Two ways to do this
Both record the sale in fiveanddime the same way, as payment = card, and both put the money in your own Square account. The difference is only how much the two apps talk to each other.
1. Charge in Square, tap Card here (the simple way)
Keep the Square app open beside fiveanddime. Ring the cart here, read the total off the screen, type it into Square, take the tap. Then come back and tap Card, then Complete sale.
It sounds like more steps and it is, by one. In exchange there is nothing to go wrong: no handoff, no return trip, no waiting to see whether the sale cleared. This is what most Square vendors end up doing, including the ones who started with the handoff. If you want a recommendation, start here.
Setup: none. The Card button is already there. If you would rather not see the Square Charge button at all, leave Square out of your PAYMENT_METHODS setting (or remove it) and it will not appear.
2. Square Charge, the one-tap handoff
Tap one button, Square opens with the total already filled in, you take the tap, and Square hands the result back so the sale records itself with a transaction ID attached. When it fits your setup it is genuinely faster, and the transaction ID makes reconciling against Square's dashboard exact rather than approximate.
The catch is the return trip, and it depends on how you run the app:
- In a browser tab (
fiveanddime.tools/app/in Chrome or Safari): the handoff works end to end. Square returns to the same tab you left and the sale clears itself. - As an installed app on Android: Square's return opens in Chrome, which is a separate place from the installed app, so the sale does not clear by itself. You are not going to lose money (the card is charged and you record it as Card), but you have to finish it by hand, which defeats the point.
So the handoff is a good fit if you are happy working in a browser tab, and a poor one if you specifically want the installed-app experience. Neither preference is wrong. If you are not sure which you are, use the simple way.
Nothing here is a commitment. Adding or removing Square from PAYMENT_METHODS just shows or hides the button, and sales you already rang are unaffected either way. Plenty of vendors try the handoff, decide the simple way suits them better, and switch back.
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 handoff button (optional, one-time)
Only needed for the one-tap handoff. Skip this whole section if you are using the simple way.
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.
-1 (or $0.00) instead of your total
That means your Square Reader or the Square app was asleep and didn't catch the amount in time. It's a Square wake-up hiccup, not a fiveanddime problem (fiveanddime won't even open Square if the total is missing, so a real total is always what it sends). Cancel out of Square, make sure your reader is powered on and connected, then tap Square Charge again and the total will fill in.
To avoid it: before your first card sale after any quiet stretch, open the Square app once and let the reader connect, so it's already awake when you hand off. Back-to-back card sales stay warm and don't hit this.
Square returns you to fiveanddime
Within a couple of seconds of Square confirming the payment, fiveanddime shows a "Paid" message, records the sale as card, clears the cart, and stamps the Square transaction ID on it for later reconciliation. On a phone or tablet, that return usually opens fiveanddime in your browser (Chrome on Android, Safari on iPhone or iPad) rather than your installed app icon. That is normal (see the note just below), and your sale is recorded either way.
After the charge, Square hands you back to fiveanddime by opening its web address, and phones and tablets open that in your browser (Chrome on Android, Safari on iPhone or iPad), not your installed fiveanddime app icon. This is a limitation in how Square returns on mobile, not a bug, and there is no setting that reliably changes it. Your sale is already recorded, so you can keep working right there in the browser or tap back to the app.
This is the real fork in the road. Running fiveanddime in a browser tab for the whole event (fiveanddime.tools/app/ in Chrome or Safari) makes the handoff work cleanly, because the charge and its return stay in one place. The cost is that a browser tab gives up screen space to the address bar and is easier to lose track of mid-event. Some vendors are perfectly happy there. Others want the full-screen installed app and find the browser distracting, which is an entirely reasonable thing to want.
If you want the installed app, take the simple way instead: charge in Square, come back, tap Card. You give up the one-tap handoff and the stored transaction ID, and you get a workflow with nothing to babysit. On Android, the app will show you a one-time notice about this the first time it detects the situation; you can dismiss it once you know what it means.
Which one should you use?
Use the simple way (charge in Square, tap Card here) if any of these are true:
- You want to run fiveanddime as an installed app rather than a browser tab.
- You are on Android and installed the app to your home screen.
- Cards are only an occasional part of your day.
- You would rather have one fewer moving part at a busy booth.
Use Square Charge if:
- You are happy running in a browser tab for the whole event.
- Most of your sales are cards and the saved step per sale adds up.
- You want Square's transaction ID stored on each sale for exact reconciliation.
Square Charge also needs the Square POS app installed and logged into the right account on the same device. If it is not, or you are taking a card outside Square for any reason, the Card button always works: pick Card, complete the sale, handle the card however you like.
Both paths record the sale identically (payment = card). The manual path just leaves the transaction-ID column blank.
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.
- Waking Square from cold. If the Square app or reader has gone to sleep, the first handoff can open Square with the amount showing
-1instead of your total. Cancel, wake the reader (open Square once and let it connect), then tap Square Charge again. Keeping Square warm with back-to-back sales avoids it. See the note under "Take the card in Square" above. - Card charges return to your browser, not the app. After a card charge, Square reopens fiveanddime in your browser (Chrome on Android, Safari on iPhone or iPad) rather than the installed app. This is a mobile limitation, not a bug, and your sale still records. If you take a lot of cards, running fiveanddime in your browser for the whole event avoids the app-to-browser jump. See the note under "ring a card sale" above.
Square is in your PAYMENT_METHODS, you have pulled from backend, and the Square Charge button is on your Sale view. Either way the sale lands in your books as a card sale, and cash and Venmo are untouched.