How to reconcile Square Income

This helpguide article covers how to reconcile Square Income. Square is similar to SumUp and Zettle. It enables organisations to accept income payments by card, and it can also be used as a till system, with both cash and card transactions being recorded.

Within ExpensePlus there are 2 choices for how to reconcile Square Income (you will need to pick the one that will work best for you):

Option 1: Splitting payouts manually using the 'mixed income' option - This is a good option if you have only a small number of Square Transactions or all your transactions are typically either just card donations or relate to just one event (and you wish to bulk together similar income transactions and do the same with fees).

NOTE: Option 1 can't be used if you are using Square as a till system to also record cash income.

Option 2: Adding Square as a payment processor account and uploading and reconciling transactions - this option enables you to upload and reconcile the transactions that form part of your Square payouts in an automated and efficient way using the quick-match feature in ExpensePlus and avoiding the need to manually split payouts into gross income and fees.

IMPORTANT: You should not reconcile payouts from Square as 'Income Received'. Square charges transaction fees, so recording the net amount that arrives in your bank account simply as income is incorrect from an accounting perspective. Instead, choose one of the above options - both of which enable you to ensure the gross amount of income collected via Square is recorded as income, and the Square transaction fees are correctly recorded as expenditure.

Option 1: Splitting payouts manually using the 'mixed income' option

Reconciling Square payouts appearing on your main bank account statement

When you reconcile your uploaded bank transactions, select the Square payout on the left-hand table of your match transactions screen, click the + button. Then, in the popup that appears, select the transaction type as 'mixed income'.

Within the 'Enter Mixed Income' screen, enter the details for the transactions in the Square payout:

GASDS Donations - for any contactless card donations where the amount given is £30 or less
Income (other) - for all other income, such as ticket / book / cafe sales (along with contactless card donations greater than £30 which are not eligible for GASDS)
Less Expenditure - for the total of the fees deducted (typically grouped into a single expenditure line)

NOTE: Typically, the named donation option isn't used, since most donations will be contactless card donations which can be claimed under GASDS (removing the need to try and manually track at the point of donation which donor with which card number gave which amount).

Any card donations over £30 are not eligible for GASDS and should be entered instead in the 'Income (other)' section.

Note: if you are finding the process of splitting payouts as described above tedious or time-consuming, then we'd recommend you consider option 2 which is quicker and doesn't require manual data entry.

Option 2: Adding Square as a payment processor account, and uploading and reconciling transactions

Reconciling Square payouts appearing on your main bank account statement

Then you reconcile your uploaded bank transactions, select the Square payout on the left-hand table of your match transactions screen, click the + button, then, in the popup that appears, select the transaction type as 'Payout from Payment Processor', and then select your Square account.

Note: you will need to set up Square as a payment processor account before you can do this - click here to find out how to do this.

Note: This first step may temporarily make your account balance of your Square account balance in ExpensePlus go negative (until you upload your Square transactions).

Downloading Square transactions

Within your Square dashboard, you need to

(1) Go to the transaction report

(2) Select the date range, then select 'Export'

(3) Next to the 'Transactions CSV' option, select 'Generate'

IMPORTANT: If you select the wrong file export option, it will not upload to ExpensePlus.

Note: If you are still using the old version of the Square functionality, please see this separate support article.

(4) Next to the 'Transactions CSV' option, select 'Download'

WARNING: Once downloaded, don't edit or resave the file, or change the file format from .CSV to .XLS/.XLSX, as it may stop the file uploading to ExpensePlus properly.

Importing Square transactions to ExpensePlus

Within the bank reconciliation screen, select your Square account and click 'Upload transactions'.

The upload process works similarly to a regular bank account.

Reconciling Square transactions

The bank matching process for Square transactions works similarly to a regular bank account - with the ability to remember and quick-match transactions.

This means that once you have reconciled Square transactions for the first month, you won't need to manually enter these transactions for future months. Instead, you can simply click the 'quick match income' button at the top of the match transactions screen.

Where transactions haven't been previously reconciled and auto-remembered:

GASDS Donations

To reconcile contactless card donations that are £30 or under:

(1) select the transaction in the left-hand table of the match transactions screen;

(2) click the '+' button to the right of the transaction;

(3) select the 'GASDS Donation' option in the popup and enter the details.

NOTE: Contactless card donations over £30 are not eligible for GASDS and should be entered instead as 'Other Income'.

Income Received

To reconcile income for an event or sales income:

(1) select the transaction in the left-hand table of the match transactions screen

(2) click the '+' button to the right of the transaction

(3) select the 'Income Received' option in the popup and enter the details

Top tip: shorten the 'Description to Remember' field to just the first part of the description as this will enable all future sales / event income to auto-match.

Card/Payment Process Fee

To reconcile the Square transaction fee:

(1) select the transaction in the left-hand table of the match transactions screen

(2) click the '+' button to the right of the transaction

(3) select the 'Card/Payment Processor Fee' option in the popup and enter the details

Recording Square CASH that is banked (not relevant for most organisations)

NOTE: This is only applicable where Square is being used as a till system through which cash is being recorded.

If you are using Square as a till system where both cash and card sales are being recorded, then your Square balance will be made up of both cash held and card transactions that have been collected and awaiting payout to your bank account.

If you wish to bank cash from your till, then to record this within ExpensePlus, you need to go to the Bank Deposit screen and record the cash being banked in the 'Plus Cash Added from Petty Cash / Till System' section.

This will automatically create an entry in your Square account in ExpensePlus, causing your Square balance to reduce - reflecting that the money has been banked.

Why is my Square statement not uploading?

Most likely, you are not uploading the statement detailed above. Whilst you can try uploading a different formatted statement, for it to work, you will need to update the column names, and the file must contain ALL of the following headers (spelt exactly as stated below):

Date (each transaction must contain a date)
Description (each transaction must contain this)
Invoice Number (each transaction must contain this)
Total Collected (each transaction must contain an income amount)
Fee (each transaction must contain this, even if it is zero)

(Additional columns can be present but won't be imported).

The file format should be .CSV

Note: If you are still using the old version of the Square functionality, please see this seperate support article

To better understand the Bank Reconciliation functionality, please watch the module overview video here.