Manage item subscription plans
About item subscription plans
With Square Subscriptions you can make any item in your Square item library subscribable, with benefits like item tracking for fulfilled subscriptions, improved sales reporting, fulfillment management in Square Order Manager, item-level Square sales tax settings that'll automatically apply to all subscription orders, and discounts for “Subscribe and save” plans.
Before you begin
There are no monthly fees or fixed costs for Square Subscriptions. Subscription capabilities are only available in your item library in Square Dashboard.
The features listed below are not available with subscriptions:
Offer pickup as a fulfillment option on subscription plans.
Set custom payment or billing dates on subscriptions, like billing all your subscriptions on the 1st of the month.
Modify the price of the subscription plan after it’s been created.
Swap an item on an active subscription.
Set commitment periods for subscriptions where customers must be subscribed for a minimum amount of time before they can cancel.
If you already have existing subscription plans not connected to items in your item library, you can still sell those existing plans on your point of sale. These plans will have a Legacy tag next to them.
Create and manage an item subscription plan
You can create and manage subscription plans for customers to subscribe to from your online store, through QR codes, and social media.
- Log in to your Square Dashboard and go click Payments > Subscriptions.
- Click Plans > Create plan and enter a plan name (only visible to you).
- Click Assign items and choose the items from your catalog you’d like to assign to your subscription plan. Click Save.
- Click Add frequency option. For Subscription start date, choose to bill your customers at the time the subscription starts, the last day of each month, or a billing date of your choice. Note: Choosing a subscription billing start date is only available for new Monthly subscription plans. After selecting your billing date, your partial billing option will be set to Prorate or Charge full price.
- Set an endpoint for your plan. Your subscription plan is set to Never by default to be continuous in the Subscription ends dropdown. If you want your plan to have a set amount of billing cycles, select After # of billing cycles and enter a value in Billing cycles to set a custom endpoint.
- Toggle on if a discount is available with this frequency, and assign a percentage or specific amount to discount.
- To allow customers to pause subscriptions, toggle on Pause subscriptions and set a pause duration limit. Click Add.
- Click Save when finished.
Item stock will stay updated as you fulfill subscription orders. All subscription-based orders will appear in your Square Order Manager with all other orders.
- Log in to your Square Dashboard and go click Payments > Subscriptions > Plans.
- Click ••• > Edit plan under the plan you want to edit.
- You can add items to an existing plan by clicking Assign items. You can also update the frequencies of an existing plan, or add additional frequency options by clicking Add frequency option.
Note: Any changes made to an existing plan only affect new subscriptions. Existing subscriptions won’t be affected by the updates.
- Log in to your Square Dashboard and go click Payments > Subscriptions > Plans.
- Under the plan you want to modify, click ••• > Duplicate plan or Deactivate plan.
Note: Existing subscriptions to a deactivated plan will not be affected and will continue to renew until the existing subscriptions are canceled.
Create and manage an item subscription for a customer
- Log in to your Square Dashboard and go to Subscriptions.
- Click Create subscription to add your subscription details.
- In the Customer field, select an existing customer from your Customer Directory or create a new one. If you add an existing customer, subscriber details will automatically load.
- Select the Location and the Start date for your subscription.
- Select a Plan from the dropdown menu. If there are multiple frequencies available for the plan, select one from the Frequency dropdown menu.
- To add items to this subscription, click Add an item and select an existing item from your catalog.
- To add a discount, click Add discount, and choose an existing discount or create a new one. If you create a new discount and wish to save it for later use, select Save discount for future transactions. Click Save.
- Choose the Fulfillment method. Orders with the No fulfillment option will still appear in your Square Order Manager but will not have shipping details. Orders with the Shipment option will need to have a shipping address.
- To add a service charge, like a shipping charge, or packing fees, tap Add service charge, and either choose an existing service charge or create a new one.
- Select the payment method by entering the payment information for new customers, or selecting the payment information of existing customers. You can also choose to send an invoice by email.
- Under Plan Details click Add plan and select the subscription plan where you want to add the customer. If you want to add sales tax to the subscription, click Add sales tax, then Save.
- Review the subscription details and click Save to begin your customer’s subscription.
When a customer purchases an item subscription, they’ll receive an email stating an invoice has been paid for your subscription plan. Their email confirmation contains a Manage subscription link that enables them to update their payment information, pause or resume the subscription (if you’ve enabled that option), or cancel their subscription.
- Log in to your Square Dashboard and go to Subscriptions.
- Click the subscription you want to view to open the subscription details, and select Edit to make changes.
- Log in to your Square Dashboard and go to Subscriptions.
- Click the subscription you want to pause.
- Click ••• > Pause subscription.
- Choose to either pause the subscription Indefinitely or By billing cycle.
- Click Save when finished.
Your customer will receive a notification that the subscription has been paused. The subscription status will change from Pause Scheduled to Paused at the end of the current billing cycle.
- Log in to your Square Dashboard and go to Subscriptions.
- Click the paused subscription you want to resume.
- Click ••• > Resume subscription.
- Choose to resume the subscription Immediately or On the next billing date.
- Click Save when finished.
Your customer will receive a notification when the subscription resumes, and their subscription status will show as Active.
- Log in to your Square Dashboard and go to Subscriptions.
- Click the subscription you want to cancel.
- Click ••• > Cancel subscription.
Your customer will receive a notification that the subscription has been canceled. The subscription status will now show as Canceled in your Square Dashboard.
Add subscriptions to your online store
You can make your items subscribable and sell them on your Square Online site, enabling buyers to automatically order them on a recurring basis online. Start by creating a subscription plan, then attaching that plan to your item.
Learn more about how to manage Square Online item settings.
You can also make items available by subscription only:
- Log in to your Square Dashboard and go to Items > Item library.
- Under Subscriptions, toggle on Sell item only as a subscription on Square Online.
- Click Save.
If you sell non-physical items with Square Online like memberships, note that subscriptions don’t support an entitlement feature. For example, if a gym offers five classes per month as part of a membership package, subscriptions won’t keep track of how many classes a subscriber has already redeemed.