Can I send invoices thru Text Message?

[Imaginethat]

I see that we can send invoices via email, but is there a way to send them via text messgae?

[#2]

Hey! 👋 I've got an update on this feature. 

Take a look at this Community post for more information about sending an invoice without entering a customer email address. 

[#3]

I've got you @jj22 🙂

@JVHovey - here's a visual of what @jj22 is talking about. You can select Share Invoice Manually and it will give you the option to Share once the invoice is created.

If you missed that step, you can Share the link after an invoice is sent. Simply locate the invoice, click, and select Share. Depending on where you are sharing from and whether the invoice has been paid, you may need to select More > Share.

This post was edited in December 2020 by a moderator to include an updated screenshot and steps.

[Tom]

Hey @nvrllc, thanks for reaching out and sorry for the confusion! Check out Sean's answer for more information on how to send an invoice. Hope this helps clear things up; please don't hesitate to let us know if you have any other questions!

[Saraweathers]

Is there a way to enter a phone # instead of an e-mail on a invoice?

[Sean]

@Saraweathers - Welcome to the Seller Community, and kudos on your first post! 👏

I've definitely heard this feature request from other sellers before, and I think it would be a great addition to Square Invoices! While it isn't something that we currently offer, I'm happy to pass along the feedback to our product liaison team. 

For Square Invoices, they do need to be emailed. I have seen some sellers share the direct URL to an Invoice after it's sent as a workaround. If you navigate to the Invoices tab of the Square Dashboard, you'll be able to locate this URL by click the "Share" button on an invoice. Here is a screenshot:

PS) If my answer solved your problem, would you mind marking it as "Best Answer"? That'll help the rest of the community find what they're looking for. If not, just write back, and I'll continue to help. Thanks!

[Clay]

I have not been able to do this.  I don't think you can create a invoice for a customer that does not have an email address.  As I type the name of the customer after clicking create an invoice, Only the customers with email address come up in the list.

[Spenser]

Yep, that's correct @Clay - an email address is required for Invoices. Thanks for posting. 

[Iammetx]

I was wondering the same thing. What I've been doing in the mean time is using my own email to where I send the invoice. Then I go back to the invoice and take the payment. Then I go back to the invoice and issue a receipt which gives you the option of sending it through text message. I wish we didn't have to go through all that orocess, but unfortunately that's the only way to do it for now that I know of.

[M1rrorEdge]

E-mail is now dead!  6 out of 10 of my customers no longer check e-mail and 9 out of 10 prefer text (Sample of 350 of my clients 2017-18).  I service tools in the barber and beauty industry.  Most of my older clients and the majority of the new don't even have e-mail addresses.  Unless your in a big corporation or work for the government who, is actively attentively checking e-mail anymore?  I do still as a business owner but my customers  do not.  The ROI on marketing campaigns over e-mail is close to zero in my industry.  Everything has quickly moved to text/SMS.  

My biggest concern isn't that I can't text my customers for invoices and campaigns its that we are forced to use something that no longer works or isnt effective.  Being limited is the problem.  Why not allow us to perform all the above 1.Text 2. E-mail 3. Message.  

I understand prioritization and the exponential quicking of social communication tools make it hard to beta test, evaluate and deploy new features without service interuotions or data loss.  However, limiting business owners from using tools like SMS is going to force us away.

The latest update on this post was two years ago.  In the IT world, that is a eternity.

[isabelle · Accepted solution]

Hey! 👋 I've got an update on this feature. 

Take a look at this Community post for more information about sending an invoice without entering a customer email address. 

[DolceDolce]

This won't work, because you are forced to save the newly created invoice with either an e-mail or phone number, so you are not able to get to the option about sending manually without first creating.

[osteopathicwell]

I have a health care practice and need to be able to print the invoices directly at the office for itemized services. Emailed receipts are not always an option for my patients.

I need to be able to add a discount at point of sale. As a doctor it's unethical for me to just charge a lesser amount, I MUST charge full and give a reason for a certain discount. This must be captured in the invoice.

Can I do point of sale right through my laptop and then print the invoice wirelessly?

Are these possible? If so, please help. Thanks!

