Square Terminal not compatible with Square For Restaurants? Wha??!!

[TradMusicTrust]

Spoke to Square Support via telephone a few days back and they told us, flat out, that Square Terminal is not compatible with Square For Restaurants, after us putting our faith in Square and investing in the Square Stand and Square Reader which, prior to CV19, was working well at the bar.

We then received an e-mail from Square Support which stated the following:

"While you can’t download the Square for Restaurants Point of Sale app onto Square Terminal, you can still take advantage of some Square for Restaurants features using Square Terminal. 

To start accepting payments with Square Terminal and Square for Restaurants, log into your Square Terminal using the email address and password associated with your Square for Restaurants account.

If you’d like to log in using a device code, be sure you select Standard when creating your device.

Once you are logged in, the following settings are automatically enabled to ensure the most seamless payments experience:

• Open Tickets to allow checks to sync automatically between Square for Restaurants and Square Terminal.
• Open Tickets Menu as Home Screen to allow servers to see the list of open checks as soon as they log into Square Terminal.
• Predefined Tickets to allow servers to select from Tables to open new checks on Square Terminal.
• Require Employee Permissions is set to “Always,” so that, like with Square for Restaurants, employees are prompted to enter their passcodes before accepting payments with Terminal.

All of these settings can be adjusted by visiting your Settings tab on Terminal. They also mean you can use the Square Terminal still to take table-side payments."

For a start, we don't have the terminal yet, in order to try any of the above.  We don't want to waste money on it if it turns out that it doesn't work.

We need our floor staff, and the system, to do the followIng....

1) Take orders at the customer‘s table side (to reduce people being at the bar)

We assume this ties In with our Square POS app, so staff can simply select items from our existing list of items?

An ideal solution would be if customers could place the order themselves via an app, and assign it to their table, which would significantly reduce the contact between our staff and customers.

2) Assign this order to the customer’s table, to create a ticket, and have that immediately relayed to the bar so that bar staff can start preparing the order.

We already have a Square stand, with an iPad, and Square Reader.

3) Take payment at the customer’s table side, once the order has been delivered to the table, and mark the ticket as complete.

Is the above possible, or not, with Square Terminal and Square for Restaurants?

We've been trying to speak to Square support but their telephone support is conflicting with their e-mail support and, now, they're not responding to e-mails.

We appreciate that this is a busy time but we need reassurance before we purchase hardware and software solutions that may end up being of no use to us.  We also need prompt support, at this time, but it's just not happening at Square.

Some prompt non-conflicting, helpful, advice would be very much appreciated.

Thank you.
Regards
NJ

[Sam_400º]

Yes, you can do everything you want to. The terminal can’t do the ‘conversational’ ordering where go through several screens to maximise the sale - but you are able to add all the options & modifiers. 

IMO (I love the terminal, but I’m not a full service place, I use the Square for Restaurants app but not to it’s fullest in any way) I’d say as it should do everything you want it’s well worth ordering. You’d be able to put it to the test - if there are any hurdles it stalls at then you can send it back. 


I’ve always found the support to be really helpful, but when we’ve got some really specific use case questions I think we can really confuse anyone 😂 (although your use case is well within norm).

[TradMusicTrust]

"Yes, you can do everything you want to." - that's not what Square support are telling us.

We've received the Terminal today, but it's a total ball ache trying to run it with Square for Restaurants.

Why are Square so behind the game on this?

[tranguyen]

Hi @TradMusicTrust, thank you for reaching out! While it is true that you can't download the Square for Restaurant app onto the Terminal, you can use it to take orders and table-side payments.

All you'd need to do is to login using your email and password or a device code, and the Terminal will load up your items and settings. 

The table/section you create on the Square for Restaurant app will come up as Pre-defined tickets on the Terminal, so when staffs are taking order, they'd just need to select the table number from this list and it will allow them to assign the orders to the correct table, and also pull it up at the end to take payments.

Our Support Centre article also go through the ordering and taking payment flow in more details. You can read it here. 

[TradMusicTrust]

"While it is true that you can't download the Square for Restaurant app onto the Terminal...."

Why is that the case?

We've received the Terminal today and are going to trial it before we come to open but, already, we've discovered real problems with the functionality.   For example, there are no "Back" buttons once you select a table...you HAVE to submit an order.

It's really poor from Square and I have no idea why they'd launch an app that isn't compatible with their hardware devices.  It's farcical.

What we need is a completely hands-free way for people to order without any need to come to the bar - that the position all retailers/bars/restaurants are in - but Square don't provide that option or, rather, they do but only with limited functionality.

I honestly don't get it.

[Sam_400º]

I'd describe this a different way.

There is the Square Restaurants app built with extra features & support where they've kept the ability to have the more simple payment terminals also running in the same establishment. (note here that the restaurants app is iPad only - it doesn't run on any android device). 

Your first use case is different to the one you're describing now - so this making it tricky to follow. 

[tranguyen]

I really appreciate your feedback, @TradMusicTrust.

The team are aware of the feature gap in the system. The Square for Restaurant app currently runs on iPad & iOS system only, while the Square Terminal used Android system, so we are working to get them to talk to each other more smoothly. While the Terminal isn't fully compatible with the Square for Restaurant, it can be used to help with taking orders and table-side payments.

With regards to the table ticket - if you have select an incorrect table, while you cannot go back, you should be able to:

1. Click into the Ticket name at the top
2. Click into the drop-down arrow on the top-right hand corner > Select Edit ticket
3. Select Void ticket
4. This will void the whole ticket and you will be brought back to the main screen to select the right table/ticket again