Everything You Need To Know About Setting Up Your Free Square Account
Square offers several time-saving benefits for small business owners, including no credit checks, a free magstripe reader to get you started, and a free Square POS app.
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Expert Analyst & Reviewer
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Thinking about using Square to process payments for your business? Square offers several time-saving benefits for small business owners looking to start processing payments, including no credit checks, a free magstripe reader to get you started, and a free Square POS app that enables you to start taking credit card payments right away. Not only that, but the Square Dashboard also offers analytics reporting, inventory management, alerts, and (with optional add-on software) even the ability to plan email marketing campaigns!
With all of these conveniences and freebies, you can expect slightly higher transaction fees than you’d get with a traditional merchant account. However, as a third-party processor, Square offers a very transparent pricing plan that starts at 2.6% plus $0.10 per swipe dip or tap and 3.5% + $0.15 for keyed-in transactions. You won’t be surprised by hidden fees or contracts, and you can enjoy the same processing rate for all major credit cards. Square also offers payment dispute assistance, chargeback protection, and secure, PCI-compliant software — all included.
If your interest is piqued, but you need a little more information before getting started with Square, then you’ve landed on the right post! Below, we’ll take you step-by-step through the process of signing up for a new Square account. As you will see, setting up your Square account is relatively straightforward. And the best part? It’s completely free and requires no commitment on your part whatsoever.
Table of Contents
- What Do You Need To Get Started With Square?
- How To Create A Free Square Account
- How To Set Up Your Square Account & Dashboard
- How To Set Up Square Deposits & Funding
- Explore More Square Software Options
- Choose Hardware Options For Your Square Account
- Where To Go Next With Square?
- Learn To Make The Most Of Your Free Square Account
- Common Questions About Square Signups & Square Account Setup
What Do You Need To Get Started With Square?
Before we get started, here is the main information you’ll need to set up your Square account:
- Email address
- Social Security Number
- Home address
- Shipping address
- Full legal name
- Phone number
- A US-based bank account for deposits
- Date of birth
Recommended but not required are:
- An Employer Identification Number (EIN)
- Business bank account
We are going to get pretty detailed in this tutorial, but rest assured, the application itself takes less than ten minutes. Follow along with the guide below to discover how to set up and make the most of your new Square account!
How To Create A Free Square Account
Here are the basic steps to signing up for your free Square account.
Create Your Login & Password
First, visit Square’s signup page and hit the “Get started” button.
The first step asks for your email address and prompts you to create a password and choose your country. You also must agree to Square’s terms, privacy policy, and e-sign consent policy. We strongly suggest that as with any contract, you take the time to click on, read, and understand the details before agreeing to them.
Choose Your Business Type
The next screen is straightforward and asks if you are an individual or represent a larger business, charity, or religious organization. Enter in your business name or another title that you would like to appear on your receipts.
You’ll then be prompted to choose the category of services your business will provide.
Select Where You'll Be Conducting Business
Now we are getting closer to the meat — Square wants to know where you plan on processing payments. In this example, I don’t want to limit myself, so I am choosing all of the possibilities!
It’s important to mention that even if you don’t plan to use some of these options right away, you can still access them later at any time.
You’ll also be asked what devices you plan to use to take payments. This can also be changed at a later date.
Signup For Optional Features
Next, Square asks what else it can help you manage. I am also going to select all of the options again to get a better idea of what Square may suggest right off the bat. I don’t personally need employee tracking for my business, but let’s see what it can do!
Fill In Remaining Personal Data
Now it’s time to enter the rest of that data we said you’d need earlier. When you hit continue, Square will verify your identity. You may then be asked a supplemental question about whether your home address and business addresses are the same.
Note that Square is not going to perform a credit check on you or your business; it just needs the last four digits of your Social Security Number or ITIN, your legal name, street address, and phone number. Square uses this information to verify your identity.
Set Up Deposits
You can skip this part if you don’t want to do it immediately, but eventually, you’ll need to set up deposits if you want to take payments.