[Chad]

Hello @osteopathicwell, so I can help I need to as a couple of questions. When you say "Invoice" is the payment due at a later date? 

Or has the customer already paid for the services and you're looking for an itemized receipt to print out? 

[osteopathicwell]

Hi Chad, thanks for responding. I'm looking for an itemized receipt - clients pay at the time of service and they need receipts right then and there. Right now I have to do the square transaction and then use a completely different software to do another receipt - it's a huge waste of time. If there's a solution that would be great! Thank you!! 

[Chad]

Hey @osteopathicwell, I recomend creating items in your library first. When you apply these items to the sale they will show up on the printed copy of the receipt. Voilà, you have your itemized receipt! The same will go for discounts. 

Currently we do not offer itemized receipts from conventional computers. 

You will have to use a compatible receipt printer, which depends on the type of device you plan on using. Our Support Center will show all compatible hardware wether it's an iOS device or an Android. 

Please let me know if I can help with anything else! 

[osteopathicwell]

Yes, I already do the itemized receipts it's just that I can't print them. I do not want two printers sitting on my desk, so I'll just have to deal with it this way until I find another solution. Thanks.

[JaysGarage]

I agree. The ability to create an invoice without requiring an customer email address should be made available. Often times providing an invoice is more appropriate than just a printed receipt and many of our customers do not have or do not wish to share their email addresses. It seems it would be less complicated for Square to remove the email requirement from invoices than for merchants to have to create one using another app and attach it to a Square receipt. 

[RHatch]

@JaysGarage, I think you misunderstand what the invoice is.  A Square invoice is basically an unpaid sale/receipt that you are asking the client to pay for. Instead of mailing it you email it.  It is not there to list out the items that they just purchased, that would be the receipt.  If you enter your inventory into Square your Receipt would have all the items on it.  Invoices are not something you use if the customer is there making and pay for a purchase.

[JaysGarage]

@RHatch, Indeed.

I would like to make it clear that, in my opinion, my personal understanding of any definition of the word "invoice" has nothing to do with Square's requirement of a customer's email address in order to create one. Which is my point. The email field should be optional. The end. I would be better served with an understanding as to the reason this is a mandatory field than with the vocabulary lesson provided. Thank you.

[EJ_]

Hi @JaysGarage

That's interesting feedback about invoices. 

What would be the use case of an invoice printout vs a normal receipt?

I'll be able to pass your specific use case over to our Invoice Team. 

[JaysGarage]

 In this day and age, requiring personal information that is not necessary or even useful for the service you are providing is risky and can be perceived as suspect. An invoice provides much more personalized detail than the best receipt made from a menu of options. Most of our customers  don't want to see the $1000 they spent having their car repaired on a skinny little receipt with one or two word descriptions simply because they don't have or don't wish to share their email address and they wonder why you would need it in the first place. The invoice, marked as paid eliminates the necessity to switch back and forth between applications in order to provide them with a more satisfying account of the money they just spent. Not to mention the extra time they have to spend at the counter watching us jump through hoops because our payment processor will not allow us to give them an invoice marked as paid unless we provide them our customers' email addresses for reasons still not made clear.

[phillipdacunha]

100% agree with this.  I make and repair violin bows.  I create an invoice ahead of my customer's arriving to pick up their bow for the goods/services (as populated by the "items" in the Items section) and want to print it out for them to see before paying.  They then will either pay via CC (with Square) or via cash/check.  I want to be able to do this without entering their email address (I agree that asking for their email is overkill...unless we were emailing previously).

The same way you added the option for non-credit card transactions, I think you can also allow for a way to print without needing an email address.

Thank you.

[Krhodes]

We sell to college students who give us a purchase order. The college sends us a check later. The student needs an utilized receipt on the spot, but we can’t just send an invoice, because the students don’t have printers, so they never submit it, and I’m chasing down payments for months. 

We also cant just ring it up in the register, because it’s not actually paid. 

So we create invoices, send them to ourselves, so we can track unpaid purchase orders. Then we use an old fashioned carbon copy notebook to hand write a receipt for the student. I’d much rather be able to print the invoice from square register after it’s created. 

I considered setting ting up a desktop printer in the shop, but don’t want to give employees access to our dashboard, which they would need to print invoices from a computer.