Feature Request: Display GST / Tax in receipts for Square Online

[Remi]

As I've raised numerous time (as have others) in the 'old forum' (why do we need a new one?), the GST/tax reporting in receipts is not working through the Online store. It is a LEGAL requirement in Australia to accurately display the amount of tax collected on items and total spend.

Please advise when this will be looked at. Your Customer Service have assured us in the past that all compliance requirements have been met in setting up the platform to work in Australia — the ATO and tax requirements beg to differ.

[MLN]

For some reason you guys have now blocked/restricted my photo posting and it is now not coming up in feed even though I have uploaded it. Else perhaps a network issue.

[Seamus]

Hey @MLN,

I'm afraid I'm not able to do much more here other than give you info on how Square works and how you can best achieve what you're trying to do using Square products!

You can charge whatever price you'd like for an item via Square's POS and it'll sync to Online Store at the same price, provided the GST has been set to inclusive. The support page you've captured above is from our US support centre - this feature definitely exists in the US, and as I mentioned above we certainly hope to gain this feature for Square Online in Australian in the future.

I've not blocked you account from posting photos - I'm guessing one of your posts must have set off an automated spam filter due to a number of them being posted at once. Let me know if you need to post an image on our community in the future and it's still not allowing you to.

[An_drew]

How to I add or edit tax rates?

I found this article:

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6892-create-tax-rates-for-square-online-store

1. Select Settings > Taxes.

But there is no Taxes option in settings in square online.

[Seamus]

Hey @An_drew,

At the moment tax features are unfortunately not available with Square Online in Australia, which sends confirmation emails, but not official tax invoices. The web article you've linked to is a US page - unfortunately we don't have an equivalent for Australia. You are still able to generate tax invoices for your customers upon request via the transaction area of your online dashboard per the top answer in this thread.

I know this isn't ideal - as you can see this has been a popular feature request and I hope we're able to introduce this functionality within Square Online in the future. I've moved your post to this thread so we can track all feedback in the one place.

[Frothy]

Can't freaking believe this isn't sorted yet 😡

Saying there isn't much you can do is BS.

You need to push HARDER internally, much much HARDER.

As a support rep, you don't just represent Square externally, you represent SQUARE CUSTOMERS internally..

And for Square Online sales in Australia - your customers need their clients to receive automated receipts with the included GST amount SPECIFIED as a line item.

Simple as that.

PUSH HARDER and LOUDER and get what we have been TELLING YOU FOR YEARS NOW, DONE!

[Vynato]

I agree with you. It is ridiculous and very hard for reporting purposes since GST is not calculated for online orders.

[SuzIR]

I am unable to charge gst to any of my online orders. Square Up tell me it’s a feature request that their engineers need to look at. My question is what are other businesses doing to be able to charge the GST?

[Seamus]

Hey @SuzIR,

I've moved your post to the thread we're using to track feedback on this one!

The workaround for now is to send your customers a receipt/tax invoice from Square Dashboard or the POS app upon request, which will highlight GST and any other taxes. I understand this is not the most ideal solution -  I'm hoping we're able to improve the experience here in the future and I will continue sharing feedback from sellers!

[EPWPerth]

I have just been advised by Square Chat that there is no option available in Australia to add a tax/fee to an order in Square Online. Even though all tutorials/instructions/help pages imply otherwise. It is only an option available in the US to US businesses where they can add a "sales tax". I'd like to petition that Square make this an option to businesses in Australia and hoping everyone will help vote/comment on this to make it happen. What I'd like to do is have a customer place an order and then a separate line show at the checkout that adds 2.2% to the order total (or alternatively make it so that the option is there to pass the square processing fee on to the customer). Please help me get this happening 🙂 

Thanks

Michelle

[Seamus]

Hey @EPWPerth,

Thanks for adding your feedback for this one!

I've moved your post to our existing Australian feature request post so we can collect all feedback in the one place. I don't have any news to share on this feature but I'll post here once I do.

If you have any Australian support centre links that talk about this functionality please let me know via DM and we can get them corrected! Though it's possible you're looking at the US support centre, sometimes you can stumble upon those links via Google searches.

[katankerous]

Any update on this? Every time I send an invoice I have to make one up manually in InDesign to attach to the electronic invoice, apologise to my clients, call Square a payment gateway and look like a complete idiot who can't work out how to use software. Which I am paying for, and is supposed to be legally compliant. 

