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Create and edit discounts

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Who is this article for?
Sellers with general items permissions. Set permissions in the Square Dashboard.

About discounts

A discount is a reduction in the price of a product or service. You can offer a discount to encourage purchases, attract customers, or promote specific items. With Square, you can manually or automatically apply pre-set percentage or fixed amount discounts to your sales.

Before you begin

There are two types of discounts you can create:

  • Manual discounts are set dollar or percentage discounts that you manually apply at checkout. For example, you can create a 10% Friends and Family discount.

  • Automatic discounts are automatically applied at checkout when a sale meets pre-set conditions. For example, you can use a quantity discount to set up a Buy One, Get One deal, or use a discount schedule to set up Happy Hour offers.

You have two options for creating discounts:

  • Create discounts from the Square Dashboard on a laptop or desktop computer

  • Create discounts from the Square POS apps

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines prohibit misleading “former price comparisons.” If you advertise or promote item(s) at a discounted price, it’s your responsibility to ensure you’re meeting FTC guidelines.

Option 1. Create and manage manual discounts

Square Dashboard

  1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & Orders > Items > Discounts.
  2. Click Create a Discount or select a discount to modify.
  3. Enter the discount details — including the discount name, amount type (Amount, Percentage, Variable amount or Variable percentage), and applicable locations.
  4. Click Save.

If you’d like to create a variable discount so you can enter the amount or percentage at checkout, select Variable amount or Variable percentage.

Square POS apps and devices

  1. Open the Square app and tap ≡ More > Items.
  2. Tap Discounts > Create Discount or select a discount to modify.
  3. Enter the discount details — including the discount name, amount type (Amount, Percentage, Variable amount or Variable percentage), and applicable locations.
  4. Tap Save.

If you’d like to create a variable discount so you can enter the amount or percentage at checkout, select Variable amount or Variable percentage.

Option 2. Create and manage automatic discounts

Set item or category automatic discounts

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

  1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & Orders > Items > Discounts.
  2. Click Create a Discount or select a discount to modify.
  3. Enter the discount details — including the discount name, amount type (Amount, Percentage, Variable amount or Variable percentage), and applicable locations.
  4. Toggle on/off Discount rules within the Automatic section.
  5. Click Item or category > Done.
  6. Add the required quantity and select the items or categories you want to include.
  7. Click Add individual items and Add item categories, then select each item or category you’d like to automatically discount when added to a sale > click Done.
  8. Click Save.

Set quantity automatic discounts

You can create a discount that will automatically apply when you add 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 cart, the discount will automatically trigger and apply to the item cost.
  • Minimum Quantity: When you add a minimum quantity of an item to your cart, 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 cart. If you’d like to set up a buy one, get one free discount, just make sure to set the discount percentage to 100%.

  1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & Orders > Items > Discounts.
  2. Click Create a Discount or select a discount to modify.
  3. Enter the discount details — including the discount name, amount type (Amount, Percentage, Variable amount or Variable percentage), and applicable locations.
  4. Toggle on/off Discount rules within the Automatic section.
  5. Click Quantity > Done.
  6. Add the required quantity and select the items or categories you want to include.
  7. Click Add discount rule and select one of the three options (Exact quantity, Minimum quantity or Buy one, get one) > click Done.
  8. Click Save.

Set customer group automatic 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. You can create a discount that will automatically apply when a buyer from the group is added to a sale.

  1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & Orders > Items > Discounts.
  2. Click Create a Discount or select a discount to modify.
  3. Enter the discount details — including the discount name, amount type (Amount, Percentage, Variable amount or Variable percentage), and applicable locations.
  4. Toggle on/off Discount rules within the Automatic section.
  5. Click Customer group > Done.
  6. Select a customer group from the list, or search for a customer group in the search bar you want to apply the discount to > click Done.
  7. Click Save.

Set limited time and recurring discounts

You can set limited time discounts to restrict the period during which a discount is valid. If your customer is applying multiple discounts, the limited time discounts will only be valid within their specified time frames.

  1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & Orders > Items > Discounts.
  2. Click Create a Discount or select a discount to modify.
  3. Enter the discount details — including the discount name, amount type (Amount, Percentage, Variable amount or Variable percentage), and applicable locations.
  4. Toggle on/off Discount rules within the Automatic discount section.
  5. Choose Item or category, Quantity, or Customer group from the menu > click Done.
  6. Toggle on/off Set schedule within the Discount schedule section to set the days of the week and times of day this discount is available.
  7. Toggle on/off Set date range to set the dates this discount is available.
  8. Click Save.

Set a minimum spend requirement

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 dollar amount to qualify for a percentage-based discount.

  1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & Orders > Items > Discounts.
  2. Click Create a Discount or select a discount to modify.
  3. Enter the discount details — including the discount name, amount type (Amount, Percentage, Variable amount or Variable percentage), and applicable locations.
  4. Toggle on/off Discount rules within the Automatic section.
  5. Choose Item or category, Quantity, or Customer group from the menu > click Done.
  6. Complete the fields that appear after making your selection.
  7. Toggle on/off Set minimum spend within the Minimum spend section and enter an amount.
  8. Click Save.

Create and manage discount options

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.

  1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & Orders > Items > Discounts.

  2. Click Create a Discount or select a discount to modify.

  3. Enter the discount details — including the discount name, amount type (Amount, Percentage, Variable amount or Variable percentage), and applicable locations.

  4. Toggle on/off Set maximum discount value within the Options section. 

  5. Enter an amount in the Maximum value field.

  6. Click Save.

Edit advanced discount settings

In advanced discount settings, you can choose whether to tax the original item price 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. You can also require a passcode when applying the discount.

Square Dashboard

  1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & Orders > Items > Discounts.
  2. Click Create a Discount or select a discount to modify.
  3. Enter the discount details — including the discount name, amount type (Amount, Percentage, Variable amount or Variable percentage), and applicable locations.
  4. Click Show settings next to Advanced Settings.
  5. Toggle on/off Require a passcode (if applicable).
  6. Toggle on/off Apply discount after taxes (if applicable).
  7. Click Save.

Square POS apps and devices

  1. Open the Square app and tap ≡ More > Items.
  2. Tap Discounts > Create Discount or select a discount to modify.
  3. Enter the discount details — including the discount name, amount type (Amount, Percentage, Variable amount or Variable percentage), and applicable locations.
  4. Toggle on/off Require a passcode (if applicable).
  5. Toggle on/off Apply discount after taxes (if applicable).
  6. Tap Save.

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