The "refund" solution would be a great workaround, except you can't "refund" $0 transactions. It would certianly be useful to either remove these transactions as needed, or find a way to mark them for exclusion in reports. 

[GordoNotRound]

Seriously. I started the refund process . . . but it wants to do something about getting funds out of my bank account, and yet I never received cash, that Square now thinks I did. Nope. It looks too much like the more you try to fix it, the bigger the problem is. I'll just have to keep track and NOT receive future funds until it's all in balance. That's not a good management approach. 

[Dcyphert]

I also created 3 dummy cash orders this morning, after having 49 actual sales (both credit & cash) yesterday. I was looking for an option in the Square App to delete those 3 dummy cash transactions, but didn't see anything. I ended up issuing 3 refunds instead. 

Now my total sales activity for the 2 days is showing 52...It would be nice if the App adjusted that number back to display 49 for the 2 days.

[creatorofstuff]

It's incredible to me that you said, "This is a very popular feature request we've heard from our sellers!" on April 25, 2016. You realize that is 9 months ago. And nothing has happened!

And since your post, there has been a continuous, ongoing thread with people literally begging for this feature, with a post as recent as January 28, 2017. (Two days ago.) 

When is Square going to prioritize this? You surely must understand by now how many people are struggling with inventory problems and bookkeeping problems because of the inability to delete a transaction. I understand why you would want an employee to perhaps not have this level of privilege but come on. The owner of the company? 

Had I known this in the beginning, I would have found another solution, but I spent so much time setting up my inventory in Square, I keep hoping you will fix it. At some point, though, I will move on. As, I presume, will others. 

[Sean]

@tmeccariello @creatorofstuff - Thanks for taking the time to reach out with your feedback. As you mentioned, this a top feature request we hear that causes a lot of pain for our sellers. This is something top of mind for us, rest assured. I will definitely post in this thread in the future when I hear any updates. Thanks so much for sharing your feedback, it's important that our product teams receive it. 

[Whiticus]

No you won't. This thread has been going since 4/24/16 and you keep giving the same answer. What kind of customer service is that? The simple fix of having the refund correct the inventory should have been done, at most, a month after the first post. But go ahead and "pass this on to the development team". 

[Tom_NewClay]

Today is Dec. 1 2018.  We have heard this over and over and heard it again today.  Are you guys just stubborn or incompetent, or just don't actually care about customer service??

[rucharl]

I completely agree.  I am new to the system and have made test transactions and transaction errors that remain in my transaction list.  Most are for $0.00 and are meaningless clutter.  This system should be usable and ammendable and I find it to be neither.  A previous responder used the term 'stubborn' and I am inclined to agree.  If users have been complaining about this for three or more years you should have responded to your customers with a fix.  This is stupid and frustrating and may force me elsewhere..

[Piersv]

I couldn't agree more. Same problem as everyone else on this studiously avoided list.

I can only assume none of the company members have been in the retail business. My suggestion to Square staff? Go into a supermarket and watch what happens when a checkout staff member makes an error. A supervisor comes across and uses a key, or enters a code, to void the transaction.

Really not hard to implement an override password known only to the owner. Level 1 programming, really...

[CoastalSwapmeet]

I have exactly the same issue as many others in this thread.  I have 3 "practise" transactions that I want to delete and don't seem to be able to.  This shouldn't be a big deal to fix so why hasn't it been?

[barboc]

It's now August 9, 2017.

[Russell]

Hi @barboc -

Yes, it is true that yesterday was August 9, 2017, though, I do not have an update to share regarding the request to delete a transaction. Further, to my knowledge the ability to delete a transaction is not coming in the immediate future. 

I touched on this a little in an previous post, I have used a variety of POS systems and can say with confidence that I have never seen the ability to delete a transaction. Still, I can understand how an additional option to correct transaction mistakes would definitely be useful and will pass that feedback onto our Product Team.

If you have specific examples of what kind of correction abilities you are looking for -or- features you have used that are similar, please do let me know. 

[Lyle]

NCR Aloha POS allows you to open a closed check, delete the transaction, and charge a new card, all without having to delete/void the items on the ticket. 

[Russell]

Hey @Lyle - thanks for flagging this. 

I think we may be using the same terminology to describe different things. I have never seen the ability to delete (erase) a transaction from your records. 

It sounds like you are looking for a feature related to open tickets (or maybe editing a closed ticket) in a food service business. Can you tell me more about what feature you are looking for?

[barboc]

Hi Russell. I was able to refund my test trans so all is well now. Thanks for your response.

Barbara

[TomTr]

@Russell while to original post and title say "delete a transaction" I am confident that the true intention of this post was to implement a "Void" option for complleted transactions. The lack of this "feature" is truely mind blowing as you will not find any medium to large business that does not have a way to void a transaction. This feature goes back to some of the oldest POS systems from the early days of cash registers. 

[Tom_NewClay]

This post was right on.  This feature for the ability to do practice and training transactioons has been here and it was the first problem I ran into with Square 2 plus years ago..  "We're sorry, we understand your problem and frustration.  We'll take this up with ____insert department here ____".  It is not that hard to solve, and you've never stated the rationale for the policy. The lack of this admin feature is getting very close to being a deal breaker for me..