Square Appointments Review: Is It Right for You in 2023?

Square Appointments is part of the larger Square ecosystem. Every person who signs up for Square Appointments will automatically have access to all of Square’s basic tools via their Square account, including Square’s POS system, website builder, and payment processing.

There are also add-on features that you can fully integrate with your Square account. Add-ons give you access to specialized tools to help you manage tasks like payroll and marketing. Square’s add-on features include:

• Square Payroll: Track hours, pay employees faster, and automate your tax filings all in one place to streamline payday. Starting at $35 per month + $6 monthly fee per person paid.
• Square Marketing: Unlimited email sends, automated email campaigns, Square Assistant, and campaign performance reporting. Paid subscription starts at $15 per month for 0–500 contacts.
• Square Loyalty: Quick customer sign-up, automated rewards notification via text messaging, and the ability to apply rewards at checkout. Paid subscription starts at $45 per month per location for up to 500 loyalty visits.
• Square for Retail: A specialized set of POS tools to equip you with all the retail tools you need for selling online and in-store, like inventory management, returns and exchanges, and reports. Free plan available; paid plan starts at $60 per month, per location.
• Square for Restaurants: Manage your restaurant with ease with menus and table management for the front of the house, kitchen displays and delivery for the back of the house, advanced POS features, Square Kitchen Display System (unlimited devices), and Team Plus. Free plan available; paid plan starts at $60 per month.

With every account, Square users receive one free contactless mobile card reader. There are, however, no hardware requirements to operate Square Appointments. The program is app- and web-based, so it can run on your desktop computer and your Android and iOS devices. This gives you the flexibility to manage your business without having to adopt new programs or even when you are on the go.

If you are interested, however, Square offers a host of other hardware options that you can easily use to house your Square tools. Square’s hardware options include:

Square Register	Square Terminal	Square Stand
$799 or $39/month for 24 months	$299 or $27/month for 12 months	$149 or $14/month for 12 months
Includes: customer display, iPad, and stand Accepts contactless, chip, QR codes, and virtual payments All-in-one countertop display and POS Bluetooth connectivity with peripherals	Includes: Card reader and optional Hub ($39) Accepts contactless, chip, and virtual payments Wi-Fi and offline mode enabled Cordless functionality/mobile	Includes: tablet stand Accepts contactless, chip, swipe, QR codes, and virtual payments Compatible with other Square accessories
Best for: Busy businesses with a storefront	Best for: On-the-go payments	Best for: Businesses that already have a tablet
Learn More About Square Register	Learn more about Square Terminal	Learn more about Square Stand

Tap-to-pay on iPhone is now available for Square Appointments; staff members can collect contactless payments from anywhere, with no additional hardware needed.

Square Appointments’ scheduling tools are at the core of this software’s operation. Every Square user can access and manage their schedule either from their online account or through the Square Appointments app. Paid subscribers will also be able to sync their appointments with their personal Google Calendar, and view live scheduling updates from there.

The calendar management features include:

• Square App and Online Account: Access and manage appointments from your Square app or any computer via your Square Appointments login.
• Appointment acceptance: Manual and automatic appointment acceptance modes.
• Advanced calendar viewing: Customize your viewing options by filtering your calendar according to time frame, staff, or location.
• Availability management: Manage your daily schedule better by blocking personal events and marking these as “busy” when you sync your personal Google Calendar.
• Calendar syncing: Sync your appointment schedule with your Google Calendar.
• Resource booking: Allows you to assign resources (like chairs, rooms, or supplies) to certain appointments so that they get booked when their corresponding appointments are created.
• Multiple time zone syncing: Sync all your appointments with the correct time zones so that no one forgets a booking.
• Cancellation and no-show protection: Set a cancellation window and protect against no-shows with a deposit system (paid plan only).

Quickly and easily create individual or group appointments directly from your calendar on the Square Appointments dashboard.

Square Appointments lets you provide your customers with different ways to book appointments online. These are automatically synced to both your Square and Google calendars, so your calendar stays up to date at all times. You can choose from the following options based on varying technical skills and business requirements:

• Online booking page: Set up a free online booking page that you can share with your clients via text or email. This page is customizable, so you can make it fit your brand and desired customer experience.
• Booking page embed: Embed your online booking page into your existing website.
• Booking widget or button: Add a booking widget or button to your existing website. Your widget and button are also fully customizable and you can get help setting these up with Square Support.
• Social media integration: Add a booking button to your Instagram and Facebook.
• Google listing: Add a booking button to your Google listing.
• Square website: Create a custom website and online booking with Square Online at no extra cost.

When setting up online booking, you can create a customizable Square Online website, add your existing website, or allow booking via sites like Instagram.

Square Appointments allows you to connect with clients through SMS and email messaging tools. You can send personalized notes from the moment clients make their booking, to when service has been rendered and payment is completed.

With Square Appointments, you can:

• Send appointment confirmation messages as soon as clients book, so that they have all their appointment information in an easy-to-find place.
• Set automatic appointment reminders so that your clients never miss an appointment.
• Send digital receipts and survey forms after their appointments so that clients can give feedback about your business. Square also lets you respond directly to survey responses, making it easy to fix any problems and maintain customer loyalty.
• Use Square Assistant, a smart messaging tool that comes free with Square Appointments. It allows clients to confirm, cancel, or reschedule appointments via SMS at any time of the day in response to your automated appointment reminders. It will automatically respond and update your calendar so that you can do more working and less worrying about managing your schedule.

From your dashboard, set how and when your clients will receive automatic reminders and confirmation messages for their appointments.

Paid subscribers can customize payment requirements and cancellation policies to protect their businesses from no-show clients. Access the settings from your appointments dashboard, then choose between letting clients book without adding their credit card information, and requiring credit card details either to hold a reservation or for prepayment.

