Did you ever think you would be able to accept payments by swiping a card ON YOUR PHONE? Fast, secure, easy and currently cheaper than PayPal, Square is a service you may want to check out.
As a small business owner, I appreciate anything that keeps my orders and business moving while making it easier on me and my clients. I received my free Square card reader in the mail a couple weeks ago and the geek in me practically squealed. Ok, I did squeal.
This thing is cool. Insert it into your audio jack, open the app (iPhone, iPad, and Android users so far), and get ready to swipe.
Here’s what it looked like from my Android set.
This is the screen once you’ve already signed into the app. I went to the site first to set everything up along with my login information.
There’s an option to input a description. Put in your client’s name or invoice number. Makes book keeping a lot easier.
Once the card is swiped, this screen comes up asking for a signature. I can’t sign my own name at the supermarket either, but it does the job. I used my finger.
I love the two options for a receipt, either via text or email. I chose the email option which I will show you later.
Confirmation screen. Super, duper easy.
I immediately received confirmation emails to both my business email and my chosen “client” email. Here are both versions below:
Email to my seller account.
Receipt to my “client” account. They even include a Google Map of the location of the business.
Square charges a flat 2.75% fee per transaction and deposits your earnings automatically every day into your chosen account. The fee is slightly higher for manually inputting the card number at 3.5% + $0.15 per transaction.
Square also has other apps that are incredible. Turn your iPad into a cash register. Or buyers can use the Square Card Case to instantly buy from their favorite (participating) vendors. I wish more vendors were participating, but it takes time to grow.
The user interface of the back-end on my PC is just as simple as the app. Here’s my screenshot showing my test transaction and all the options I would have like looking up the receipts, downloading a spreadsheet, or checking when my next deposit is.
I’m very excited for the convenience and security this brings my business. Make sure to check it out and let me know what you think!
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