Get Started with Square Payment Links
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Use Square Payment Links to allow your customers to purchase anything you want to sell online without creating an eCommerce website.
Note: Square Online Checkout and Checkout Links are now known as Square Payment Links. The functionality for Square Payment Links hasn’t changed and all features included with the product will continue to be supported as is.
Create and Manage Square Payment Links
Send your customers a payment link through an email or Square Marketing campaign, or let your customers purchase at their convenience by posting the link on social media or your blog. Allow your customers to purchase anything you want to sell online without creating an eCommerce website. Try Square Payment Links without up-front fees and only pay when you make a sale (1.4% + €0.25 + VAT for European cards, and 2.9% + €0.25 + VAT for non-European cards per transaction).
Review answers to frequently asked questions about using Square Payment Links to learn more.
Note: Square Payment Links can only be sent from the country where the Square account was activated. If you’d like to sell online internationally or create a fully customisable eCommerce website, take a look at Square Online.
You can start accepting payments with payment links through your online Square Dashboard or Square App. You can create payment links for the following options:
collect a payment to accept money for any reason.
Sell an item to accept money for items in your Square Item Library.
Accept a donation to allow a donor to enter an amount of their choice.
Sell classes or tickets to host an online or in-person class or event.
To create a payment link from your online Square Dashboard:
- In your online Square Dashboard, go to Payment Links.
- Choose to create a link, button or QR code using the buttons.
- Under Link purpose, choose to either collect a payment, sell an item or accept a donation.
- Enter a name for your link to be displayed to your customer.
- If prompted, enter the amount you want to charge.
- Add an image by selecting Add Image. Select either an image from your files or from your existing item library. Note: If you’re adding a new image for an item in your library that already has one, the new image will automatically replace the previous image. You can also edit your image by adjusting the zoom.
- Choose a Frequency if prompted.
- Add a description (optional). The description for each payment link has a 400-character limit. Note: When creating a new link for a new product in your item library, you can add a brand new description. This description will sync back to your item library for future use. For an existing item in your library, you can use your pre-existing description or create a new description to overwrite the previous one. Managing descriptions is currently only available in the online Square Dashboard.
- Select Create link.
- Select Copy link to share the link anywhere.
Note: Square Payment Links can only be enabled for one location at a time. You can change the location you want to use to track sales and inventory for payment links in your Square Dashboard by going to your Payment Links Settings > General and selecting a Primary Location.
See additional resources about creating and managing Square Payment Links in app.
Once you’ve created a payment link, you’re ready to start accepting payments online. You can manage all of your links from the Payment Links section of your online Square Dashboard where you can view a list of all of your links and the sales generated from each active and inactive link.
You can also access and enable Payment Links for items in your Item Library. To do so:
- In your online Square Dashboard, go to Items to access your Item Library.
- Select the item you want to sell with a payment link.
- Toggle on the Payment Links option.
When you enable Payment Links from your Item Library, you’ll have access to more Payment Links options to:
- Enable a shipping fee through Payment Links Settings.
- Collect delivery information such as an address on the checkout page.
- Display a product image on the checkout page.
- Display product variants on the checkout page.
Note: The blue chainlink symbol means your payment link is active. A grey one indicates your payment link is inactive.
By default, Payment Links only available for account owners but can be opened up to all employees via Permissions. Once the account owner enables the Payment Links feature, employees with online Square Dashboard access can view, create, update and manage settings for Square Payment Links.
Once you’ve copied payment links, you’re ready to share your links anywhere. Add a payment link to an email, your social media page or your blog. Additionally, you can send out a customisable Square Marketing campaign to a targeted customer group. Note: Purchases made with payment links won’t issue a standard customised receipt. Instead, they’ll generate a basic digital receipt.
When a customer clicks the payment link for an item, they’ll be directed to a single checkout page where they can pay with a card of their choice, with Apple Pay or Google Pay.
You can download and print a custom QR code to direct your customers to Square Payment Links, offering a simple contactless payment solution that will allow your customers to self-serve.
To create a QR code for an Item from your online Square Dashboard:
- In your online Square Dashboard, go to Payments > Payment Links.
