Topic 'Re: Square Users?' in forum 'Canadian Chat' - dslreports.com

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:56:38 EDT

graniterock posted : Just signed up and looking forward to getting one. GST numbers do seem to be optional. My wife makes costumes and is hoping to use it at some conventions and perhaps get some extra sales. It will be nice for us because we would never do the volume to even justify one of those minimum charge $10 / mo costo machines.

There are quite a few bad reviews on the web which made me nervous at first. However when I looked closer, most of the complaints involved manually entered transactions of large amounts. When a hold was placed on the funds
(as per the user agreements) they seemed to freak out and tried refunding several of the transactions while square is trying to get more verifying details to increase the hold limits. Of course that doesn't go over very well.

They appear to only do support by email and their phone number reportedly takes you to a voice message which asks you to email them.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:59:05 EDT

Gone posted : You have to include your HST number on any receipts, invoices or contracts with more than $30 of taxable goods. If you attach the slip to an invoice that has the HST number you're fine, but if the slip is the only thing you give to your customers and you charge more than $30 it *has* to have an HST number on it.

I always attach slips to invoices with an HST number on it, so it's a non-issue for me.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:54:32 EDT

iLearn posted : Yes, the receipt includes the HST #. I will provide my HST #s to the clients if/when they ask. Hows that?

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:50:26 EDT

Gone posted : You only reason they would need your HST number is if you were selling them something that you charged HST on.

Unless - does the software print out or email receipts for customers? If so, this is probably to include the HST number on the transaction receipt which in of itself can be helpful to customers who claim ITCs.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:48:17 EDT

iLearn posted :

quote:
I don't know why the HST is required considering there is no legal obligation to have one for certain businesses and a personal account is fine for a sole proprietor.

Sorry, you are right, HST was optional. I just went in there and removed it.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:45:41 EDT

Gone posted : Yes, I am very well aware of the WSIB changes, being part of the "construction industry" and all that. WSIB can go fuck a duck, bunch of useless douchebags. My FIL got an exemption as owner for filing (they have a provision to allow *one* director of a corporation or partner in a partnership to be exempt so long as they don't do any "construction") and I was approved for the special rate for my MIL who works part time, but that really only becomes an issue if we pay her a management wage at the end of the fiscal year through a T4 rather than dividends.

We also have to file T5018s for subcontractors every year.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:29:40 EDT

peterboro posted :

said by Gone:

said by peterboro:

I don't know why the HST is required considering there is no legal obligation to have one for certain businesses and a personal account is fine for a sole proprietor.

Maybe they want the CRA BN and not actually the HST number? The BN itself doubles as an HST number (along with a payroll account number) with a program identifier tacked on the end.

Still, a sole proprietor doesn't require a CRA BN either, so I don't know. There were stories about Cogeco asking for BNs for business cable account signups and my response to the people who said they had it happen was to tell Cogeco that they are a sole proprietor with less than $30,000 a year in revenue and therefore there is no legal requirement for them to have a BN.

I'm helping someone set up a small business that has no HST# or CRA BN or WSIB obligations and banking will be on a personal account.

BTW they changed WSIB obligations January 1 2013 to try to force almost everyone in Ontario to have coverage that were previously precluded.

As far as I can tell, as he is not selling goods and is compliance with local bylaws, his only obligation to the government is to file a return as a business.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:16:40 EDT

Gone posted :

said by peterboro:

I don't know why the HST is required considering there is no legal obligation to have one for certain businesses and a personal account is fine for a sole proprietor.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:04:39 EDT

peterboro posted :

said by iLearn:

They required my HST # when I singed up for the card reader and I have linked my personal account for deposits. Was it not the right way to do it for tax reporting purposes?

I don't know why the HST is required considering there is no legal obligation to have one for certain businesses and a personal account is fine for a sole proprietor.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:55:54 EDT

Guspaz posted :

said by iLearn:

Not here yet

It started shipping to Canadian businesses in March 2012. The notify me is to get on the waiting list.
--
Developer: Tomato/MLPPP, Linux/MLPPP, etc »fixppp.org

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:28:59 EDT

iLearn posted :

quote:
I have been to trade shows and such where I have seen Square in action. My first thought the first time I saw it was that it was very cool idea. A little later when I was watching the person at the till run their credit card through the reader, the security side of me said that looked like a great way to capture cards on a personal device.

