Square is best known for its point-of-sale hardware, but its payment processing infrastructure extends fully to online invoice payments. For businesses that take both in-person and invoiced payments — contractors, service businesses, event companies, tradespeople — Square offers a compelling unified payment stack where all revenue flows through one platform.
Square invoice payment capabilities
When Square is connected to TallyArc, your client payment portal can accept:
- Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover cards
- Apple Pay and Google Pay
- ACH bank transfers (available for Square for Business accounts)
- Buy Now Pay Later via Afterpay (in supported markets)
Square's pricing
Square charges 2.9% + 30¢ for online card transactions — the same as Stripe's standard rate. There are no monthly fees for basic payment processing. Square's advantage is its flat, transparent pricing with no setup fees, interchange-plus complexity, or minimum volume requirements. This makes it particularly accessible for smaller or newer businesses.
Connecting Square to TallyArc
- In your Square Developer Dashboard, create a new application and note the Application ID and Access Token
- Set the application's environment to Production (not Sandbox) for live payments
- In TallyArc, navigate to Settings → Payment Providers → Square
- Enter your Access Token and save
- Square payments will now appear in the client payment portal for all invoices
The Square ecosystem advantage
Square's real strength for invoice-based businesses is ecosystem consistency. If you already use Square POS for in-person sales, Square Payroll, or Square Appointments, adding Square as your invoice payment provider keeps all payment data — online and in-person — in one place. Customer records, payment history, and reporting are unified without any integration overhead.
Square vs Stripe for invoicing
- Choose Square if: you also take in-person payments and want one unified platform, you prefer Square's simpler dashboard, or you're in retail/hospitality/trades
- Choose Stripe if: you need the widest international coverage, advanced developer customisation, or sophisticated fraud tools
- Use both if: you have a mixed client base with different preferences — TallyArc supports running both simultaneously