Get started with Square Subscriptions in Dashboard

To create a new plan:

1. From your Square Subscriptions page, go to Plans.
2. Click Create plan to add your plan details.
3. Enter a Plan name (only visible to you).
4. Click Assign items and choose the items from your catalog you’d like to assign to your subscription plan. Click Save.
5. Click Add frequency option.
6. Choose a Frequency for this plan. For Subscription start date, choose to bill your customers at the time the subscription starts, the last day of each month, or a billing date of your choice. Note: Choosing a subscription billing start date is only available for new Monthly subscription plans. After selecting your billing date, your partial billing option will be set to Prorate or Charge full price.
7. Set an endpoint for your plan, or select Never if you want your plan to be continuous.
8. Toggle on if a discount is available with this frequency, and assign a percentage or specific amount to discount.
9. To allow customers to pause subscriptions, toggle on Pause subscriptions and set a pause duration limit. Click Add.
10. Click Save when finished.

Item stock will stay updated as you fulfill subscription orders. All subscription-based orders will appear in your Square Order Manager with all other orders.

To make changes to an existing plan:

1. From your Square Subscriptions page, go to Plans.
2. Click ••• > Edit plan under the plan you want to edit

Note: Any changes made to an existing plan only affect new subscriptions. Existing subscriptions won’t be affected by the updates.

You’ll be able to add items to an existing plan by clicking Assign items. You can also update the frequencies of an existing plan, or add additional frequency options by clicking Add frequency option.

To duplicate or deactivate a plan:

1. From your Square Subscriptions page, go to Plans.
2. Under the plan you want to modify, click ••• > Duplicate plan or Deactivate plan.

Existing subscriptions to a deactivated plan will not be affected and will continue to renew until the existing subscriptions are canceled.

To create a new subscription:

1. From your Square Subscriptions page, go to Subscriptions.
2. Click Create subscription to add your subscription details.
3. In the Customer field, select an existing customer from your Customer Directory or create a new one. If you add an existing customer, subscriber details will automatically load.
4. Select the Location and the Start date for your subscription.
5. Select a Plan from the dropdown menu. If there are multiple frequencies available for the plan, select one from the Frequency dropdown menu.
6. To add items to this subscription, click Add an item and select an existing item from your catalog.
7. To add a discount, click Add discount, and choose an existing discount or create a new one. If you create a new discount and wish to save it for later use, select Save discount for future transactions. Click Save.
8. Choose the Fulfillment method. Orders with the No fulfillment option will still appear in your Square Order Manager but will not have shipping details. Orders with the Shipment option will need to have a shipping address.
9. To add a service charge (like a shipping charge, packing fees, etc.), tap Add service charge, and either choose an existing service charge or create a new one.
10. Select the payment method by entering the payment information for new customers, or selecting the payment information of existing customers. You can also choose to send an invoice by email.
11. Under Plan Details, click Add plan and select the subscription plan where you want to add the customer. If you want to add sales tax to the subscription, click Add sales tax, then Save.
12. Review the subscription details and click Save to begin your customer’s subscription.

To make changes to an existing subscription:

1. From your Square Subscriptions page, go to Subscriptions.
2. Click the subscription you want to view to open the subscription details, and select Edit to make changes.

To pause a subscription:

1. From your Square Subscriptions page, go to Subscriptions.
2. Click the subscription you want to pause.
3. Click ••• > Pause subscription.
4. Choose to either pause the subscription Indefinitely or By billing cycle.
5. Click Save when finished.

Your customer will receive a notification that the subscription has been paused. The subscription status will change from Pause Scheduled to Paused at the end of the current billing cycle.

To resume a paused subscription:

1. From your Square Subscriptions page, go to Subscriptions.
2. Click the paused subscription you want to resume.
3. Click ••• > Resume subscription.
4. Choose to resume the subscription Immediately or On the next billing date.
5. Click Save when finished.

Your customer will receive a notification when the subscription resumes, and their subscription status will show as Active.

To cancel a subscription:

1. From your Square Subscriptions page, go to Subscriptions.
2. Click the subscription you want to cancel.
3. Click ••• > Cancel subscription.

Your customer will receive a notification that the subscription has been canceled. The subscription status will now show as Canceled in your Dashboard. 

Note: Make items subscribable on your website by upgrading your Square Online subscription.

With Square Subscriptions, you can make your items subscribable and sell them on your Square Online site, enabling buyers to automatically order them on a recurring basis online. Start by simply creating a subscription plan, then attaching that plan to your item.

To make sure your catalog item is ready for online selling first, be sure to check out how to manage Square Online item settings from Square Item Library.

When selling subscriptions on your Square Online site, you have the option to sell your online item only as a subscription. To start:

1. From your Square Item Library, select an existing item or create a new one.
2. Under Subscriptions, toggle on Sell item only as a subscription on Square Online.
3. Click Save when finished.

At this time, it is not possible to:

• offer pickup as a fulfillment option on subscription plans
• set custom payment/billing dates on subscriptions (like billing all your subscriptions on the 1st of the month)
• modify the price of the subscription plan after it’s been created
• swap an item on an active subscription
• set commitment periods for subscriptions where customers must be subscribed for a minimum amount of time before they can cancel

If you sell non-physical items with Square Online like memberships, be aware that Subscriptions doesn’t currently support an entitlement feature. For example, if a gym offers five classes per month as part of a membership package, Subscriptions won’t keep track of how many classes a subscriber has already redeemed.

Prior to launching subscriptions based on items, any subscription plan created through Square Subscriptions wasn’t linked to your Square Item Library. This made it challenging to manage stock on subscription sales, apply taxes and discounts, and display product images, descriptions, variations, and modifiers.

If you already have existing subscription plans not connected to items in your Item Library, you can still sell those existing plans through your Point of Sale. These plans will have a “legacy” tag next to them. As of the latest update, we’ve launched subscriptions that are connected to items in your Square Item Library, which means all new subscription plans will need to be associated with an item.