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What is Square? Business Solutions | Features | Fees

Adam Rozsa

12.03.24 (last updated)

Read time 8 minutes

Square is a financial services company most known for its point-of-sale and payment processing systems. They have recently branched out to offer business checking accounts and more.

We'll discuss these items in this article, along with the Wise Business, a great way to hold, send, and receive payments internationally.

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What is Square?

Square is a credit card processor primarily intended for small businesses and for making Point-of-Sale (POS) payments.

In this context, a small business can be defined as a company that makes less than $10,000 a month. The reason why Square is a great fit for small businesses is the lack of a fixed monthly cost and the free Square POS system, which allows you to manage in-store purchases seamlessly.

While PayPal looms large in the payment processing industry, its reputation as one of the most popular payment methods doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best option for your business. PayPal and Square both bring something to the table, so to dismiss either without consideration would be to eliminate a potentially viable option.

What Square brings to the table, and what sets it apart from the competition, is its excellent features that help save small businesses time and boost their profits. Here are some of the most compelling features the service offers:

What services does Square offer?

What first made Square such a hit among business owners was the innovative mobile payments processing app that made it easy to accept card payments. Since then, the service has gone from strength to strength, and today it offers up a feast of services you can get your teeth sunk into.

To give you a clear idea of what to expect if you decide to sign up for Square, here’s a list of some of its most appealing services:

1. Square Selling online or in-person

With Square, business-owners can organize both their online shop and their brick-and-mortar stores through a merchant account. Credit card processing is made simple both in-person and online, which makes it much easier to track and confirm sales on the fly.

Here are four ways Square can help you streamline your online and in-person sales:

Square Processing Payments: Square offers customers a free POS mobile app to process payments that is compatible with some hardware card reader options as well as several online store payment options.²

Fee¹⁴ ¹⁵
The Standard Processing Fee is 2.6% + 10¢ for swiped, inserted, and contactless payments

Square POS: Whatever your POS needs, Square has you covered. Its POS system has worked for more than 2 million businesses and there’s a Square for restaurants, appointments, and retail.³

Fee Type¹⁶	Cost
Manually keyed-in payments, processed either by a card on file or by a card manually entered through a virtual card terminal. Payments that are manually keyed-in	a 3.5% + 15¢ fee
Free plan - sell both online, in-person, or on your phone. It has no setup fees. You are charged when you take a payment	Charges come through transfer
Plus Plan - Includes features for specific niches.	$29+/month and includes processing fees
Premium - Bespoke plan	Speak to Square’s sales team

Aside from the subscription fee to make sales using a Square terminal or register, you also need to pay for the register. These include items such as the Square Register ($799) down to your mobile card reader, which is free (You still have to pay for transfer and processing costs).¹⁷

Square Online: If you have aspirations of creating an online store for your business, or even if you already have one, Square can help you start selling with no monthly fees and quick set-up.³

Online Store Plan Type³	Costs
Free Plan	$0
Paid Plans	$29+
Payments include the Payments Processing Fee (This is reducible with the Premium Plan)	2.9% + 30¢

Square appointments: Another way Square can streamline the way your business is run is through appointments. With the company’s app, scheduling is a breeze, and you can use a whole host of team management tools to boost client communication.⁴

Square Appointments Plan and Description ¹⁸	Monthly Cost
Free Plan - One location and unlimited staff. This plan includes integrated payments, unlimited staff accounts, a custom booking website, and more.	Free
Plus Plan - Unlimited locations and staff. Everything in the Free Plan and also customer confirmation emails and texts, reports, waitlists, and more.	$29/mo
Premium Plan - Unlimited Locations and Staff. Everything in the Plus Plan and also the Team Plus and resource management	$69/mo

Square Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL): The BNPL product from Square is called Afterpay, which allows users to pay in 4 interest-free installments over a 6-week period. While the money is being paid, you get paid in full immediately.

Afterpay Processing Rates/Fees¹⁹
Online Processing and In-person Processing Fee: 6% + 30¢

2. Square Money management

Money management is another area in which the payment platform excels; from invoices to business loans, you can take control of your finances with Square:

Square invoicing: Square allows you to send invoices and digital estimates wherever you are, and then track whether the invoices are paid or unpaid in real-time. Invoices are straightforward, and clients can pay with a single click.⁵

Fee²⁰
Invoices cost 2.9% + 30¢ for Invoices Plus users, and 3.3% + 30¢ for Free users.

Square business loan: Square Capital is a program that offers business loans with the value of $300-$250,000. Square provides a customized offer based on your current card sales and then lets you pick the size of the loan.⁶

While there are no fees, it’s important to understand that Square will take fees from your business account if you fail to pay on time. This could be detrimental to your cashflow management and peace of mind.

