Payment Methods on Invoices now restricted to Credit Cards or Gift Cards

[tomasguitarra]

I run a small guitar teaching studio.  I am in the process of doing the billing for my fall semester and the way invoices work has changed.  It is now required that I choose a method of payment for the client and I only have two options: credit or debit card or gift card.  While many of my students pay with credit card, others pay by check,  cash or mobile payment.  I don't seem to have the option to select these methods.  I cannot save or send an invoice unless I choose "Credit/Debit" card as payment method.  I never had this issue before.  

Square support has now called this a "small workflow change" . I interpreted (perhaps incorrectly) this change as a way for Square to insure that it is making something on every invoice issued.  If this is a correct interpretation, it would seem a little heavy handed and ill-conceived to me.  I would rather see:   "we will now charge $____ for every invoice issued with the payment methods of check, cash or mobile payments".   This is clear and allows people to make a choice.  

[CarrieZ]

Hi @tomasguitarra , I'm on the product team for Square Invoices. Let me try and clarify this new feature for you.

1/ Rest assured you can continue to collect and record cash, check or other payments for the invoices you issue. That workflow has not changed at all - you can record these payments through Dashboard or through our apps.

2/ The new "payment methods accepted" section only impacts the options your customers will see when they choose to pay online. We released this feature so that sellers who issue gift cards can choose to let their customers pay by credit/ debit cards and/ or gift cards online. Before this change, card (and Apple Pay, Google Pay) is the only option your customers can see when paying online. In essence, this only adds more flexibility for your customers. Like I said earlier, they can continue to pay you offline with other methods.

3/ We clearly missed the mark on clearly communicating how this new feature works. Thank you for the feedback. We will be taking actions to make these points clearer in our product.

Thank you!

[tomasguitarra]

Thank you for your response.  That clarifies things a little bit.  However, I valued having the option to issue the invoice without being restricted in terms of payment methods - or even having to refer to them at all upon creating the invoice.  I have a few clients who don't like to use credit/debit cards or Apple/Google pay and it then appears to them that I am pushing them to do so more so than before. 

[CarrieZ]

Understood your concerns. Two points to further clarify:

1/ Historically credit/ debit card is the only option to pay an invoice online. So we silently default to that if your customer chooses to pay online. With GC now becoming another online option, we want to give sellers the flexibility to specify which method(s) they prefer.

2/ If you don't offer GC, you can just keep the default selection of "credit/ debit cards" in this new section. Your customer will not experience anything different from what they experienced before. If you do select GC in addition to cards, your customer will now have the option to pay by either card, or GC, or both when they choose to pay online.