Create and Manage Discounts

Create Manual Discounts

From your online Square Dashboard

1. Visit Items > Discounts in your online Square Dashboard.

2. Click Create a Discount.

3. Enter the discount details – including the discount name, amount (either percentage or pound amount) and applicable locations.

4. When you’re all set, click Save.

From the Square app

1. From the navigation bar at the bottom of your screen, tap More > Items.

2. Tap Discounts > Create Discount or select a discount to modify.

3. Enter the discount details and tap Save.

Note: If you’d like to create a variable discount so you can enter the amount at checkout, leave the Amount field blank.

Although you can create manual discounts online or from the Square app, to create automatic discounts, go to the online Square Dashboard.

Create Automatic Discounts for Square Online

You can create automatic discounts from your Square Item Library and apply them to your Square Online website. Learn more about how to create discounts and vouchers for Square Online items.

Create Post-Tax Discounts

Create post-tax discounts for things like manufacturer discounts and instant rebates. When a post-tax discount is applied, the item being discounted will still be taxed at the original price instead of the discounted price.

From your online Square Dashboard

1. Visit Items > Discounts in your online Square Dashboard.

2. Click Create a Discount.

3. Enter the discount details – including the discount name, amount (either percentage or pound amount) and applicable locations.

4. Under Advanced Settings toggle on Apply Discount After Tax.

5. Toggle Discount Rules on if you want to automatically apply the discount to a specific criteria.

6. When you’re all set, click Save.

From the Square app

1. From the navigation bar at the bottom of your screen, tap More > Items.

2. Tap Discounts > Create Discount, or select a discount to modify.

3. Enter the discount details.

4. In the Advanced settings section, tap Display settings.

5. Toggle on ApplyDiscount After Taxes > Save.

Note: Post-tax discounts are not available for Virtual Terminal, Square Invoices or payments accepted using our developer APIs at this moment.

Set a Maximum Discount Value

You can set a maximum discount value for a discount to limit the total discounted amount applied to a purchase. If your customer is applying multiple discounts, the maximum discount value will only apply to the discounts with a set maximum discount value.

To set a maximum discount value:

1. Log in to your online Square Dashboard, and select Items > Discounts.

2. Click Create a Discount, and enter the discount details.

3. Within the Options section, toggle on Set maximum value.

4. Enter an amount in the Maximum value field, and click Save.

You can remove the maximum discount value setting from an existing discount at any time by toggling off the Set maximum value option while editing the discount. 

Create Automatic Discounts

Create automatic discounts for specific items, categories, quantities, daily specials (like happy hours) or limited-time offers. You can also set a minimum spend requirement a customer must meet before a discount is applied.

You can create multiple types of automatic discounts:

• Item or Category

• Itemised

• Quantity

• Customer Group

• Customer-Based

• Recurring

• Limited-Time

• Minimum Spend Requirement

Automatic discounts can be used in combination with other automatic discounts. For example, you can create a minimum quantity discount on a recurring basis or for a limited time by setting up the discount Set Schedule or Set Date Range.

Team members with discount permissions can manually apply a discount to a transaction. If a manual discount is applied to the basket, it will override any automatic discounts.

Note: Automatic discounts are not available for Square Invoices.

Item or category discounts

Create a discount that will automatically apply when you add an item or category to a sale.

1. Visit Items > Discounts in your online Square Dashboard.

2. Click Create a Discount.

3. Enter the discount details – including the discount name, amount (either percentage or pound amount) and applicable locations.

4. Toggle on Discount Rules.

5. Click Edit purchase rule and select Item or Category > Done.

6. Next, search and select each item or category you’d like to automatically discount when added to a sale and click Save.

Itemised discounts 

You can choose whether or not your basket-level discounts will appear as itemised or totalled on your customers’ receipts. To do so:

1. Go to Account & Settings > Business information > Receipts from your online Square Dashboard.

2. Under Items and total toggle on Show total savings row when more than one discount is applied. 

3. Next, toggle off Show cart-level discounts on the item level to prevent itemised basket-level discounts from appearing on receipts.

4. Click Save.

Quantity discounts

Create a discount that will automatically apply when you add items or categories and a specified quantity to a sale.

You can set up three types of quantity discounts:

• Exact Quantity: When you add an exact item quantity to your basket, the discount will automatically trigger and apply to the item cost.

• Minimum Purchase Quantity: When you add a minimum quantity of an item to your basket, a discount will apply to all of the specified items.

• Buy One, Get One: When a customer buys a specified quantity of an item or category, a discount will apply towards additions of the same item or towards different item(s) added to the basket. For example, you can create a BOGO discount so that when a customer purchases two hats, they’ll receive 50% off the cost of a scarf.

Note: If you’d like to set up a buy one, get one free discount, just make sure to set the discount percentage amount to 100%.

To get started:

1. Visit Items > Discounts in your online Square Dashboard.

2. Click Create a Discount and add a name and discount amount.

3. Toggle on Auto-Apply to Items and Categories.

4. Click Quantity.

5. Add the required quantity and select the items or categories you want to include.

6. Toggle on Discount rules. You’ll have three options for setting up your quantity discount:

   • Exact Purchase Quantity

   • Minimum Purchase Quantity

   • Buy One, Get One

7. Select exact or minimum quantity, and save the discount. If you select buy one, get one, specify the quantity and items the buyer will receive at a discount, and then click Save.