Square business debit card: The Square Card provides you with instant access to the funds you process through Square, and it is free from monthly, sign-up, and annual fees.⁷

Square business checking: Square business checking is directly connected to your income from Square payment services. Accordingly, only Square payment service customers, such users of their Point-of-sale (POS) system, are eligible for a Square business account. A primary benefit of the Square business account is that it's free with no monthly maintenance fee, minimum balance requirement, or overdraft fee. Finally, instant transfers of earnings with Square are made at no extra cost to the Square checking account.²¹

Costs ²⁴ ²⁵	Description
Fees for $0	The Square Business Checking account doesn’t have any costs at current. However, there are transfer fees when receiving and sending money with your account.
Instant Transfer Fee	1.75% fee per transaction
Same-Day Transfer Fee	1.75% account transfer
Manual Transfer Fee	No fee but will arrive the next business day
Cross-border Payments²² ²³	These payments are unsupported. This means you will want to create an account in each country (The countries are limited and you will require a separate verification process)

Wise Business: Send and Receive Cross-Border Payments

Wise Business account details help you enable ecommerce payments from sites, such as Shopify, Amazon, Etsy, and more.

The big benefit for ecommerce businesses is that you can get global account details, which means you can get paid in global currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, JPY) and then send, spend, or hold these currencies.

If you have an international business, then your team can operate in multiple countries and make transfers without worrying about all the fees.

You can also transfers these funds across currencies at the mid-market exchange rate.

Features

International business account – Hold and convert over 40 currencies
Get local account details get account details in global currencies (USD, GBP, EUR, CAD, AUD, JPY, and more) so you never lose money through cross-currency conversions.²
Mid-market currency exchange rate – Convert money into the currency of your choice at the real exchange rate with no markups.
Accounting app integration – Sync your Wise Business account with popular accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero.
Pay by link: – Generate a reusable payment link that gets you paid easily
Interest Feature: – If you’d like to earn 4.85% annual percentage yield (APY)³¹ on your USD balance while you expand your business, you can opt-in to our interest feature for Wise Business.

Want to get paid globally with account details?

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If you’d like to earn 4.85% annual percentage yield (APY)³² on your USD balance while you expand your business, you can opt-in to our interest feature for Wise Business.

Program Agreement

Your USD balance will be held with our Program Bank where Wise earns interest. We use a small portion of the interest we earn on these funds to cover our operating expenses and we pass the rest along to you.

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3. Square Customer tools

There are also several customer tools Square offers, which can help you grow your business and provide customers with loyalty rewards:

Square Marketing: Square Marketing allows you to create and manage email marketing campaigns in a matter of minutes. This is a simple service that can boost your company’s profile and online reputation through automated email campaigns.⁸

Here are the costs for email contacts. See the Square website for plans that increase up to $425 and 50,001-75,000 monthly email contacts.

Costs ²⁶	Email Contacts
$15	Up to 500
$30	501-1500
$40	1501-2000
$55	2001-4000
$90	4001-5000
$150	5001-15,000

Square text message marketing contacts are under a different pricing structure. Let’s dive into how the prices play out as contacts increase. It's important to note that the amount of text message contacts go much higher than what is listed here. You can pay as much as $3750 for 400,001-500,000 text messages. See the Square website for more details.

Costs ²⁷	Text Message Contacts
$10	Subscription Fee
$20	1-250
$25	501-1500
$35	1501-10000+
$60	Greater than 10000
$130	5,001–15,000
$195	15,001–25,000

Square Loyalty programs: Customers are always looking for reasons to stick with one company over another, and Square’s loyalty programs can help them make the right decision. Using the POS or online systems, you can join the many other sellers on Square who enjoy a 40% increase in customer visit frequency.⁹

Costs ²⁸	Loyalty Visits
$45/mo	Up to 500
$75/mo	501-1500
$105/mo	1501-10000+
Custom - Contact Square	Greater than 10000

4. Square Business management

Effective business management is key to growth, yet it can consume all of your time if you’re not careful. Here are some ways in which Square helps to simplify the ways you run your business:

Square Payroll: Square offers businesses full-service payroll, automated tax filings, and employee benefits wrapped up into one convenient package.¹⁰

Plan ²⁹	Fee
Full-service payroll	$35/mo
Contractor-only payroll	$6/mo

Team management: As for team management, you can rely on Square’s software which lets you schedule meetings, pay your staff, and carry out other responsibilities all from your point of sale.¹¹

Plan ¹¹	Fee
Square Team Management	Free
Team Plus	$35/mo

Bottom line

Square is an excellent payment service that offers up top features that will appeal to owners of small businesses and those looking for a POS system. While it might not compete with PayPal in some aspects, Square is used by tens of millions of businesses, and its success speaks volumes to its quality.

The service is so much more than a means of accepting card payments, too, since it offers comprehensive business management tools, customer rewards, and so much more.

Sources:

31 - 4.85% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on USD balances is current as of 01/01/2024 and is subject to change see Program Agreement for details

32 - Feature not available to residents of New York or Alaska at this time. Please see eligibility criteria.

33 - The current Program Bank is JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., see Appendix 1 of the Program Agreement for the most updated list of Program Bank(s). Eligible customers must opt in to the interest feature. Participants will have the balance of their USD funds held in their Wise Account "swept" into a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") insured interest-bearing account at one or more participating banks (each, a "Program Bank") that will hold and pay interest on the deposit funds. For more information on FDIC insurance coverage, please visit FDIC.gov. Customers are responsible for monitoring their total assets at each of the Program Bank(s) to determine the extent of available FDIC insurance coverage in accordance with FDIC rules. The Program is not intended to be a long-term investment option, checking or savings account, investment contract or security.

*Please see terms of use and product availability for your region or visit Wise fees and pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.

This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited or its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.

We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.