can I assign consecutive numbers to everything?

[naimanager]

Currently we use a paper system with consecutive numbers at the bottom for all of our activity, weather it is a cash/card sale, invoice, or charge to a house account they all are in the same string of numbers. Is there a way we can do this with square? We want to fully transition to the digital system with Square, but our book keeper needs to be able to track all of the actions preferably continuing to use a consecutive numbering system. Is there any way we can do this or achieve something similar? Any recommendations?

[TheRealChipA]

Hi @naimanager.  This is not possible with Square, currently.  Transaction numbers are auto-assigned by Square.  House accounts are by customer name, not number.  Invoices, Estimates, Contracts, etc, have the ability to specify a starting number for each, but each one has its own set of numbers that it sequentially uses only for that apps purposes.  It sounds like your bookkeeper is trying to make Square work like accounting software, which is something it was not designed to do at all.  There really is no work-around since Square wasn’t designed with any particular accounting system in mind. 

Normally, I’d recommend that you submit a feature request.   But, in this case, what your bookkeeper is wanting Square to do for them would be quite a major change across Square’s entire ecosystem.

Sorry I can’t come up with something to help, other than to tell you that you can’t achieve your goal.  But that is as it is, I’m afraid.

[TheRealChipA]

@naimanager.  Having said all of that above, you can track all transactions with their unique transaction ID.  But that is a randomly generated very long ID string, and it is by no means sequential.

[TheRealChipA]

@naimanager This is an example of my most recent few transactions IDs.  You’ll note that these are alphanumeric, not strictly numeric.

ZWPG3xBq7wPAydCM98f8byeeV

V8VPzFmHVeKpT0eUCF0n0FweV

Tbr4mXuLKNqT4ctqPYptUFjeV

L75ANaFyAy7s2l7gCNmxGCAfV

nRtMnW7AQrkOMFoVFAdWa17eV

zhQTRhpsuooXaUWcmuWvoUgeV

zvlu1CRyyo3tPhZ0DxbTAxAfV

Phhzvh33Sxgz1JTYl1pHMFweV

[naimanager]

Our worry is knowing if/when something is missing or having to go back and find a specific sale by the ID.

[TheRealChipA]

@naimanager I’m not sure exactly what you are getting at here.  Can you give me a specific case?  Are you booking every Square transaction into your accounting system, or just a summary of a day’s sales?  What exactly are you afraid might be missing, and where might it be missing from?

[Candlestore]

@naimanager ;

I know what your getting at that you would like these transactions with a sequential order to match your Paper notes etc.  My question is, if a customer comes in with a problem that you need to find a transaction how will your Bookkeeper know it was Transaction 5 or 5500 if in numerical order?  Now with Squares random numbers on a receipt you can search by scanning that receipt.

Now if your Bookkeeper is downloading all your transactions into a csv file, the bookkeeper could add a column called "Our Ref #" for example and start it at whatever number they like an add 1 each time an new transaction is added.  The "Our Ref #" can be added manually or automatically with most spreadsheets.  The Transactions CSV file not only would have the Transaction ID but if you enter the customer's name, you can also look by the customers name not just by scanning the Receipt ID. 

For example if the Bookkeeper downloads Transactions Summary CSV and opens it in excel.  In a column you can have the header as Our Number... and at the first Transaction enter number 6507 for example....Then fill down the Series.  Now again this can be cross-referenced by looking at the Transaction date, time, Transaction ID... etc.