I operate an art gallery and we do a lot of layaway purchases. Here's my workaround:
After calculating the total and the deposit due, I ring the item/items and manually change the price to reflect the deposit amount. For each item I use the Note function to indicate it's a layaway deposit. I then make an invoice that splits the remaining balance into equal thirds or fourths depending on the customer's choice. We set a reminder for 2 days prior, and the day of each payment due date. The paper agreement says we prefer they use the online invoice function. If they do happen to come in to make an in-person payment, I create an item for the amount and use the Notes to indicate what it's for. Since we're a consignment gallery, and artists are paid as each payment comes in, having the invoice record helps our accounts to ensure commission payments are made correctly.
Re: How can I offer my customers a layaway option with Square Point of Sale?
Posted
04-01-2016
Great question, @wh! We don't have a specific layaway feature, but we have had some sellers use our open tickets feature to facilitate layaway sales. The workaround goes like this:
1) Create an open ticket for the item
2) When the customer makes a payment on the item, close out the existing open ticket with their payment
3) Then create a new open ticket with the updated balance
4) Follow this process until the item has been paid off
You could also create an Invoice for the upfront partial payment and more Invoices for the balance until the goods are picked up. Here’s how to create Invoices: http://squ.re/1SGkd8s.
We sell new and antique furniture and home decor from a small boutique retail store. We are required to sometimes take a partial payment deposit on a more expensive item. We need to be able to record the deposit without tax and then record the additional and final payment including tax, similar to layaway but without using the inventory feature. Please help by providing functionality for this badly needed feature. Invoice partial pay is not practical.
I am trying to use the invoice method for layaways, but can not find a way to take in store payments without forcing my customer to.check their email Is there a way to take a payment in store?
Great question @Thevine. If it helps, you can share a link to an Invoice by text message so your customer doesn't have to check their email. From the Invoices section of the Square app:
Tap on an Invoice to open it.
Scroll down > tap More > then tap Share
Select how you want to send the invoice - by text message or Whatsapp (or by DM on social media). Or Tap Copy Link to copy the shareable URL to your clipboard and paste it to a text message.
At this time you can collect a payment in two parts with Square Invoices (one deposit, and then the balance) - but as you've noticed your customer must pay the balance from the Invoice online. Being able to accept a payment from the app is a popular feature request and I see how it would help especially when your customer is with you in store!
Any news on when a layby option will be added for us? I am asked for it fairly regularly by customers, it would be extremely convenient to have this as an option!
Thank you for reaching out for an update on the layaway feature request. I don't have a timeline on the launch on it yet. Keep an eye out for our Product Updates for more information on launches.
The suggestions of financing purchases is really only helpful for large purchases that the customer simply can't pay up front. I'm involved in a retail brick & mortar store that occasionally has customer's request custom orders. For custom orders we take a deposit of 50% at request, and payment in full on completion/delivery, in this circumstance we are not trying to get paid in full up front. The only reasonable suggestion is invoicing, but as previously addressed, that can not be paid in person at the register. We are already paying for Square for Retail, simply allowing partial payments in a saved cart would allow for "layaways". We are currently manually tracking these partial payments, and it is a very poor customer experience. Please address this ASAP.
How many years are going to pass before Square decides to add one of the most basic and age-old retail necessities. A layaway feature needs to exist in the dashboard without a workaround, just a straight up layaway option
Greetings. I operate a complete liquidation retail store. I need to split payment types. A consumer will want to pay for an item partially with a debit card and partially with cash, but each time I try to enter the cash amount (or card amount), the system will not let it be applied. Am I doing something wrong?
I have read through the Community Questions on the Layaway feature, but haven't seen anything on a working platform for this feature. I need to be able to offer this service but handling it outside of Square is a real headache! We pay for a great service with Square but simple features that are offered in EVERY OTHER SERVICE like this aren't available? Somethings got to give folks!
I am seriously considering changing to a platform that offers these simple tools.
Hi! I'm really sorry to hear the frustration regarding our features. I know that layaway options would be really beneficial to our sellers and we do work hard to get features released as much as possible. For now, as a temporary workaround, you can consider using our invoices feature that allows customers to make payments toward a balance.
