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.

[Tom_NewClay]

I agree SmartyPants Jane.  I just  started with Square.  As long as it was a straightforward sale, it works great. Learned how to build the item list.  But as I was doing that, it was building a sale (I now know how to do that) but I ended up with  a 600.00 bill and didn't know how to zero it out.  It really seems like a "Training" Mode as had been suggested, with a sign in code, would help for training and learning the system.  Or an easy online "Instruction Book" for common operations.

[Tom]

Hey @Tom_NewClay, thanks for taking the time to share your experience with this and for your insights. We do not have an available timeline for this request, but I will be surfacing your points about instruction guide improvements and a sign-in code based training mode. In the meantime, I wanted to raise our current setup guide in case you haven't had a chance to review it yet: Square Get Started Guide. Hope this helps for now—please let me know if you have any further questions and thank you for your patience.

[Tom_NewClay]

I did finally get into the start up guide and it was a great help. I think I end up with 1st. Lead me to product and site set up (taxes, etc.) customer list input, then into the suggested login practice session where practice exercises are deleted after the session. 

Thank you also for the attentive reply. 

[erikhubley]

How do i remove a transaction?

[SmartyPantsJane]

Simple answer: you can't. Don't waste any more of your valuable time as a business person trying to figure out how to get rid of a transaction you didn't intend to have as part of your records. Square won't let you.

[Wimi]

How do I delete a sale and not just refund it , 

[Sean]

Hi @Wimi — It looks like another seller had the same question, and received an answer. Check out the reply from George and let us know if that helps!

[Sara]

I will join the chorus here and say you need a delete or void transaction.  I tend to be talking to my customer as I'm trying to use the system.  It is easy but as we know "to error is human".  I would get confused so I would process a transaction with an other payment option thinking I could delete or void it later. If I hit the charge button on the wrong item I did not know how to reverse the charge.  It sounds like the refund just messes up the data base.  I will continue to use some mannual system to back up the square since the system is not robust enough to handle true accounting situations.  Sara  Certified Managerial Accountant (Retired)

[EJ_]

@Sara I definitely see the need for a void feature as well. Keep the feedback coming and we'll try and get this improved for you all!

[elisemimms]

I am just trying to delete a transaction from my history, rather than cancel the transaction.

[VanKalkerFarms]

unfortunately you can not delete a transaction once it has been completed.

The best thing to do is refund it so that it cancels out.

Deleteing transactions could end up with employees stealing or other issues.

[Sean]

@VanKalkerFarms - Thanks for helping out with this one. 

@elisemimms - This is definitely a popular feature request. I moved your comments to the thread where we are tracking it. I'll update this thread if this functionality is added in the future. Thanks for posting in the community! 

[Sarah310]

I vote to allow the owner to have the authority to delete transactions and maybe even be able to assign the permission to an employee, but the owner at the very least should be able to delete a transaction.  

I did a test, like other Square users have, so I didn't look like an idiot the first time I used it in front of a client and now I can't delete it. I will follow the instructions for a refund.  Did I mention that it would be an awesome feature if the owner could delete a transaction? ;}

Thanks!

[Metroyal]

"I did a test, like other Square users have, so I didn't look like an idiot the first time I used it in front of a client and now I can't delete it" 

Exactly.. Thank you!

[sugarbear]

I agree. As an owner it is a quirky inconvenience to NOT be able to delete a transaction completely. When reports run it still seems to show that the quantity of items were sold, so when I run reports to see which items sold the "refund" option does not credit the quantity sold or inventory numbers. I would like to see an option perhaps with an owner given "admin" function to delete transactions, if not on the app on the computer dashboard....somewhere...anywhere.

[1brunswick]

Real simple to add a void button or delete transaction that would track the employee that hit the button. Refunds don't fix quantities if you are tracking inventory and you have to manually change the quantities.    

[EnchantedCakesI]

Couldn't they just make deleting or adjusting transactions only available on the dashboard, so employees don't have access? I agree ,  there needs to be a transaction delete or adjustments option.

[ReluxSpa]

Agree!!! I just did a fake transaction to test it up. ANd it comes up to not deletable.......... I recommend to develope a delete option in the tab. 

[creatorofstuff]

I just read all of the comments, and I want to chime in here, too. I am new to square, and I, too, thought I was in "test mode", and now I'm stuck with several test transactions. Like everyone else, I don't want to simply issue a refund, as it will show my sales totals as misleading. Frustrating.

I also can't delete a fake customer I entered when being walked through the tutorial. He doesn't show up in my customer list, but he was there when I did a cash transaction to see how the receipt thing worked. 

It's crazy that you can't do a practice transaction and then delete it before actually using this device in public. So far not impressed with Square. 

[Sean]

@creatorofstuff - Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback! I'll be sure to pass it along to our product liaison team. While it would be a tad cumbersome, you could create a new account, and then deactivate this one if you wanted to start over fresh. 

[creatorofstuff]

Thanks, Sean, but I've already entered about 75 products into the inventory, so there is no way I'm going to start all over again. I sure do hope your team listens and allows people to delete a transaction. Clearly it's a hot topic. 

Incidentally, on Safari, when you go to post, the instructions in the text box do not go away, so you must type over it, and you cannot see what you are typing.