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Square Giving Connector

  • Updated

Contents

Introduction

The Square Giving Connector allows you to connect your Square account to ChMeetings and automatically import completed Square payments as contributions.

This connector is designed for churches that receive payments through Square card readers, Square Terminal, Square POS, or manually record Square cash and check transactions. 

Instead of exporting payments from Square and importing them manually, payments can flow automatically into ChMeetings with their funds, fees, refunds, payment methods, batches, and giver information.

The connector is read-only. ChMeetings can retrieve payment information from Square, but it cannot charge cards, initiate refunds, or move money. Refunds must be processed in Square and will then be reflected automatically in ChMeetings. 

The Square Giving Connector is separate from ChMeetings Online Giving. Online Giving collects payments through a supported payment provider, while the Square connector observes payments already collected through Square and records them as contributions.

Availability and Access

The Square Giving Connector is available to paid ChMeetings accounts in countries supported by Square:

  • United States
  • Canada
  • United Kingdom
  • Ireland
  • Australia
  • Japan
  • France
  • Spain

It can be managed by a church owner or administrator, or by a user who has the required permission to access Integrations. You can set this up under Users & Roles.

Connect Square

The Square connector is available from the ChMeetings Settings > Integrations page. Selecting Connect redirects you to Square to sign in and authorize ChMeetings.

 

After authorization, ChMeetings retrieves the Square merchant information and available Square locations.

All locations are disabled when the connection is first created. No payments are imported until you deliberately enable a location and select its default contribution fund. This prevents contributions from being created unexpectedly immediately after connecting.

Note that if a previously disconnected Square account is reconnected, ChMeetings restores the existing connector instead of creating a new one. Previous settings, matching information, and import history are retained, allowing importing to continue from where it stopped.

Use the Sync option to import payments starting from a specific date.

 

You will be notified of the import and the number of imported transactions. 

 

Imported Square Transactions 

The Connector only imports completed Square transactions. Below is a table of Square transaction statuses and whether they get imported into ChMeetings via the Connector.

Square transaction status Import to ChMeetings Contributions
Completed payment with an amount greater than zero Imported as a contribution when it comes from an enabled location and matches the connector settings
Pending or in-progress payment Not imported. These will be imported after Square changes the status to Completed.
Canceled or failed payment Not imported
Completed 0-amount payments Not imported
Completed payment fully excluded by the item rules Not imported; it is recorded as excluded.
Refunded payment The refund is not imported as a separate negative contribution. Instead, it updates the original imported contribution.


 

Enable locations and set default funds

Each Square location can be enabled or disabled independently.

An enabled location must have a default ChMeetings contribution fund. This fund receives any amount that is not directed to another fund through an item rule or a tips setting.

This allows you to connect one Square account while importing payments only from the locations that are used for giving. Locations used exclusively for unrelated business activities can remain disabled.

 

Configure item rules

Item rules control how individual Square order items are handled.

A rule can match an item when its name:

  • Exactly matches specified text; or
  • Contains specified text.

Each matching rule can either:

  • Direct the item amount to a selected contribution fund; or
  • Exclude the item from the imported contribution.

Rules are processed from top to bottom, and the first matching rule is applied. Their order can therefore be changed to control which rule has priority.

For example, you could configure:

  • Items containing “Children” to go to the Children Fund.
  • Items containing “Bookstore” to be excluded.
  • All remaining amounts go to the location’s default fund.

The connector can also display recently observed Square item names that are not currently covered by a rule. This helps identify new items that may need to be assigned to a fund or excluded.

 

Cash and check payments

Cash and check payments entered into Square can be imported into ChMeetings. This option is enabled by default but can be turned off.

IMPORTANT: If you already enter the same cash or check contributions manually in ChMeetings please disable this option to prevent duplicate contributions.

Cash and check transactions are recorded with zero processing fees.

