Sign Up for Square Point of Sale
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Learn how to sign up for a Square account online, and review the information required to activate a Square account. If you have multiple businesses, learn how to set up multiple accounts with Square. If your business has multiple locations or entities with the same company registration number, you can manage multiple locations or accounts within the single Square account.
Personal Detail Requirements
We’re required by regulation to ask for the following information for the account holder and business owners, shareholders, directors, partners and beneficial owners, as applicable. There’s no way to create a Square account without completing verification.
Full name
Date of birth
Registered residential address
Even if you plan on using Square as a company or individual, in order to create a Square account you must provide your full name, home address and date of birth.
We verify the information of the account holder and any other applicable parties through a document-based system. We can accept any of the following document types:
Passport
UK/EU/EEA National ID Card (Note: We don’t currently accept Public Services Cards)
UK/EU/EEA Driving Licence
Note: Any employees added to the account by the Account Holder won’t be required to provide additional personal information, except their full legal name.
Information Required to Sign Up
Regulations require that Square understand and verify the company and personal information for those we’re doing business with, therefore we’re required to request the following information to activate a Square account:
Account Holder Full Legal Name (first name, last name, second last name).
Account Holder Residential Address.
Account Holder Phone Number.
Company Structure and Ownership Structure.
Director, Shareholder, Partner, Owner or Beneficial Owner (Individuals or organisations with significant control or influence over the business), Legal Name, Residential Address and Date of Birth, as applicable.
Legal and Trading Company Address.
Company registration number, if applicable.
VAT number, if applicable.
SEPA bank account.
If you’re unable to provide the information above, you won’t be able to accept card payments, but you can still use Square to track cash payments and provide your customers with email and text receipts.
Square’s card processing system meets Level 1 PCI Data Security Standards, so Square has you covered.
Sign Up Online
Go to the Square website > click Get Started.
Enter and confirm your email address, create a password > click Create Account.
Select your business type, then enter your business information. Note: VAT number is an optional field, however you’ll receive an error if an invalid VAT number is entered. Enter your business information. Click Continue.
You’ll be asked to input your personal and/or business information to help us verify your identity. Note: Enter your personal information as it appears on your ID. If you’re registering as a Company, you’ll be asked to provide information about any additional business owners or directors. When complete, click Continue.
Next, you’ll enter our document-based verification flow. You’ll be required to upload a picture of a photo ID for us to verify, so make sure you have your ID and mobile phone nearby. We can only accept official government-issued IDs, such as a passport, national ID card or driving licence. If you’re registering as a Company, each of the business owners will be required to complete this verification step, and will receive an email with a link and instructions for completing verification. Note: The link sent to other business owners will expire after two weeks – if they haven’t completed verification before then, you can resend the link from your Square Dashboard.
Once you’ve submitted your documents for verification, you’ll see the options to select which Square products you plan on using. This will help us make sure you get the most useful information as you continue onboarding to Square.
Enter your bank details – IBANs from SEPA participating countries are accepted, however the account that you link must be a current account that can support credits and debits.
Finally, you’ll see the option to purchase Square hardware to help you begin accepting payments. You can either complete your purchase now, or order hardware another time.
Sign Up In App
Download the Square Point of Sale app to your mobile device.
Open the app and tap Create Account to start the activation process.
Enter your personal and business information and answer a few questions to verify your identity.
If you have trouble downloading the app, make sure that you’re using a supported device.
You can access the Square Point of Sale Setup Guide in the Square app. The setup guide will walk you through setting up a bank account for transfers, creating items, ordering hardware and more.
To access the Square Point of Sale Setup Guide in the app:
Open the Square app and select ≡ More.
Select Support > Setup Guide.
For a more comprehensive look at the features available within Square Point of Sale, view the full Square Point of Sale Guide in our Support Centre.
Choose a Business Type
You can register for a Square account as a Sole Trader or Company.
Note: We’re only able to support the above business types at this time, and can’t support payments for not-for-profit organisations (NPOs). These might include, but aren’t limited to, cooperatives, religious organisations, trade unions, residents’ associations, foundations and self-help groups.
During the sign-up process, you’ll need to classify how you’ll use Square by selecting your business type or Merchant Category Code. Square will use this information to provide you with the most suitable features to help you grow your business.
For a more comprehensive look at the many features available within Square Point of Sale, view the full Square Point of Sale Guide.
Registration FAQs
When uploading your documents and photographs for verification, make sure that your images are clear and include the full ID or ID page. If you upload images that are blurry, have excessive glare or crop out the edges of your ID, our verification partner may have difficulty completing the verification. You must also upload a picture of the physical document – we will not be able to accept and verify copies.
No – in order to complete verification, we do require that you upload a photo of your original ID document. Uploading a copy of document may result in your verification failing.
Yes – document-based verification is the only way in which we can verify and activate your account at this time.
If you do not have a National ID card or driving licence issued from the UK/EU/EEA, you can submit your passport for verification instead.
You can check on the verification status of the other business owners in your Square Dashboard. To check, click on Account & Settings > Business > Owners & Directors.
If the other owners and directors of the business have not received their email to complete verification, you can resend this from your Square Dashboard. To do so, click Account & Settings > Business > Owners & Directors. From here, you should see the option to Resend the email, or Edit the email address if it was entered incorrectly. Note: The verification link in the email will expire after two weeks. If the other owners and directors have not completed verification before then, you will need to resend the verification link.
You can check your verification status from the Setup Guide in your Square Dashboard. Read more about the different verification statuses.
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