If you opt to require a client to enter credit card information to hold a reservation, you can specify the cut-off time for cancellation and the corresponding charges for canceling beyond your stipulated deadline. You can also set the fee either as a dollar amount or a percentage of the total cost of the canceled service.

Define your policies beforehand and let customers know them to protect your business from no-shows.

Your clients will receive an email notification once you approve the cancellation. It will include details of the canceled appointment, along with the corresponding fee, and your cancellation policy.

If a client doesn’t show up for a scheduled appointment, you can use the Waitlist feature to fill in the resulting gap in your calendar, avoiding idle time for your staff and potentially lost revenue for your business. The Waitlist is essentially a list of clients that you can invite to your shop for an impromptu appointment in the event that a scheduled appointment is canceled.

Besides adding clients to the list, you can note their preferences for availability and services.

Keep track of clients’ preferred availability and services when adding them to the waitlist.

Square Appointments allows you to create and customize your list of services. Each service will have a description, specified duration, and pricing option. You can also assign specific resources to your services so that their availability is updated with appointment bookings.

For pricing your services, you can either set a fixed price that customers can pay directly online at checkout or a variable price that is determined after the service is complete and paid at checkout. You can also add variations and a block transition time between services.

Once you have your list of services, you can customize how they appear on your booking page—whether that be as a menu or on your actual calendar.

You’ll have a high level of control available over the price, duration, and variations of the custom services you create.

While Square Appointments’ free plan is only for a single user, you can also adapt Square for additional staff members. If you do so, the program comes with rich team management tools so that you can stay on top of all your employees and their schedules.

Each staff member receives a unique login where they can access and manage their own calendar from any desktop or the Square Appointments mobile app. Each profile can be customized by specifying location, offered services, and bookable hours. There’s also a biography section where you can add information about staff members’ availability, specialization, and other offered services.

With administrator access, you can manage your staff’s booked appointments and control what they see by assigning permissions. You can also set custom permissions so employees can change only certain items on their schedule. Additionally, you can specify multiple wage rates, assign unique commission rates, disable booking, split tips, or delete a staff profile altogether. Users also get regular timecards and labor vs sales reports.

You can set each employee’s permissions and access in great detail.

When you sign up for Square Appointments, you will also receive a free Square POS system where you can process payments and keep track of your inventory, appointment activities, and client information. The Square POS system lets walk-in clients view your list of services, book, and check out. You also have the ability to issue a refund for an entire appointment or per individual service item.

It is important to note that while the Square POS system works well with Square hardware, you can also use Square POS with your existing equipment. Square does work best, however, with a tablet device.

Additional tools for customizing point of sale include:

• Issue professional invoices
• Perform quick checkouts with customer card-on-file
• Process keyed-in payments
• Accept split payments
• Apply appropriate sales taxes
• Apply rewards as discounts
• Allow custom tipping
• Redeem loyalty rewards
• Accept gift cards
• Contactless payment compatible
• Data security (PCI) compliance
• Reporting on sales

With Square Appointments, you can save detailed customer information to your Square Dashboard. Additionally, if you have an existing customer contact list, you can import their information into Square as a CSV file. Each client profile contains their personal details, credit card info, appointment schedules, and purchase history. You can even add personalized notes to each client profile to remind you of their preferred services.

Square also offers communication tools to improve client relations. When a new client gets added to your dashboard, Square allows you to send custom messages to welcome your new customer. You can also send email and text reminders for their appointments, and send soft copy contracts if you require a client’s signature before performing a service. Client management also lets you create client groups for marketing campaigns.

Keep track of your clients so you can better serve them. (Source: Square)

Square Appointments can combine service and retail for blended businesses. While Square for Retail is a better option for businesses with thousands of SKUs or complex inventory needs, Square Appointments’ POS has a built-in inventory management feature that is great for service-based businesses with smaller inventory needs. Square Appointments’ inventory system is easy to use and includes features like:

• Inventory organization: Stock unlimited inventory, customize products with categories, and use an item search tool during checkout.
• Inventory tracking: Track stock levels in real time and set low stock email alerts when items are running low.
• Barcode scanning: Ring up sales through barcode scanning with a barcode scanner or your iPad’s camera.
• Sales allocation: Monitor retail sales and attribute it to the correct employees automatically, enabling you to handle commission payouts for said transactions efficiently.
• Social media Integration: Integrate your inventory to Instagram and make a storefront where customers can shop right from your social media page.

Manage inventory and sell goods with your POS account.

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The dashboard includes both an item library and services library, among other functions.

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While you can opt to use all the native features in the Square system—from building your website to managing your inventory to booking appointments—Square also has several integration options. This lets you adopt Square into existing systems without having to worry about compatibility issues or switching providers.

The following third-party integrations are compatible with Square Appointments:

• Wix Bookings
• QuickBooks
• JotForm
• Google Calendar
• Instagram
• Acuity Scheduling
• MassageBook

Third-party integrations are limited for Square Appointments, which most critics consider a major downside of the platform. The biggest shortcoming is the lack of native intake form capabilities and that the calendar only syncs with Google. Competitor products, like Picktime and 10to8, offer integration with other calendar applications such as iCal, Office 365, and Outlook.

Yes! You can create an online booking page, manage your calendar, send appointment reminders, and process payments.

First, set up a booking page where customers can make appointments based on your specific services and availability. Those appointments will appear on your calendar as they are booked, and Square will send out SMS and email reminders to keep your customers informed.

Square Appointments offers three plans at $0, $29, and $69 per month, per location. The plans vary by the number of users and locations they can support, as well as premium feature offerings. There is also a completely free Square Appointments app.