I NEED to be able to accept invoice partial or balance payments in store through the reader

[CaravanSpares]

I have a much older demographic because all we sell is caravan parts and accessories.

Due to this; I am running into a problem where if a customer has paid 50% of an invoice (let's say total invoice is $1000, so they pay $500 deposit), then they come back in to store later and they refuse to pay the balance owing via a payment link. This is especially prevalent with customers who have paid for items in full previously with the square reader they see right in front of them.

So. How we've been getting around it is; creating a new sale for the balance amount ($500) and adding the customer to that sale. This allows us to have the customer make the payment in store.

However, we still run into the problem of the balance ($500) showing as owing on that invoice. I thought we may be able to discount the remainder of the invoice. Square doesn't allow that. Instead, we've been having to use "record payment" and list it as "other" because it doesn't give us the option to put it under "square terminal" (which as I understand it, stops transactions from double tracking).

So now because the payment has been taken through POS ($500) with the customer's card AND we've had to clear the balance of the invoice by saying it was paid by "other" method ($500), the payment tracks twice, thinking the total amount we have received it $1500 rather than the $1000.

Not being able to accept partial or balance invoice payments through the reader is causing all sorts of headaches for us, a bad customer experience for our customers and it quite frankly doesn't make sense.

[Seamus]

Hey @CaravanSpares,

Thanks for reaching out.

At the moment in the ability to accept in-person payments toward a deposit or partial balance is unavailable. I totally get why this would be a handy feature to have, and we hope this functionality will be available in the future to work in the same way as full invoices.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help here! The workaround we suggest in the meantime is to create two separate invoices for full payment amounts.

[CaravanSpares]

@Seamus Thanks for your reply

I hope this does get added, it's a very clunky process atm.

Is there a way to delete or hide one of the transactions from the reporting?

[Seamus]

Hey @CaravanSpares,

The best way to balance your books here is to refund the non-card payment portion of the payment you took - I recommend giving our support team a call on 1800 760 137 for some guidance on doing this if you're unsure!

[CaravanSpares]

@Seamus and then we're back at the same problem of half the invoice being outstanding.

It's a shame the invoice side of Square is so clunky because the rest of it is intuitive and works great!

[Seamus]

Hey @CaravanSpares,

I definitely recommend getting in touch with support on this one so we can take a better look into the invoice and check if there are any workaround for this. Unfortunately we're not able to look into specific accounts via our Seller Community, but give us a call on 1800 760 137 and we'll be able to take a better look!

[skiibum]

This is the the worst design detail of invoices. It is awkward and unprofessional to the customer by having to take the payment as a generic sale and then later cheating and marking it paid "other" to generate a balance paid invoice receipt. Its a giant bookkeeping pain as well. The other options is saying would you mind writing a check or logging in into your email rather then paying right here and now via this card terminal.

At a minimum, what is the logic of not allowing us to take a payment and mark the invoice portion as paid via the Square Reader eliminating the double entry.  

I have been experimenting with a Thryv's invoice system and despite them only being a couple months old, they seamlessly have this worked out. I feel like Square has got in the habit of adding new features rather then fixing and polishing the experience on old features.