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.

[Roy6666]

I stopped using Square, Its too much hassle and I think Square teying to control our data. We should have the full control of the transaction whether its required to delete or change amount of a transaction. So this is why I'm out..

[vtclare]

Roy6666 - I've had it up to my hmffmhfmf with patience that Square has been advocating. Not enough customer satisfaction for my taste. What alternative did you choose?

[TheGlencafe]

Is it possible for me to edit transaction details after a sale has occcurred? There are some cash transactions that I took as practice payments that I would like to remove

What if the sale occured earlier and I received payment at a later date? 

[Callum]

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. 

[dalyskinandbody]

Why can I still not reverse a transaction after it's been completed? I've been asking for this for years, it really messes with the books and client tracking. I just had a client who had a paper certificate, and when I entered it to track it, it closed out the entire appointment for the entire total, but the certificate  was less than the total.. so no way to reverse. Square please listen... This has been an issue for years.

[claytonwhite]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Delete/Void Test Sales

So I did some test sales yesterday and I am trying to find a way to delete/void those sales?

[VanKalkerFarms]

there is not a way to delete any transactions.  you can return them so that there are no financial or item sales but there is not a way to delete any transactions.

[ejbizboz]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: OPTION TO DELETE TRANSACTIONS

We really need the ability to delete transactions or have the option to set practice/test mode.

[Helen]

I hear you @ejbizboz, I do understand how a practice mode would be very useful. I'm adding your post to this thread where we are tracking this request. If we have any news on this feature we'll let you know here.

[Roy6666]

To Square customer services - Pls note deleting transaction is important for most or all users. It also helps reporing. It is users responsibilities to keep their transactions history true to compliance with Hmrc/taxman.

We have so many training on cash tramsactions now we can't delete it and its a pain. Pls Pls add a fearure ffor delete tramsactions! 

[Helen]

Thank you for letting us know the variety of ways that this would help your business @Roy6666. We'll continue to advocate for a better way to manage cash/test transactions with the Product team. I'm so sorry for the frustration this caused and we really appreciate your patience in the meantime. 

[Bruto]

Hi all, I just created some incorrect cash transactions. I tried refunding and adjusting with some custom cash charges but my sales and item breakdown in reports are all wrong. How can I just delete the transactions to correctly represent my sales for today?

[Tom]

Hey @Bruto, sorry for the confusion. At this time, the ability to completely erase a payment from your account isn't available. Once you've refunded the unwanted cash payments, your sales summaries should balance out. As for your inventory counts after refunding, you will need to adjust those as needed. Hope this helps clear things up a bit more—if you're still encountering any trouble, please let me know which reports aren't matching up and I'll be happy to have a closer look.

[Bruto]

Hi Tom, thanks for getting back to me. So my Gross Sales and more importantly Item Sales are incorrect. How can I adjust the dashboard to accurately reflect my actual sales? Refunding doesn't solve incorrect Gross or Item sales (or Category Sales) in the dashboard making the data incorrect and unreliable.

[SmartyPantsJane]

Hey @Bruto -

Unfortunately, this is something the Square team doesn't seem to understand the importance of for retailers. I've basically had to resort to saying "These numbers are now screwed" and being perpetually annoyed with my staff whenever a mistake is made because there is literally no way to correct these numbers in our reports. And the Square team has not shown any signs that they understand the importance of these reports for our retail businesses. I'm sorry to hear you're having a similar problem.

Best wishes!

[Tom_NewClay]

The Saturday post from Tom, is someone on Squares "service" team.  This insbility to back out a transaction, or run practice sessions makes no sense to me, and Square seemingly refuses to even address it openly.  Maybe what we need to do is start a campaign of posting negative reviews everywhere we can.

[ScenicStudios]

While quite a bit late to the party I think my input here is still just as valuable. I, too, created a "Test Invoice" to myself and am now unable to remove it from my records. I think I'm just going to forego using Square. The concensus is that they offer a good product, but the service is not good at all.

I've been told that the reason we cannot delete a transaction is to prevent fraud. This is a **bleep**-poor reason.

Adobe Sign uses an "Audit Trail" of document changes to show the history of everything done through the system. There is no reason that a transaction cannot be deleted if there was an immutable history of the change in Square. Then, my books would not be off and my graphs wouldn't have a weird spike in the activity.

In my personal example it was a "copy" of an invoice I was preparing to send for my first successful sale, which was processed outside of Square, and I wanted to test not only what it would look like, but also how it would appear when shown to be paid outside of Square.

There just isn't an excusable reason for this and making a new account is an unacceptable alternative. Rather I just go to another provider.

[SmartyPantsJane]

@Tom - Has the Square team considered the number of pages in this thread, the frustrated and sometimes angry tone that's coming through, or the current new idea of creating negative reviews to spur action on the team's part (not my idea and not one I endorse), when weighing their decision to create a training function for employers to use with their employees? (Sorry, but videos they can watch will not cut it! They need to interact with the software themselves - like they do with any other app that they learn intuitively as they use it - BUT! We need them to be able to do that without it affecting our data!!!). We ALSO need to be able to effectively UNDO things (admins, not employees) so we can FIX when they've made mistakes and fix it in a way that makes our reports accurate! I can see your team obviously doesn't understand the breadcrumb trail of data we have to follow in our businesses, because if you did, you would be banging out a solution for us as fast as you could!!! 

Sincerely,

A Very Loyal Square User & Champion Who Longs for The World to Be Different

[PridePtg]

I'm here to add my vote for a "Test/Training Mode". We set-up our terminal yesterday and I started running and refunding test transactions. I just assumed that I could go into my dashboard on my PC and delete everything that was created. Even if it's an administrator level permission, it would be great.

[tpmd]

Been awhile since i posted, seems the answer is still the same after a few years.  Anyway, my solution has been to create a dummy item called "Test" with a $0.01 cost, and use that item when testing and training employees.  I dont use the inventory features, but dont seem too hard to figure out how to adapt that feature to "Test". By the end of the training, I have a nickels worth of transactions (cash and credit card) that I just write off as an Employee Training expense, and my "Test" transactions are just noted as such.  

[JAM1907]

This comment was created by merging the thread "Deleting transactions from my account"

I realize there are lots of discussions about deleting transactions/invoices, none with a resolution. As well as a professional photographer who uses square for business invoicing and sales, I'm a member of an art group that sells at local sales, fairs, etc., and the only one with Square. Some of our older members don't have access to accept credit card sales (don't even have cell phones) so I take those payments on their behalf, and now would like to delete them from my account.

I simply pay them, minus the transaction fee, but inclusive of the sales tax, which they take care of as of course they are earning the income.

I don't want the amount recorded on my 1099 as it's not my income.

I just want a simple solution to deduct this from my list of transactions and not have it show on my transactions at the end of the year.

Is this possible?

Thanks,

Julie