A quick Google search has also turned up there is/was a way to capture the credit card swipe data �mashable.com/2011/08/05/square-security/

You know what - anything is possible in today's world. I guess it also depends on who you are dealing with when making a payment. If you feel comfortable with a particular vendor, go ahead and let them use this reader else you have other payment options as well.

Again, we make payments over the phone (at least i do) and trust the other person handling our credit card info. I consider that to be more 'unsecured' than this iPhone card reader. - just my opinion.
My neighborhood gym owner has my credit card info. on file. I trust them - nothing bad has happened yet....

None of my customers (thus far) had any security concerns, I guess it does have to do with how much your customers trust in you and your company.

Lots of variables.

Thanks

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:15:30 EDT

Gone posted : When one thinks about it, using something like this that has the ability to record credit card info is really no different than in the old days where a merchant ran your card through the imprint machine, had you sign the slip and then they kept a copy for themselves. And yes - imprint machines are still a valid way to do credit card transactions, and we keep one here in the store in case our terminal happens to go down for whatever reason.

Remember - being able to capture the data isn't an issue, it's what gets done with the data that is.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:10:49 EDT

anon posted : We use square and its been great. For a company that uses a small # of transactions you can't beat them. The funds are allways in the bank in less than 48 hours and none of our clients have a problem using a phone to do the transaction.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:10:34 EDT

Robrr posted :

said by iLearn:

Robrr, That is not true. A lot of small business owner use these card users, especially vendors/small independent contractors who travel a lot and need to process payments on-site. I have seen many small businesses at malls who use this type of payment processing.

No credit card #s are stored on your smart phone. Have you ever made a payment over the phone to anyone? Is that more secure?

I have been to trade shows and such where I have seen Square in action. My first thought the first time I saw it was that it was very cool idea. A little later when I was watching the person at the till run their credit card through the reader, the security side of me said that looked like a great way to capture cards on a personal device.

A quick Google search has also turned up there is/was a way to capture the credit card swipe data »mashable.com/2011/08/05/square-security/

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:33:07 EDT

iLearn posted : Not here yet

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:31:26 EDT

Gone posted :

said by Anav:

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/credit-card-reader

It will be availabe, but not quite yet, hence the Notify Me buttons all over the place.

As I said earlier, these things are pretty yawnworthy so long as they don't have Interac support.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:28:15 EDT

Anav posted : »www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/credi···d-reader

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:24:18 EDT

iLearn posted : I am not discussing online payment processing system. I was discussing credit card processing through a credit card reader on your smart phone. There is a difference.

PayPal dont have that available here in Canada yet.

Plus correct me if I am wrong, once available in Canada you wont get the funds in your bank account directly, they will go to PayPal account and then you will have to pay a fee ($0.50 each transaction) to get them transferred to your bank account. So more money spent plus more time to access funds.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:22:10 EDT

Guspaz posted :

said by iLearn:

PayPal could have been a good option too but it is not available in Canada yet.

Huh? PayPal Here (their competitor to Square) has been available to Canadian merchants for almost a year, and their online credit card processing services (which is what we use) has been available for many years.

In terms of switching our existing online credit card processing from PayPal to another company, we've gotten a few quotes that are cheaper than PayPal, but not sufficiently cheaper to justify the development effort to switch APIs.
--
Developer: Tomato/MLPPP, Linux/MLPPP, etc »fixppp.org

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:19:42 EDT

iLearn posted :

quote:
I question why anyone would be crazy enough to just hand over their credit card to a person who will be entering that information onto a personal device such as a phone.

Seems like a great way to scam credit card numbers.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:14:01 EDT

iLearn posted : I agree with you. I was thinking the same.

And the reason why they needed my HST # was because (I think) when I email a receipt to my client, the HST shows up on the receipt automatically.

Thanks

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:10:48 EDT

Robrr posted : I question why anyone would be crazy enough to just hand over their credit card to a person who will be entering that information onto a personal device such as a phone.