 

Tips

Tips added to Square payments can be handled in either of two ways:

  • Assigned to a separate contribution fund; or
  • Included in the location’s default fund.

When a tips fund is selected, the tip amount is separated from the rest of the payment and allocated to that fund.

 

Contribution batches

Square contributions can be added to batches, just like other giving transactions. The Square batch is configured in the Square Giving Connector settings, under Settings > Integrations > Square > Manage. There are three batch options you can choose from:

  • Daily Square batch: Creates or uses a separate Square batch for each day. This is the default option.The daily batch option keeps Square contributions separate and makes them easier to review and reconcile.
  • Latest open manual batch: Adds imported contributions to the most recent open batch.
  • Fixed batch: Adds all imported contributions to one selected batch.

 

Contribution creation

Each completed Square payment creates one completed contribution in ChMeetings. The contribution includes:

  • The payment date.
  • The appropriate payment method.
  • The applicable fund allocations.
  • The Square processing fee when available.
  • The selected contribution batch.
  • The payer information available from Square.

 

Matching payments to people

ChMeetings uses the payer information provided by Square to match imported contributions to people in your database.

Matching is performed in the following order:

  1. Previously confirmed Square identifiers, such as a Square customer ID or card fingerprint.
  2. A unique email address belonging to one person.
  3. The existing ChMeetings name-matching process.
  4. Creation of a new contact when a usable payer name is available but no matching person exists.
  5. Anonymous contribution when there is not enough reliable information to identify a person.

If the payer has a usable name but no matching person exists, ChMeetings creates a contact and flags the contribution as Needs Review.

If the payment does not contain enough reliable identifying information, it is recorded as anonymous.

 

Needs Review queue

A contribution can be imported successfully while still requiring confirmation of its giver.

Flagged contributions appear in the Needs review queue on the Contributions page. The flag does not prevent the contribution from being included in totals, statements, or reports. Each flagged contribution shows the reason it requires review. 

 

For each transaction needing review, you can open the context menu, edit the transaction, and adjust the giver if needed, 

 

Alternatively, you can mark it as reviewed.

 

You must confirm that you want to mark the payment as reviewed. If you have not edited it, then it will stay exactly as it is. Marking it as reviewed only removes it from your list of payments needing review. 

 

Remembering confirmed matches

The connector remembers high-confidence and administrator-confirmed matches.

For example, if an administrator links a Square payment to the correct person, ChMeetings can remember the Square customer information or card identifier associated with that payment. Future payments using the same details can then be assigned automatically to that person.

When an administrator corrects a giver, ChMeetings can also locate other unresolved contributions containing the same payer identifiers and move them to the selected person. If ChMeetings created a new contact for the payer, that contact remains after reassignment. 

Note that this does not automatically change previously imported contributions from the same payer. It only ensures that future transactions are assigned to the respective payer. You must manually assign past transactions.

 

Disconnect Square

Disconnecting can be done from under Settings > Integrations. This stops future Square imports and removes ChMeetings’ access to the Square account.

Disconnecting does not:

  • Delete previously imported contributions.
  • Remove existing contribution history.
  • Change previous fees or refunds.
  • Delete the connector configuration or matching history.

If the same Square account is connected again later, ChMeetings restores the connector and continues using its previous settings and synchronization history.

Main business guarantees

The Square Giving Connector provides the following guarantees:

  • One Square payment creates no more than one ChMeetings contribution.
  • Nothing is imported until a Square location is enabled and assigned a default fund.
  • Only completed and eligible payments from enabled locations are imported.
  • The imported contribution amount matches the amount actually received.
  • Sync option to import payments starting from a specific date.
  • Excluded items are not counted as contributions.
  • Existing contributions remain available after Square is disconnected.
  • Automatic payer matching remains visible and can be corrected by an administrator.
  • Administrator-confirmed matches take priority over automatic matching.
  • ChMeetings cannot charge cards, initiate refunds, or move Square funds.