Square Payments & POS Integration
Connect your Square account to accept card payments at checkout and automatically push every order — cash or card — to your Square POS terminal.
In this article
How Square Integration Works
Wehanda integrates with Square on a per-restaurant basis. When you connect your Square account, two things happen automatically:
1. Every order pushes to your Square POS terminal — whether the customer pays by cash, card, or Stripe, the order appears in Square's "All Orders" list with full line items, customer name, order type, and totals. Your kitchen and front-of-house staff see everything through Square.
2. Card payments are accepted at checkout — customers can pay by card on your ordering portal using Square Web Payments. The payment flows directly into your connected Square account.
No catalog matching is required. Orders are sent as ad-hoc line items, so they work regardless of what's in your Square catalog.
What You Need Before Setting Up
Before connecting Square to your Wehanda restaurant, gather these three items from your Square Developer Dashboard (developer.squareup.com/apps):
Application ID — found in the Credentials tab of your Square Developer Application. Format: sq0idp-...
Access Token — found in the same Credentials tab. Use your Sandbox access token for testing, or your Production access token for real payments. Format: EAAAl...
Location — Wehanda auto-discovers your locations once you provide an access token. You do not need to copy a Location ID manually.
Important: your Application ID and Access Token must come from the same Square Developer Application. Mixing credentials from different applications causes payment errors.
Connecting Square to Your Restaurant
- Go to Dashboard → Setup and click Set Up Square in the Online Payments card (right sidebar).
- In the Square Setup wizard:
- Select Environment: choose Sandbox for testing or Production for live payments.
- Enter your Application ID — copied from the Credentials tab of your Square Developer Application.
- Enter your Access Token — copied from the same Credentials tab (Sandbox or Production token, matching your environment selection).
- Click Find my locations — Wehanda calls Square's API and returns all locations associated with your token.
- Select your Location from the dropdown.
- Click Save. Wehanda verifies the credentials by fetching your location from Square.
- A green "Square Connected" badge appears on success. Your restaurant is now ready to push orders and accept payments.
If you previously connected with different credentials, disconnect first (click Disconnect), then reconnect with the correct Application ID and Access Token from the same application.
How Orders Appear on Square POS
Once Square is connected, every new order placed on your Wehanda portal — regardless of payment method — is immediately sent to Square as an order.
In Square's "All Orders" view:
- Customer name and contact
- Order type: Pickup, Dine-In, or Delivery
- Line items with names and prices (no catalog matching needed — sent as ad-hoc items)
- Modifiers and special notes per item
- Tax shown as a service charge
- Tip/fee shown as a service charge
- Loyalty discount shown as a discount line
Order status: Starts as "Open" in Square. You can update the status from your Square POS app or web dashboard.
Finding orders: Go to your Square POS app → Orders, or at squareup.com → Orders → All Orders. Filter by date to find recent orders.
Accepting Card Payments at Checkout
When Square is connected, your Wehanda ordering portal displays a Square card payment form at checkout. Customers enter their card details directly into Square's secure form — Wehanda never stores or sees card numbers.
What happens on checkout:
- Square tokenizes the customer's card on your portal
- Wehanda creates the order in Square
- Wehanda charges the card against that Square order
- Payment confirmation appears immediately; the order shows as paid in Square
Payment deposits: Funds deposit to your Square account on Square's standard payout schedule (typically 1–2 business days for US accounts in production mode).
Test cards (Sandbox): Use card number 4111 1111 1111 1111 with any future expiry and any CVV to test a successful payment. Do not use real card numbers in Sandbox mode.
Square vs Stripe — Which to Use
Both Square and Stripe let customers pay by card on your Wehanda ordering page. The key differences:
Square:
- Pushes all orders (cash, card, Stripe) to your Square POS terminal
- Ideal if you already use Square POS hardware at your counter or tableside
- Card payments charged directly through your Square account
- One application covers both POS push and card payments
Stripe:
- Card-only payments deposited to your Stripe account
- No POS terminal push
- Best if you use Stripe elsewhere and don't have Square hardware
Important: only one payment processor can be active at a time. Connecting Square disconnects Stripe as the active payment method. However, if you connect Square, even cash orders still push to Square POS — your front-of-house staff sees everything.
If you want POS visibility for all orders, use Square. If you only need online card payments and don't use Square hardware, either works.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
"Access forbidden to the requested location"
Your Access Token and Location ID are from different Square accounts or different applications. Use the "Find my locations" button — it automatically discovers the correct locations for your token. Never paste a Location ID manually.
"Could not connect to Square: Invalid credentials"
Check that your Application ID and Access Token are both copied from the same Developer Application in developer.squareup.com/apps. Open your application → Credentials tab → copy both values from the same page.
Card payment fails with error at checkout (402/400)
Your Application ID must match the Square application your Access Token belongs to. The Square Web Payments SDK tokenizes cards tied to a specific Application ID — if it doesn't match your access token's application, charges fail. Disconnect and reconnect with matching credentials.
Orders not appearing in Square POS
- Check that Square shows "Connected" (green badge) in Dashboard → Setup → Online Payments.
- Confirm the location you selected during setup matches the location your POS terminal is registered to in Square.
- Check your Square dashboard under Orders → All Orders, not just "Active" (completed or pending orders may be in a different tab).
Sandbox vs Production
Make sure your environment selection (Sandbox/Production) matches the type of access token you pasted. A sandbox token will not work in Production mode and vice versa.
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