The first thing you’ll need to do is select whether you want same-day deposits. This will cost us extra, so we’re going to be patient and just select the standard one-to-two-day option.
You’ll then enter your bank account information in a window that looks something like this:
Choose Your Reader
Great news! By the time you arrive at the next screen below (three to five seconds, give or take), Square will have successfully verified your identity. Now it’s time to select a credit card reader to accept in-person payments.
Square’s free magstripe reader may be a bit obsolete, but your first one’s free, so we’ll go with that. On the next screen, select the version of the reader appropriate for your mobile device. You’ll then be taken to a checkout page.
Compatibility Note: Square’s magstripe and chip card readers and the Square Point of Sale (POS app) are compatible with most Apple iOS and Android devices running the latest software updates. After this tutorial, check out our Square POS review for more about system requirements, integrations, and a lot more details about Square POS.
How To Set Up Your Square Account & Dashboard
Right away, you can see that the Dashboard has a clean layout and is pretty straightforward. In the upper right-hand corner, you’ll find an icon that looks like a clipboard. Click on it, and you’ll access Square’s built-in Setup Guide. You can also select “Tour Your Dashboard” from under your account name in the upper right-hand corner.
Add Items & Build Your Inventory
Select “Build Your Item Catalog” from the Setup Guide, or select Item from the icons on the upper left. The place to add inventory is under Items>Item Library. You’ll see the options to Create an Item or Import Items.
Here is what the “Create an Item” screen looks like in the Square Dashboard:
I went ahead and uploaded a product image and filled out my first item below. I can add the amount of stock I have, a price, and set up low-stock alerts for myself here, too! Square will even let me color-code items if I prefer to group categories by colors.
It’s also possible to create variant items if you sell the same product in different colors and/or sizes. You can create variations of an item under the Options heading. Say, for example, that I wanted to offer a plant-based version of The Crispor. You can do that and even set an upcharge fee for these items using the modifier feature. There’s also an option to specify at which locations an item is available if you have more than one shop.
Manage Sales Tax Settings
You will find Square’s sales tax settings nestled under the Items menu in your Dashboard.
When you create a tax at your Square Dashboard, the tax will automatically sync to every device in your account, and you can specify which taxes apply to which locations. You can even build the tax into the price of the item if you prefer, rather than adding the tax to the price afterward. Square also lets you modify tax settings from within the mobile POS app, which is useful when you need to make changes on the fly.
In addition to multiple tax rates, you can create conditional tax rules, which are preset conditions in which a tax won’t be applied — whether you need that to apply to one item or the entire order. This is especially helpful for restaurants that handle online orders.
Now, let’s head back to the home screen and customize our Dashboard layout and then check out the reporting features!
Customize Your Dashboard Layout
The newest incarnation of the Square Dashboard isn’t quite as customizable as previous versions, but you can still rearrange your icons (upper left corner) by selecting them and dragging them into the position you want. You can also drag icons out of the upper left corner entirely and onto the text sidebar to remove them. Likewise, you can drag a sidebar menu item up to the upper left window to turn it into an icon.
Above, I’ve swapped out “Reporting” for “Loyalty.”
Review Square's Reporting Features
The extensive, user-friendly, and (mostly) free reporting features are what make Square a fantastic, no-fuss choice for any small business. As you can see in the screenshot below, there is a long list of possible reports. Every business has unique needs, and Square does a good job of supporting a wide range of small businesses with various options and features.
All of the sales reports, such as Sales Summary, Sales Trends, Items Sales, and Modifier Sales, are free. Custom Reports is another handy and entirely free reporting tool that can help you combine and compare your reporting data. Custom Reports allows you to aggregate reports with multiple filtering options. This feature makes it easy work to create a report that breaks the data down for a single location, or you can pick and choose certain pieces of data and compare them across different locations. For instance, you could create one report that compares Gross Sales and Returns for a particular device and/or location.
