What Square Charge is, and what it isn't
Square Charge is a bridge, not a payment processor. When you tap it, fiveanddime opens your Square app with the cart total already entered, you take the card tap (or chip insert, or Tap-to-Pay on your phone) in Square, and Square hands the result back here so the sale records itself.
fiveanddime never sees the card data, never touches the money, and never processes the payment. Square does all of that, into your own Square account, the same way it would if you opened the Square app yourself. The only thing this feature changes is the friction: no re-typing the total, no manual app-switching, no copying transaction IDs.
Square is the only processor this works with. The integration uses Square's specific Point of Sale API, which Stripe Terminal, PayPal Zettle, GoDaddy Payments, and most other processors don't have an equivalent of. If you use a different processor, the regular Card payment-method button records the sale and you handle the card with whatever tool you already use. Same final result in your books, just without the one-tap handoff.
Card-handling rules (PCI compliance, fraud, chargebacks) are heavy, and a separate processor takes them on. Square is your processor. fiveanddime stays out of that lane entirely. Your money relationship with Square is unchanged, only your workflow is smoother.
Enable the button (one-time, ~1 minute)
Add "Square" to your payment methods
Open your fiveanddime spreadsheet, go to the Settings tab, and find the row where Key is PAYMENT_METHODS. The current value probably reads something like Cash, Card, Venmo. Edit it to add Square at the end, separated by a comma:
Cash, Card, Venmo, Square
Order doesn't matter, capitalization doesn't matter (we match it case-insensitively).
Pull the new setting into the app
In fiveanddime, go to Settings and tap Pull from Backend Now. After a few seconds, your Sale view will show a new dark Square Charge button just below the Cash/Card/Venmo row, above the regular Complete Sale button.
Adding Square doesn't give you another payment-method button alongside Cash/Card/Venmo. It turns on the dedicated Square Charge button, which records its sales as card in your books (the Square transaction ID separately distinguishes integrated charges from manual ones, if you ever need to reconcile).
Day-of-event: ring a card sale
Ring up the cart as usual
Items, discounts, tip, tax-exempt toggle, all the regular cart things. Do NOT pre-select Cash/Card/Venmo. Square Charge sets the payment method itself.
Tap Square Charge
The dark Square Charge · $X.XX button below the payment-method row. fiveanddime immediately hands the sale to your Square app, which opens on the charge screen with the total pre-filled. No re-typing.
Take the card in Square
Whatever you'd normally do in Square: tap a Square Reader, insert a chip card, or use Tap-to-Pay on your phone if your device supports it. Square processes the card the same way it would for any sale.
Square returns you to fiveanddime
Within a couple of seconds of Square confirming the payment, the app reopens to a "Paid" message. The sale is recorded with payment method card, the cart clears, and you're ready for the next customer. The Square transaction ID is saved alongside the sale for later reconciliation.
When Square Charge isn't the right path
Square Charge needs your Square POS app installed and logged into the right account on the same device fiveanddime is running on. If any of that's missing, or you want to take a card outside Square for some reason, the regular Card payment-method button is the manual fallback: pick Card, complete the sale, and you handle the card on your own (via the Square app directly, a different reader, whatever you'd do without the integration).
Both paths record the sale the same way (payment = card); the manual path just doesn't get the Square transaction ID stamped on it.
Reconciling against Square's dashboard
Every Square Charge sale stores Square's transaction ID in the SquareTransactionId column of your Sales sheet. That's the same ID Square shows on its own dashboard, so you can match a sale in your sheet to a deposit line in Square one-for-one. Manual card sales (rung via the regular Card payment button without going through Square Charge) leave that column blank.
Limits and caveats
- US-only for now. The handoff uses Square's US Point of Sale API. Other regions may work if Square supports the same flow there, but it's not been tested.
- No Sandbox testing. Square doesn't expose a test environment for this API. Your first test will be a real charge on a real card. (Pro tip from Jan: charge your own business card a dollar and accept the processing fee, since refunding doesn't reverse the fee anyway.)
- Tip is handled in fiveanddime, not Square. Add the tip in the cart before tapping Square Charge. Square processes the full final amount (subtotal + tax + tip) as one charge.
- Receipts. The customer can still get the fiveanddime QR receipt for the itemized version of the sale. Square's own receipt (the one Square asks "email or text?") is independent and entirely Square's thing.
Square in your PAYMENT_METHODS and a Pull from Backend, you have the Square Charge button on your Sale view. Tapping it for a card sale opens Square, takes the tap, and records the sale back in fiveanddime with the Square transaction ID stored for reconciliation. Cash, Venmo, and manual card sales all keep working exactly as before.