Seems like a great way to scam credit card numbers.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:10:01 EDT

joeblow3 posted : "when required by laws applicable to us"

IMHO it's not logical in Canada that they would be required to report it to CRA.

I know in the case of contractors working for and in USA companies, the company must report self employed persons payments, AKA 1099. But that is not the case in Canada.

More than likely a USA catch all just in case they would be required.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:06:44 EDT

iLearn posted : @ joeblow3

I see your point but their website states:

"You are responsible for determining any and all taxes assessed, incurred, or required to be collected, paid, or withheld for any reason in connection your use of our software and services (“Taxes”). You also are solely responsible for collecting, withholding, reporting, and remitting correct Taxes to the appropriate tax authority. We are not obligated to, nor will we determine whether Taxes apply, or calculate, collect, report, or remit any Taxes to any tax authority arising from any transaction.

We will report payments and other information to regulatory or government authorities as, if and when required by laws applicable to us."

First they say, we have to report our own and then in 2nd para they say they will report?

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:01:31 EDT

joeblow3 posted :

said by iLearn:

whether they report our payments directly to CRA or not?

Why the hell would they report the transactions to CRA? They don't know whether it's a sale or not. It's basically none of their business. Does Visa, MC, AMEX report it to CRA?

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:45:21 EDT

iLearn posted : PayPal could have been a good option too but it is not available in Canada yet.

When I received Square reader, I did a test transaction for $10 on Friday afternoon and the money was in my bank Saturday evening. Every Square user that I have talked to had good things to say about it. Like, faster processing and payment goes through the first time. Their online account is also very good in terms of tracking transactions, issuing refunds etc.

OK here are my questions.

Oh BTW, they dont have a live agent who you can talk to so you have to send them an email but I have not heard any reviews about this being an issue.

Anyways.

The question is:

They required my HST # when I singed up for the card reader and I have linked my personal account for deposits. Was it not the right way to do it for tax reporting purposes?

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:35:05 EDT

Gone posted : Yeah. With our merchant account, our fees go down when we hit certain thresholds. With the volume we do it still costs us a few hundred bucks a month in fees, though. They deposit the full amount of the transaction within 48 hours, then do a PAD once a month for all the fees.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:30:46 EDT

Guspaz posted : Unless I'm mistaken, even PayPal is charging us less than 2.75% for credit card processing, and their scanner doesn't take interac...

Their monthly package is more interesting, but it's not available in Canada. On that plan, you pay $275 per month, and 0% per transaction, for up to $250,000 per year. Over that, you pay 2.75%. It works out to 1.32% per swipe, I think.

Even if they offered that in Canada, though, it wouldn't work for us, because there is also a $21,000 per month limit, and we do 100% of our in-person payments in a single weekend (online payments are spread over a few months).
--
Developer: Tomato/MLPPP, Linux/MLPPP, etc »fixppp.org

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:26:48 EDT

donoreo posted :

said by iLearn:

I have just started using it and had a few questions about whether they report our payments directly to CRA or not?

That would be a question to ask them.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:22:43 EDT

Gone posted : I don't pay a monthly account fee, but I pay to rent a terminal. Our transaction fees, even when taking into account interchange fees and everything else still come out to less than 2.75%. Being a CFIB member helps a lot in that regard.

If you're not doing a lot of volume it might make sense, but it's still not something I would call ideal. Also, the lack of chip and pin opens you up to liability holes. Interac a non-starter, which is by far and away the most merchant-friendly way of accepting electronic payments.

It really looks like they have just taken their American product and are selling it in Canada, when our entire system of calculating fees and even taking payments (e.g. chip and pin) is entirely different.

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:17:04 EDT

iLearn posted : Square charges 2.75% per transaction and 3.15% if the credit card numbers are entered manually. There is no monthly fees, just pay per transaction. I have found that for a business that does a lot of small transactions, this works really great. But if you are processing bigger transaction then this might not be the best solution.

I have just started using it and had a few questions about whether they report our payments directly to CRA or not?

Re: Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:06:25 EDT

Gone posted : No Interac makes it useless for Canadian businesses. The merchant fees are also high by Canadian standards.

Square Users?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:20:28 EDT

iLearn posted : Anyone currently using Square to accept credit card payments?

»squareup.com/