To find out even more about what Square’s Dashboard can offer you in terms of reporting features, check out our post, Why We Like Square’s Online Dashboard & Analytics App.
If you are looking for even more robust reporting and tracking across multiple locations for your employees, it may be worth it to you to learn more about the Employee Management tools, featured below.
Manage Your Employees
Within the Dashboard, you’ll find the “Team” section, which is the foundation for Square’s Team Management feature set. The basic version of this feature is free. If you want advanced customization and reporting, you’ll need to pay $35/month for Team Plus. Adding a new employee to your Dashboard is easy.
You can create job titles from this screen and designate whether or not the job is eligible for tips.
You’ll encounter numerous features along the way that require a Team Plus subscription, such as the ability to set individual permissions for your team members. The free version lets you set default permissions for all team members.
Finally, you’ll choose which access points your employee will be able to use the Square account from. Team members without personal passcodes will need a team passcode to access shared points of sale. You can generate them from the screen below.
Note that one of the report types you can generate is for Team Sales.
How To Set Up Square Deposits & Funding
The signup process gives you the opportunity to set up your Square deposits, but in case you skipped it, you can complete the process at any time. Setting up deposits will allow Square to pay out your share of sales revenue. You can enter bank accounts under Account & Settings –> Bank Accounts. If you’ve ever set up direct deposit before, the process should be pretty familiar.
When it’s time to get all of that revenue into your bank account, Square has several options for getting your money, all found under Balance.
Square will automatically deposit your funds on the next business day (though in some cases it may take two). You can also change your ‘close of day’ to adjust for your time zone or business hours if you would like. The close of day determines when Square cuts off payment deposits for the next business day.
If you need your money even faster, Square offers Instant Deposits that transfer your current Sales Balance immediately — whether it’s a business day or a weekend. This faster service will cost you 1.5% of the transfer amount. You can even use Scheduled Deposits to get your money deposited at each day’s close of business.
Find out all the details about the instant deposit feature, and more about how Square’s deposit options work in general, by checking out our post, The Complete Guide To Your Square Balance, Square Card, & Instant Deposit Options.
The third option is to sign up for Square Checking, a business banking service offered through Sutton Bank. Signing up for this service will allow you to instantly access your balance funds at no additional cost.
Explore More Square Software Options
When you sign up for Square, you’ll be enrolled in Square POS by default. There are other configurations and software options that are available both free and with a premium subscription. Here are the big ones:
| Placeholder | Square For Retail | Square For Restaurants | Square Appointments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | Number of users: Unlimited | Number of users: Unlimited | Number of users: 1 |
| Retail POS app included | Open checks | Calendar | |
| Auto-generate SKUs | Split tender | Online booking site | |
| Bar code scanning with iPad camera | Online ordering | Services management | |
| Advanced items search | Tableside ordering & payments | Square Assistant (handles confirmations and rescheduling automatically) | |
| New order creation | Menu management | Commission tracking | |
| Cross-location stock counts | Auto-gratuity | Resource tracking | |
| Paid Plan | Monthly fee: $60/month per location | Monthly fee: $60/month per location or $299/month per location for premium | Monthly fee: $50/month (2-5 users), $90/month (6-10 users), custom pricing for 10+ staff |
| All free plan features | All free plan features | All free plan features | |
| Discounted card-present transaction rate: 2.5% + $0.10 | Unlimited KDS devices | ||
| Cross-location bulk transfers & returns | Advanced table management and course management | ||
| Advanced inventory management tools & reporting | Advanced reporting | ||
| Barcode printing | Advanced employee management |
Square For Retail
This POS system works with an iPad and has a redesigned interface and usability geared for retail businesses that have substantial inventory. Instead of scrolling to an item in your inventory, an item is easily searchable by name. The barcode scanning and printing features make keeping up with inventory a bit easier, too.
Check out our Square Retail review for more on price, pros and cons, and a lot more details.