- Select the Item you want to generate a QR code for.
- After you create your payment link, share your link via QR code by selecting Create under the QR code option.
- Download the QR Code to your device to print it for use in your business.
You can also learn how to set up and manage a QR Code for Payment in the Square POS app.
Customise Settings for Square Payment Links
With digital wallets, customers can check out from their mobile device or computer using Apple Pay or Google Pay.
To manage payment methods for Square Payment Links:
- Log in to your online Square Dashboard and click Payment Links. If you don’t see the Payment Links add-on, click Payments > Payment Links.
- Click Settings > General.
- Under Payments, toggle on the payment options you want your customers to see at checkout.
- Log in to your online Square Dashboard and click Payment Links > Settings > General.
- Under Email notifications, toggle on Payment Links to receive notifications for links created in your Payment Links add-on. Toggle on Send Payment Link to receive notifications for links created in your Point of Sale app or Virtual Terminal.
When you’re creating a payment link, you can easily allow for tips from your customers. To get started with accepting tips from your customers:
- Log in to your online Square Dashboard and click Payment Links.
- As you’re creating your payment link, go to Advanced Settings and tick the box to Enable tipping.
- Enter a name for your link and the amount you want to charge.
- Click Create link and select Copy link to share the link anywhere.
To set up the tip options and amounts for a specific location:
- Log in to your online Square Dashboard and click Payment Links.
- Click Settings > General.
- In the Location Settings, select the location associated with your Square Payment Links.
- Under Tipping, select Tip options.
- Select if you want Smart tips (percentage and whole amount) or Percentage tips to display percentage options only at checkout.
- Set up to three Percentage amounts to display to your customers.
- Set the default percentage your customers will see on the checkout screen.
Enable your customers to add a comment or note while they checkout using Square Payment Links. This will better help your business to:
- Collect needed order information from your customers.
- Track donation details.
- Customise your customers’ orders.
To get started with accepting notes from your customers:
- In your online Square Dashboard, go to Payment Links.
- Go to Settings > General.
- Toggle the ‘Note from Customer’ option on.
- Click Save.
When your customers pay through a payment link, they’ll see a box for an optional note. Any information entered by your customer in the note section at checkout will appear on the order details for each transaction. Simply select Transactions from your Payment Links dashboard and click on any payment to see your customer note. You will also see this information in your Order Manager.
If you have Square Online set up, you’ll have this option listed under your Online settings rather than your Payment Links settings. To turn on customer notes through Square Online, from your Square Online Overview page, go to Settings > Checkout or Shared Settings > Checkout and select Advanced Settings. Tick the box next to Allow customer to leave a note to seller and select Save when finished.
Learn more about payment tracking with Square Payment Links.
You have the option to allow your customers to set the price at checkout for Square Payment Links. This setting is accessible from both the online Square Dashboard and Square POS app. To do so:
- In your online Square Dashboard, go to Payment Links.
- Select Create payment link.
- Select Collect a payment.
- Enter a name for the link that will be displayed to the customer.
- In Advanced Settings, check the Allow buyer to set the price option.
- Complete your payment link setup and select Create link.
- Select Copy link to share the link anywhere.
See additional resources about creating and managing Square Payment Links in app.
To direct your customers to a page on your website after they complete the checkout process:
- Log in to your online Square Dashboard and click Payment Links.
- Choose to create a link, button or QR code using the buttons.
- Under Link purpose, choose to collect a payment, sell an item or accept a donation.
- Enter a name for your link to display to your customer and the amount you want to charge. Choose a Frequency if prompted.
- Add a description and an image (optional) for your payment link.
- In the Advanced Settings menu, toggle on Redirect to a website after checkout, then enter the website URL.
- Click Create link.
- Click Copy link to share the link anywhere.
Toggle on Enable custom fields and enter a title for the custom field to add. You can create up to two custom fields and add them to your Square Payment Link to collect additional information from your customers.
- Log in to your online Square Dashboard and click Payment Links.
- Choose to create a link, button or QR code using the buttons.
