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Square POS

Updated

Avero & Square POS

Square is supported for Sales data. 

Avero processes and presents data from your Square POS for your analysis and insight. This article details how to handle POS changes, make updates to this data, and handle discrepancies or problems you might encounter. For some things, such as adding meal periods or categories, you must complete the action on your side in order for it to be reflected in Avero (maybe with the help of Square Support or IT) and for some changes, such as global category associations, you'll need to reach out to our support team. 

In this article:

About Square POS

POS Type: Cloud

Avero is proud to offer Free Installation & Reinstallation for Square, and most POS systems.

Avero ingests sales data from Square using a cloud integration. This means there is no server in the restaurant and nothing Avero connects to on-site, we connect to Square's cloud and pull the data for your business. This allows for very quick connection and data capture. 

Differences between Square & Avero Reporting

Avero does not have an integration with Square Labor data. A complete list of our POS Integrations, including those that are supported for Labor data, is here: POS Integrations

Please note Square POS does not supply the following data points, so this may limit some Avero reporting as a result:

  • Parent Categories - Square only provides a single level of categories via their API data source, so Parent Categories will not be displayed. This means your Major and Minor categories will appear the same. 
  • Cover Counts information - Square's API does not expose the number of covers associated with a check, which means Cover Counts and Average Check information is not available for reporting. 
  • Turn Times are not provided as each check has only one timestamp which is the same of Open and Close time, meaning the check duration is not available. 
  • Transferred Check Information - Square does not provide any information on Transferred Checks - this means that you will not see what was transferred on or off checks nor the checks it was transferred to or received from. 
  • Cost Information - for menu items, so cost-based metrics cannot be used
  • Order Type information, this filter will not be available 
  • Item Transaction Time - Avero is only able to show check open and close times. 
  • Authorizing Employee - for Voids, Discounts, and Promotions
  • Cashier Information - if checks are frequently closed by a cashier position, this additional information will not be available

Programming Square POS for Data Quality

Since you will be using Avero to review sales data through an analytical lens and make adjustments to operating procedures and standards as a result, clean and legible data must be coming in from Square POS. See our article that explains some of the common ways to choose to set up categories and items for the best analysis in the Avero platform. 

Programming Square POS for Data Quality


Installation & Reinstallation on Square

Square is very easy to install. If you are ready to go and take the necessary steps, you can get your data connected very quickly. 

Installing Square Steps

Cloud Systems

Square is a cloud-based POS and is very easy to install. Installing Square has three main steps:
There are three steps to installing:
  1. Gather your Square POS credentials
  2. Open a Reinstall Request

Request Installation

Request installation or reinstallation from our support team. If you are a new customer, your sales rep does this step for you. If you are an existing customer, Open a Reinstall Ticket and our support team will assist. 

Complete the Technical Form

Fill out this form with all your POS information.  Make sure the above step is completed before submitting the form.

  • API Credentials - for Sales data

    • Application ID

    • Access Token

    • Location ID

To find this information:

  • Login to the Square Portal

  • Open a new tab in your browser and go to developer.squareup.com

  • At the top right, click Account then Developer Dashboard

  • Click the + icon to spin up a new developer app, name it Avero.

  • Make sure the selected environment is Production

  • Select your new Application, when viewing the Dashboard select the Credentials tab to view the Application ID and Access Token - note that the token will be masked by default - click Show to unmask the contents

  • Click Locations tab in the app to view the Location ID

Regular Maintenance: Making Updates and Changes for Square

When changes or updates are needed who is responsible? If something appears incorrect or out-of-date, how should it be updated?

Change or Add a Meal Period in Square

Whenever meal periods are changed in Square they need to be reflected in Avero's programming - if you change the meal periods in your POS but do not inform Avero, your reporting may appear mismatched or incorrect. 

To inform Avero of meal period changes in your Square system, open a request with Avero Support and detail what is changing. 

Important to note - Meal Period changes/additions will not automatically update your logbook or saved reports. 

Categories & Items in Square

Avero provides the following Global categories: Beverage, Food, Misc., Other, and Retail. The major and minor categories come from your POS. 

To make changes to items you'll need to update Square - changing an item name, price, or moving it between categories.

To make changes to categories you'll need to update Square - changing category names, updating which items are in a category, making categories more specific.

To make changes to global categories, you'll need to open a ticket and request Avero makes the change. For example, if Appetizers are appearing under Beverage and need to be moved to Food. 

When creating new Categories, they may default to the Other  Global Category and require a ticket to update this mapping. 

To read more see: Categories

Common Problems 

Square Missing Data

Missing data happens. We invest ourselves continuously into making this process faster and more reliable, but it is not, and will never be, error-proof. For Square systems, we automatically attempt to recover data when it is missing. If you notice data is missing, open a ticket with Avero Support and we will recover it as quickly as we can. 

If you are missing data from an emailed report, it may be related to the email settings, see our troubleshooting guide: Troubleshooting Email Reports with Missing or Incomplete Data

Data Discrepancies - Avero's sales data is not matching Square

If you notice your sales data is not matching up with your Square reports, there are three actions you need to complete:

  1. Make sure the data discrepancy exists in Avero by logging in and running a sales report. If you notice incorrect data in an emailed report, it may be related to email settings and not the data itself. See our troubleshooting guide: Troubleshooting Email Reports with Missing or Incomplete Data
  2. Review the Differences between Square & Avero Reporting to make sure this isn't the discrepancy you are noticing.
  3. Run a Daily Sales Report from Square for the date in question, Open a Data Ticket, attach the report and explain the discrepancy. Make sure to include the report, the date, and location if you have access to several, as well as any examples you can provide. 

Our team investigates all data discrepancies - due to the nature of our daily data extraction a single date and single-day sales report must be provided. We cannot investigate date ranges, but it is helpful to know if the issue is recurring and you can provide multiple dates. 

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Square

Is there any information Square doesn't send to Avero?

  • Parent Categories - Square only provides a single level of categories via their API data source, so Parent Categories will not be displayed. This means your Major and Minor categories will appear the same. 
  • Cover Counts information - Square's API does not expose the number of covers associated with a check, which means Cover Counts and Average Check information is not available for reporting. 
  • Turn Times are not provided as each check has only one timestamp which is the same of Open and Close time, meaning the check duration is not available. 
  • Transferred Check Information - Square does not provide any information on Transferred Checks - this means that you will not see what was transferred on or off checks nor the checks it was transferred to or received from. 
  • Cost Information - for menu items, so cost-based metrics cannot be used
  • Order Type information, this filter will not be available 
  • Item Transaction Time - Avero is only able to show check open and close times. 
  • Authorizing Employee - for Voids, Discounts, and Promotions
  • Cashier Information - if checks are frequently closed by a cashier position, this additional information will not be available

 

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