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FAQ: Supported and Unsupported Business Types in Australia

EDIT: May 2021 Update

 

Payments support is now available for associations, clubs and NFPs who have an ABN. Read more here, thanks for your patience 🙂

 

EDIT: 2021 Update

 

Work has commenced on building payments support for the following ABNs commonly used by clubs, associations and NFP organisations. While we don't have a set ETA for availability, we hope to launch support for these ABNs at some point in the first half of 2021:

 

  • Other Incorporated Entities
  • Other Unincorporated Entities

 

-----------------------

 

I’ve tried signing up with Square and received a message about my business type being unsupported for payments. Why am I receiving this message?

 

In Australia, different ABN entity types are subject to different regulatory requirements that determine eligibility to register for financial services such as electronic card payment processing. Due to the additional requirements for some entities, Square is not currently able to support all ABN entity types for payment processing.



What ABNs does Square support/not support?

 

ABNs we can on-board via the online signup process:

 

  • Individual / Sole Trader
  • Partnerships
  • Private and Public Companies
  • Trusts (approx. 4 weeks processing)

 

ABNs we don't currently support

 

  • Other Incorporated Entities
  • Other Unincorporated Entities
  • Government Entities
  • Co-operatives
  • Any other entity type not listed as supported



I know someone who is using Square for their organisation - why can’t you support mine now?

 

Square previously trialed a program that involved experimenting with different ways to support the manual onboarding and verification of business information so that certain organisations could be supported for payment processing. 

 

This trial proved challenging for both Square and the organisations involved due to the additional obligations Square needs to meet to comply with Australian regulatory requirements, and it is not scalable at this time. While we cannot support payment processing for you, remember Square can still work as a free point-of-sale application to record sales, manage inventory, run sales reports and analytics, send digital receipts and more.



When will it be possible for my organisation to use Square?

 

While we don’t currently support your business type for payment processing, we can take your details and reach out to you if this changes in the future.



I’ve already purchased hardware, how can I get my money back?

 

If you have purchased hardware via the Square website, please visit our Support Centre to learn more about submitting a request for a refund. Alternatively, if you purchased Square hardware you can return it to the place of purchase with your receipt for a refund.

 

 

Can I just sign up as an individual or use another ABN rather than use my club/organisation’s ABN?

 

As per our Terms of Service, we require you to provide accurate and complete information about the business or organisation you’re taking payments for at the time of sign up. Setting up a Square account as an individual or different ABN would be in violation of our Terms of Service.

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Best Answer

Associations, clubs and NFPs using either an “Other Incorporated Entity” or “Other Unincorporated Entity” ABN can now sign up for payments with Square 🥳

 

For more information please check the following guides:

 

Sign up with an Incorporated Association Entity

Sign up with an Unincorporated Association Entity

 

FAQ

 

I already started creating a Square account previously. How do I continue the sign up process?

 

You’ll need to log into your Square Dashboard, then click “Verify information to start taking payments”. This will take you to the next step of the onboarding process, where you’ll need to provide some personal information, before you’ll be asked to supply more information about the club and its key position holders.

 

Screen Shot 2021-05-11 at 9.43.09 am.png

 

 

When I log into my dashboard it comes up with a message saying “You have nothing to manage”.

 

This means you’ve manually deactivated your account in the past. To reactivate it you’ll need to call our support team on 1800 760 137. Lines are open Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Melbourne time. Alternatively, you can simply sign up again using a different email address,

 

What information will I need to provide?

 

Other Incorporated Entity ABNS

 

Business information:

 

  • Provide basic business information, including the incorporated ABN
  • Annual General Meeting Minutes: Upload a PDF copy of the most recent meeting minutes showing the election of office holders, including President, Treasurer and Secretary.
  • Certificate of Incorporation: Upload if applicable to your association. You can find this on the Australian Securities and Investment Commission website.
  • Provide the Incorporation Registration Number. You can also find this via the ASIC website. Note: You can only search by association name, not the ABN.

Personal Information:

  • Verify the account holder’s identity by providing their name, current residential address, and date of birth using a valid driver licence, passport, or Medicare card.
  • Verify the President and Treasurer, and identify the Secretary (or equivalent positions) . For this step, you need to provide the full name, date of birth and current residential address for the President and Treasurer, and the full name of the Secretary of your association. Make sure you have that individual’s consent to provide this information to us.

 

Other Unincorporated Entity ABNS

 

Business Information:

 

  • Provide basic business information, including the Unincorporated ABN. 
  • Provide Annual General Meeting (AGM) minutes: Upload a PDF copy of the most recent AGM minutes, showing the election of office holders, including President, Treasurer and Secretary.

Personal Information:

  • Verify the account holder’s identity by providing the full name, current address, and date of birth using a valid driver licence, passport, or Medicare card.
  • Verify the President, Treasurer, and Identify the Secretary. For this step, you will be asked to provide the full name, date of birth and residential address for the President and Treasurer, and the full name of the Secretary of your association.

 

Why do I need to provide this information?

 

Square is obligated to request and verify the above information when onboarding clubs, associations and NFPs under the AML/CTF Act.

Seamus
Square, Australia
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We are a not for profit, we have one square set up, my question is, can I buy another square and connect it to the same bank account?  We are going to be holding a function where we have 2 entrances, I would like to have one at each door, but going into same bank account 

thanks 

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Hey @Mjilg2021,

 

Thanks for reaching out. I've moved your post to thread thread, because the most important thing you'll want to do first here is check whether your ABN can currently take card payments with Square as an NFP. Depending on the entity type, you may need to wait a little until we launch support for the most common NFP ABNs.