Square For Restaurants
If you are familiar with Square’s POS system, you may be surprised to see how different Square for Restaurants really is. And it has to be. Sit-down restaurants usually require more specialized tools to cover their everyday business needs, and this POS delivers — from table mapping, menu creation, table management, and reporting tools — there are a lot of specialized features here.
Check out our full Square for Restaurants review to find out if this is the right choice for your restaurant.
Square Appointments
If your business relies on creating and maintaining appointments for just yourself or an entire team, Square Appointments might be just what you need. Note that this POS option is an iOS exclusive. It’s free for individual users, and pricing starts at $50 a month beyond that.
Check out our in-depth Square Appointments review, including functionality, customization, and features.
Additional Software
Square offers a myriad of specialized software options to make business more productive. Some are free, while others come at an additional cost. Here are some of your options:
- Customer Engagement: Square’s customer engagement tools include a customer database, feedback management, and CRM software.
- Loyalty Program: This tool starts at $45/month per location, but you can try it for free for 30 days. Read our Square Loyalty Program review for an in-depth analysis.
- Team Plus: As outlined in a previous section, pay $35/month per location for advanced reporting and employee management tools. A free 30-day trial is available.
- Payroll: Square Employee and Contractor payroll start at $35/month plus $5/employee or contractor paid. Contractor-Only Payroll is just $5/month per contractor.
- eCommerce: Square offers free space and set up for an online store, and you can integrate with major shopping carts. Read our Square Online Store and eCommerce review.
- Invoicing: Invoices are always free to send, but you pay 2.9% + $0.30 per invoice when your customer pays with credit or debit online. For more on the pros and cons, pricing, and an in-depth look at invoicing with Square, check out our Square Invoices review.
Choose Hardware Options For Your Square Account
Square made a name for itself with its free magstripe reader and its excellent EMV-enabled reader for $49, but those are just the basics.
If you need something more robust in terms of hardware, you can probably find what you need. Square offers countertop POS systems with customer-friendly displays, and if you want to toe the line between countertop vs. mobile, Square also offers a fully portable credit card terminal with a built-in receipt printer.
Square’s countertop POS devices include:
- Square Stand: This hardware option is a tablet stand with a built-in card reader (along with contactless and chip reader) with an affordable price tag, minimal cords, and a swivel stand.
- Square Terminal: A more portable option, Square Terminal accepts magstripe, chip card, and contactless transactions. Its sleek design, built-in receipt printer, and generous display size make it a nice, versatile option.
- Square Register: Need something more robust? The Square Register offers a 13.25-inch display to run your Square Point of Sale, and on the opposite side, you have a 7-inch customer display ready for magstripe, chip card, and contactless transactions.
For an in-depth look at each of the POS options or to take a gander at all the Square POS kits and bundles, head over to The Complete Guide To Choosing Square POS Credit Card Readers & Cash Register Bundles.
Where To Go Next With Square?
You may have noticed that Square offers a huge ecosystem that small businesses can take advantage of. We’ve only touched on the basics of setting up a Square account here, but there’s so much more. Your next steps could be:
- Setting up your Square online store
- Set up Square payroll to pay your staff
- Check out Square’s marketing features
- See what Square offers nonprofit businesses
Learn To Make The Most Of Your Free Square Account
When you consider that Square is a secure, PCI-compliant option with a transparent pricing plan and offers lots of bells and whistles, it truly is an excellent solution for any small business. I like that it’s so easy to set up an account with Square and that they don’t ask for much in terms of personal information. When it is time to get set up or find reports, the Dashboard is intuitive and easy to navigate.
Have questions, comments? Leave us your thoughts below! (Just make sure you check our comment guidelines, first!)
Common Questions About Square Signups & Square Account Setup
Chris Motola
Expert Analyst & Reviewer at Merchant Maverick
An expert in personal and business loans and financial health, Chris Motola has been writing about small business finance and payments for over 5 years. He has been cited in various industry publications, including Forbes Advisor, GoBankingRates, and Medium. Chris is a graduate of the University of Central Florida.
View Chris Motola's professional experience on LinkedIn.
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