[Seamus]

@katankerous No updates here - if I do have any news to share here in the future, this thread will be the very first place I check in on.

At the moment Square Online sends confirmation emails upon purchase, while receipts/tax invoices can be sent to customers via the transactions tab of your Square dashboard. Ideally, we'll reach a point where either receipts are also sent automatically with online purchases, or the confirmation email contains a receipt/tax invoice. We'll continue to advocate for this feature internally and share seller feedback with our eCommerce team.

[darklord]

In Australia, sellers need to pay GST for goods and services sold to anyone within Australia. But, GST does not apply to sales made outside Australia.

Since, the online channel is open to everyone and anyone around the world can purchase through it, it becomes difficult to manage GST just for Australian consumers.

Wonder if we can have either of these options.

1. Set visibility of products based on country

2. OR allow GST to be applied based on country selected.

Please let me know if this is possible.

[Arie]

Hey @darklord,

Thanks for writing back in to the community! 

GST settings for Square online are something we're currently working on improving - I've merged your post to this thread where we're tracking this feature request, and we'll let notify you of any changes here. 

[Vyn]

Oh my, This problem has been ongoing for 2 years. I just noticed my online orders does not show any tax collected for any transaction made online.
I was wondering why are my sales GST Free, which should only be applicable to water and fresh juices. 

Please please please, you guys are SO SLOW AT FIXING A FUNCTION THAT IS NECESSARY.

You do not need AfterPay and all these features if the real problem isn't fix.
Please get your entire team to fix this ASAP. If I get in trouble with the ATO, you will be mentioned and liable for providing a service that is not compliant.

I have added GST to all my menu items besides water and juices.
I have done all I can to use this service. 

Honestly, I thought your team will fix this already, but over 2 years is just too long.
Should I turn my online ordering system off? Why am I paying you 2.2% online fee for a service that doesn't work.

I have over 1000 transaction to fix up on my Quickbooks if you can't fix it.

Please respond with a reasonable answer.
If you have already made GST work for online orders, please send us a link and guide us.

GST works for POS, but not online.

Thank you

[Seamus]

Hi @Vyn,

Thanks for reaching out!

Rest assured that Square does track GST amounts for any items or sales that you've assigned as GST inclusive, even though the Square Online platform doesn't specifically show these amounts.

Your Sales Summary reports on the main Square Dashboard (not your Square Online overview) show you how much GST you need to be putting away for your sales, including all online sales. The daily reports we email you highlight this information as well. You can read more about managing your tax settings here, as well as how to apply GST on a per-item level.

This thread specifically refers to the request to show a GST breakdown via Square Online checkout and confirmation emails, which is presently not available on that platform. This does not mean your GST won't be tracked for sales made via Square Online though - check out the reporting options mentioned above to see a complete breakdown.

I hope this clears up any confusion! While it's certainly not ideal that Square Online doesn't specifically show tax breakdowns, this information is still available to you and tracked via the main Square Dashboard. Let us know if you have any questions, or if you otherwise would like to speak to our support team about anything specific to your account, please give us a call on 1800 760 137. Lines are open Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Melbourne time.

[Vyn]

It says tax is $0

can I send you photo somehow?

[Seamus]

@Vyn Your best bet for account specific help here is to get in touch with support - they will be able to look into your account and check you've set up GST correctly, see what items it's applied to etc. We don't have that same level of visibility into your account via our community forum.

If you'd like, fee free to post an image of what you're seeing (use the camera button in the forum response field to upload), and also let me know where you're seeing it.

Are you also able to let me know if you've set up GST successfully on items per the previously linked help article? If you've not applied GST to any of your items this would be another reason you're not seeing a GST value in your sales reports.

[BossBoardgames]

TBH I just take my total sales and divide by 11. The outstanding issue is not showing GST on receipts.

[Charlie_BBF]

This issue has been going on for so long now with Square. Square clearly don't see that it is a deal breaker for online sales in Australia. So between this and not being able to print multiple orders at the same time, I am back to ECWID where the functionality is so much better and they actually show customer orders with the correct GST.

[kempict]

What is going on Square?

Why can't we automatically send tax compliant invoices to our online customers?

This is EMBARRASSING.

It is embarrassing for us to tell our loyal customers that they have to email and ask for receipts every time and that this is the best way.

And it is embarrassing for a company of your size to take YEARS (and counting) to fix a basic eCommerce feature your competitors allow.