 

Once you do have an account active for payments, you can use as many Square Readers on as many mobile devices as you'd like - what ties a payment to your Square Account (and linked bank account) is the login on the app rather than the card reader itself! So if you want to log into the Square account on two phones, and have 2 readers to take payments with at the same time, you can definitely do this!

 

 

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Hi Seamus

 

We purchased a square reader just before New Year in 2020.  I have only just opened it and started to set up, we were planning to use it this weekend.   I got the message "Unfortunately, we cannot currently support your organisation for payment processing as Associations are not a supported business type."  ... This is incredibly disappointing.

 

I've also had a look at your thread below.     Wondering if I should go through the refund process, or if it won't be too far away I'll just put it back in the cupboard and wait until we can use it.   Could you please give me an update as to when this will be available for us?

 

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Questions-How-to/FAQ-Supported-and-Unsupported-Business-Types-in-... 

 

Thanks

Tim Cummins

Orange Regional Conservatorium

Ph:  0411-528-101

admin@orangecon.org.au 

 

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Admin

Hey @TimORC,

 

Thanks for reaching out!

 

Per the thread you've linked (I've moved your post here so we can keep all requests of this nature in the one place), at the moment we are not able to provide an exact ETA for payments support for new ABNs with Square.

 

I've been responding to comments in this thread on an almost daily basis recently, and the information you see in here is as accurate and up to date as I'm able to provide. We'll launch support for the listed ABNs in the original post's edit as soon as we can assure the solution is ready and working from a technical standpoint. Unfortunately we are not able to provide you with a set date or timeframe, outside of that we are aiming for the first half of 2021.

 

I certainly hope this won't be more than a couple of months, however we can't give guarantees - sometimes development throws up hurdles along the way that that can mean things take longer than initially hoped. If you're at all in doubt, I encourage you to return any hardware now for a refund and consider buying it again once we have a solution in place. 

 

As always, I'll ping each and every person with a comment here once we have a solution in place.

 

All the best!

 

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Please add me to the list of people needing this facility

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Will do @CoochieGolf!

Seamus
Square, Australia
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We've returned our three squares to Officeworks for a full refund (unused and unopened). Sick of waiting and losing money in the meantime.  We're going with an alternative solution. Good luck Square, it's going to take a monumental effort to undo all this negative sentiment! Please unsubscribe me from the thread.

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Totally understandable @CCANthAdelaide, and I will certainly do what I can to help right things once a solution is in place.

 

While I don't have the ability to unsubscribe from the thread for you, if you go to the original post simply click "Thread options" and then "Unsubscribe":

 

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Where are we up to with the other incorporated non for profit  organizations in Australia has this been sorted or fixed if so how do we fix it if not when its 2021 

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Hey @Ccchall,

 

Thanks for reaching out!

 

At the moment I don't have an ETA to share, though work continues on building this functionality and we're aiming for the first half of 2021.

 

We're all hoping this will be sooner rather than later! I'll update this thread as soon as I'm able to once the feature has launched.

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Seamus and others have provided quite a bit of information in this thread.  Have a look at posts around 86 to 90.

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Please add me to the list of sporting clubs that would like to use Square, but unfortunately we are incorporated as well. We require solution in around 6 weeks, so will be looking at other options too. Hopefully Square can get up to speed with the volume of customers who would benefit from this service. 

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Just go with TYRO 1.8% and free machine

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@Piqo 

Ring Tyro, you'll be up and running in about a week.

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Add me to the Looooooong list of sporting and NFP looking to use your service when it is up and running

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I need to enable card processing for a non-profit association as I’m not able to set this up manually by User, for whatever reason - I was prompted when I created my account that you cannot support my organisation as associations are not a supported business type? I know other calisthenics clubs who use this software so am assuming I’ve done something incorrectly when creating my login.

 

Please get in touch ASAP. Very keen to start utilising your square reader. 

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Hey @kallaracali, thanks for reaching out.

 

You've not done anything incorrectly here, unfortunately this message appears when you have signed up using an ABN we are not yet able to support for card payments.

 

I've moved your post to this existing thread tracking feedback for request - have a read through the main post at the top of the page for more information on why your ABN is not currently supported by Square for payment processing. I understand this will be disappointing to hear and I'm sorry I'm not able to help resolve this one immediately.

 

Provided your ABN is one of the two we are currently building support for (these are the most common ABNs used by clubs, associations and NFPs), support should be available for you within a few months. I'm going to update everyone who has a post in this thread once support becomes available, you should receive an email notification via the email address you signed up with once this happens.

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Hi Seamus, I have to ask...what is the actual problem with the changes you need to make to be able to accept the ABN's that everyone is having issues with.  It is obviously more technical, but I can't understand what a reason might be except for some parameter, or is it something connected with ATO?  Sorry had to ask, as it seems to be taking a long time to correct.

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@BasketballSteve I just tagged you under this post for more info on the situation! This is as much as I'm able to share at the moment.

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Just go with TYRO free eftpos and only 1.8% and they will send you the eftpos

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I called Tyro today and they won’t help us either - unincorporated entity. Are you guys incorporated? 

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