Not What You Think - Plans and Subscriptions

[wyldbill1]

This question is NOT about Plans and Subscriptions for services Square provides.

Square now offers the ability to create a PLAN you can sell to your CUSTOMER as a SUBSCRIPTION. Read this for details: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/7627-get-started-with-subscriptions-in-dashboard

This actually works, IF you are an Administrator.

If you are a Team Member, using Team Permissions (don't suggest or mention Teams Plus please) then when you select "Subscriptions" in the side menu you get: "Oh no, something went wrong."

I've contacted phone support: I was sent a link that they said would solve the problem, which is how to subscribe to Teams Plus. Obviously didn't listen to the actual problem.

I've contact support by chat: After much explanation and correction I was given a link to Team Permissions. Um, thanks? Already tried that.

I've contact support via email: Waiting to see what happens. Not optimistic.

So, people who actually use this platform, what have you got? Anyone actually using this for real? Anyone find the magic permission that makes this work without making everyone an Administrator? Anyone NOT having this problem?

Many thanks in advance and have a great day.

[wyldbill]

Seems like this is a bug. Shouldn't you get some better message about what's wrong?

[Kassi_]

 Welcome back to the Community, @wyldbill - 

Whenever you reached out to Phone Support, did they mention filing a ticket with our engineers? 

I will keep an eye out for your reply👀. 

[wyldbill]

No offer of a support ticket. I was emailed a link I was assured would fix the problem. This was a link on how to sign up for Teams Plus 😬.

So no, I don't think engineering was made aware for any of my three contacts. I have yet to hear anything back via email.

As a software engineer, I'd expect the frequent "Oh no something went wrong" errors to show up as a trend in the logs and warrant a look. Perhaps the feature isn't popular enough to have risen to the level of visibility. This is a bit of a Catch-22; since it doesn't work, people aren't going to use it, and if they don't use it the volume of the errors won't rise above the noise floor.

I'm also very surprised at the lack of familiarity with the feature in all my contacts with support.

Apologies if this comes off as bashing support. The intention is one of pointing out things that might be improved.

I think that Subscriptions/Plans is a great feature and one I intend to leverage heavily, but can't at the moment because of this problem ( I can't give my staff Admin privileges just to manage Subscriptions). This means having to use alternative methods from a different vendor, which is a workflow headache and confusing to my staff and customers.

Thanks for the reply and TIA for any assistance.

[Kassi_]

@wyldbill

What kind of internet browser are you trying to use when you access this? I would like to recommend using Google Chrome if you're using something else. 

The other option would be to reach out to our advocates over the phone again, so they can file the ticket. They will need a lot of information on your current setup to forward it along.  

[wyldbill]

The problem exists on Chrome, Brave, Edge and Firefox.

I doubt that this is a browser issue, as it works fine when logged in as an Administrator, just not a Team Member.

My educated guess is that this is a permissions implementation defect. Given the difficulty which support has understanding the difference between a Square subscription (what and how we pay Square for services) and an offered service Subscription (which we offer to our customers), I'd be willing to wager that the "Subscription" permissions are not being validated consistently or correctly.

This would explain why an Admin (who can manage the Account's Square subscription) can create/manage product/service subscriptions, but a Team Member (who cannot manage the Account's Square subscription) cannot manage products/service subscriptions. Remember, the "Subscription" side bar item is visible to Team Members, but when selected produces the (oh so informative) "Oh no, something went wrong" page.

I'll reach out via phone again when I have a few hours to spare, but didn't have luck there the first time. Is there a magic phrase I can use to get connected to someone who will actually test and validate the problem?

Thanks as always.

[Innerglo]

Hi I'm a square user and had the same problem. We were using a master square account that allowed employees to access their payroll (!) because when permissions were set they were not able to sell or manage subscriptions. 

I spent a few hours one day troubleshooting and isolating the issue (Just as I did for the squares booking widget not working correctly on Iphone due to a coding issue when imbedded in an I-frame. - Literally dropping this in case someone from square sees it... Iphones are popular. It should be bug tested there first...) 

Solution:

ANYWAY - You need to check the first box in "accounts and settings" that allows employees to manage your square subscription to services square sells.   For some reason the subscriptions you sell to customers and the subscriptions square sells to you are gated behind the same checkmark.    Additionally you need to have invoices and contracts selected for your team members also.   If you dont have invoices, contracts  AND square service subscriptions checked they cant access the subscription tab.   

1.) Account subscriptions

2.) Invoices

3.) Contracts 

All 3 need to be checked.  Thats why "Full access" works, because who in their right mind would think account settings subscriptions between you and square would also control subscriptions with customers!?

This is tested and verified within the last 2 weeks. 

I hope this helps! 

[jean_sq]

Hi @wyldbill1 I'm on the subscriptions team and saw this post. We do have a fix for this type of error launching very soon (hopefully later this week). It would allow you to grant an employee "full access" to subscriptions which would allow that team member to handle anything related to subscriptions (viewing/creating/updating subscriptions).  Will that address your particular issue?

[wyldbill]

If by "Subscriptions" you mean the a Subscription based on a Plan that I sell to a customer, YES.

If by "Subscriptions" you mean the subscription which I pay Square for and provides my (the company) payment services from Square, then NO.

If by "Subscriptions" you mean both of the above, then also NO.

because as @Innerglo stated "...who in their right mind would think account settings subscriptions between you and square would also control subscriptions with customers!?"

I can't open up the control of my relationship w/ Square to my employees in order to for them to manage customer subscriptions.

Thanks very much for your response. Looking forward to the fix.

[Innerglo]

Looks like this was fixed by square officially. 

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Product-Updates/New-Managing-Employee-Access-to-Square-Subscripti...

It was very unintuitive previously. Thanks guys for getting this worked out. 

[Innerglo]

Im reposting my lower post.  I realize I dropped it very low in the thread.   Behold! The magic selection of options to make it work for your employees! 

Hi I'm a square user and had the same problem. We were using a master square account that allowed employees to access their payroll (!) because when permissions were set they were not able to sell or manage subscriptions. 

I spent a few hours one day troubleshooting and isolating the issue (Just as I did for the squares booking widget not working correctly on Iphone due to a coding issue when imbedded in an I-frame. - Literally dropping this in case someone from square sees it... Iphones are popular. It should be bug tested there first...) 

Solution:

ANYWAY - You need to check the first box in "accounts and settings" that allows employees to manage your square subscription to services square sells.   For some reason the subscriptions you sell to customers and the subscriptions square sells to you are gated behind the same checkmark.    Additionally you need to have invoices and contracts selected for your team members also.   If you dont have invoices, contracts  AND square service subscriptions checked they cant access the subscription tab.   

1.) Account subscriptions

2.) Invoices

3.) Contracts 

All 3 need to be checked.  Thats why "Full access" works, because who in their right mind would think account settings subscriptions between you and square would also control subscriptions with customers!?

This is tested and verified within the last 2 weeks. 

I hope this helps! 

[wyldbill]

Thanks so much for your diligence and sharing the solution here. 

Seems that I was on the right track... "I'd be willing to wager that the "Subscription" permissions are not being validated consistently or correctly."

"...who in their right mind would think account settings subscriptions between you and square would also control subscriptions with customers!?"

 love that 🙂

Thanks again