- Under Link purpose, choose to collect a payment, sell an item or accept a donation.
- Enter a name for your link to display to your customer and the amount you want to charge. Choose a Frequency if prompted.
- Add a description and an image (optional) for your payment link.
- In the Advanced Settings menu, toggle on Enable custom fields. Add custom field titles to be displayed at checkout.
- Click Create link.
- Click Copy link to share the link anywhere.
Branding
Customise the appearance of your Square Payment Links.
You can choose to have your logo placed in the header of your payment links. To add a logo, to your Square Payment Links:
- From your Square Dashboard, go to Payment Links.
- Under the Settings menu, select Branding > Logo.
- Click +Add a full-width logo to upload your logo. To make sure your image is high resolution, the recommended logo size is 1280x680 px or a 2:1 ratio.
- Select and upload an image.
Note: If you’ve already added a full-width logo in Account Settings > Locations > Location Details, that logo will automatically appear on your checkout page header and apply to the look of your receipts, invoices, appointment bookings and marketing.
Create a buy button and add it to your website as a convenient way to take customers directly to a checkout page. Create your buy button by generating a small piece of HTML code that you can embed on your website, blog, landing page or the body of an email.
Learn more about adding buy buttons to your website with Square Payment Links.
Additional Features for Payment Links
Subscription payment links can be used to accept weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual payments from multiple customers with a single payment link. For more info on getting started, visit Subscriptions in Square Payment Links.
With Square Loyalty, you can create a digital rewards programme that lets customers earn incentives with each purchase.
With Square Payment Links, you can set up a payment link with Square Loyalty enabled. Your customers can sign up for Square Loyalty and earn or redeem rewards using their phone number at checkout. If you’re enrolled in the Square Loyalty programme, there’s no extra monthly fee for using Square Loyalty with Square Payment Links.
If you’re setting up a Loyalty programme for the first time:
- From your online Square Dashboard, go to Customers > Loyalty.
- Follow the steps to create your loyalty programme.
- Once your Square Loyalty account is activated and you create rewards, customers will automatically see the option to sign up, earn or redeem rewards on their payment links.
If you’re already enrolled in a Square Loyalty programme, customers will automatically see the option to enrol, earn or redeem rewards on their payment links created from Square Payment Links. Note: Below are some limitations to consider when using Square Loyalty with Square Online Payment Links:
- Square Loyalty is currently available with Square Payment Links only on “Send payment links” through the Square Point of Sale > Payment app.
- Square Loyalty text message notifications are only available for in-store purchases.
Learn more about getting started with Square Loyalty and creating a loyalty programme. You can also review the Square Loyalty FAQs.
You can promote your items by reaching your customers with a Square Marketing campaign. To include a Square ayment Link in your campaign:
- In your online Square Dashboard, go to Payment Link to start creating your payment link.
- After you create your payment link, copy any link by clicking the blue chainlink icon.
- In your online Square Dashboard, go to Marketing. Depending on the campaign type, you can paste the payment link directly in the body text.
- Send your campaign.
Once you send your marketing campaign, customers can click on the payment link to purchase items on the spot. Note: At this time, you’re unable to track click-through rate for payment links.
Customers can apply the vouchers you create with Square Marketing to the Square Payment Links you share with them. Your customers will need to enter the voucher code in the designated field in your payment link’s checkout screen for the discount to apply. One voucher can be applied per payment link.
Square Payment Link Reporting
You can easily track the amount of sales generated from each Square Payment Link. This allows you to track how links are performing. To view the amount of sales per payment link, in your online Square Dashboard, review the sales per link in the Total Sales column.
You can also view all your sales in your online Square Dashboard in Reports when you filter by Source > Payment Links.
Deactivate or Delete Payment Links
You can deactivate and delete a payment link at any time. To disable a payment link:
in your online Square Dashboard, go to Payment Links.
Select the payment link you want to deactivate or delete.
Click Deactivate or Delete at the bottom of the item details page.
Note: if you’ve previously shared a link with your customers, once you deactivate or delete it, they’ll be unable to complete a transaction via the link.