You can update an existing discount at any time by clicking Edit Purchase Rule from the discount details page.

Quantity-based discounts also work with schedule or date range features. For example, you could create a Minimum Purchase Quantity every Saturday or for the month of December for holiday specials.

Customer group discounts

Square Customer Directory allows you to create customer groups to view how customers interact with your business. Creating customer groups allows you to store contact information on file, such as phone numbers or email addresses, or track visit frequencies to your business. 

When you create a discount for a customer group, the discount will automatically apply to the entire purchase when a buyer from the group is added to a transaction, speeding up the checkout process.

To create a discount for a customer group from your Dashboard:

1. Go to your online Square Dashboard and select Items > Discounts.

2. Click Create a Discount, and enter the discount details.

3. Toggle on Discount rules.

4. Click Customer Group from the menu, then select Next.

5. Select a customer group from the list, or search for a customer group in the search bar you want to apply the discount to.

6. Click Done to save your new discount.

Note: If using Square for Retail, create the discount for a customer group from your Retail Dashboard. Once created in your Dashboard, the discount will apply to your assigned customer group in the Retail app on iOS and Square Register.

To create a new discount or apply an existing discount for a customer group from the Square Point of Sale App:

1. From the main menu of your app, tap Customers > View groups.

2. Select a group you wish to apply a discount to.

3. From the menu at the top of the page, tap Manage Group Discounts. 

4. Either select an existing discount to apply to the group, or press Create discount. 

5. If you’re creating a new discount, provide the discount details and tap Save. In the next window, click the discount you created and tap Save. 

6. If you’re adding an existing discount to a group, select which discounts you wish to apply and tap Save.

Once these steps are complete, you can add another customer group to the discount, add another discount rule or edit the discount. To remove a discount, deselect the discount from the Apply discount to group page and press Save once complete.

Note: Discounts can only be created to customer groups on the Square Point of Sale App on iOS or on your online Square Dashboard. Discounts can’t yet be configured to groups on Android devices. Once a discount is created for a customer group, it will be applied across your entire Square account. 

Learn more about how to manage customer groups and filters.

Customer-based discounts

Customer-based discounts allow you to create and link discounts to customer groups from your online Square Dashboard. The discounts will automatically apply when a customer from the customer group is added to a transaction. Also, any customer added to a customer group with an associated discount will automatically receive the discount during a transaction. To get started:

1. From your online Square Dashboard, go to Items > Discounts.

2. Click Create a Discount.

3. Enter the discount details, including the discount name, amount and location. Note: If a discount is connected to a specific location, the customers will only get the discount if they make a purchase from that location.

4. Select the customer group to which you want to apply the discount.

Note: If the customer associated with the discount is removed from the transaction, the discount will also be removed from that transaction. If you add the customer back to the transaction, the discount will reapply automatically.

To edit a discount, you can use the Customers applet to unlink the discount from the customer group, then you’ll be able to edit it in Dashboard (change the percentage, change the item category, etc.). Once completed, you need to go back to the Customers applet afterward and relink the discount to the customer group again.

Please note that you can’t edit the customer-based discounts via Square Dashboard.

Recurring discounts

1. Visit Items > Discounts in your online Square Dashboard.

2. Click Create a Discount to add a new discount.

3. Enter the discount details.

4. Toggle on Discount Rules.

5. Click Edit purchase rule and select Item or category to apply discounts to certain items or categories automatically.

6. Under Apply % discount to, click Add discount rule > Done.

7. Toggle on Set Schedule.

8. Set the days of the week and times of day this discount is available and click Save.

Limited-time discounts

1. Visit Items > Discounts in your online Square Dashboard.

2. Click Create a Discount and enter the discount details.

3. Toggle on Auto-Apply to Items and Categories.

4. Under Discount schedule, toggle on Set schedule to set the days of the week and times of day this discount is available, or Set date range to set the dates this discount is available.

5. Toggle on Discount rules.

6. Click Edit purchase rule. Select item or category to apply discounts to certain items or categories automatically.

7. Under Apply % discount to, click Add discount rule.

8. Select a quantity and click Done > Save.

Minimum spend requirement

By turning on the Minimum Spend setting for a discount, you can set a minimum spend requirement a customer must meet before a discount is applied to their purchase. This setting requires a purchase subtotal to meet a minimum pound amount to qualify for a percentage-based discount.

To set a minimum spend subtotal requirement:

1. Log in to your online Square Dashboard, and select Items > Discounts.

2. Click Create a Discount, and enter the discount details.

3. Toggle on Discount rules.

4. Choose Item or category, Quantity or Customer Group from the menu, then click Done.

5. Complete the fields that appear after making your selection.

6. Within the Minimum spend section, toggle on Set minimum spend.

7. Enter an amount in the Minimum subtotal field, and click Save.

You can remove a minimum spend requirement from an existing discount at any time by toggling off the Set minimum spend option while editing the discount.

Note: The minimum spend setting can only be enabled from your online Square Dashboard.