Square POS

Updated

Accurate sales, labor data tracking, and tip pooling is at your fingertips with the Square POS integration in 7shifts! The integration supports flexible account setups, so you can connect 7shifts locations even if they are spread across multiple Square accounts.

In this article

Supported Account Configurations
Add the Integration
Employee and Role Mapping
Actual Sales and Forecasting
Actual Labor and Tips
Schedule Enforcement
Employee Sync

Things to Know

Review these critical technical requirements before enabling the integration:

  • The integration only supports tracking the employee who processed the final payment; not the original owner of the order. As a result, order transfers are not supported.
  • Only one Square account can be connected to a single 7shifts Location at a time.
  • Access to certain features may require a plan upgrade.

Supported Account Configurations

7shifts supports several connection structures to match your business needs:

  • One 7shifts Account to One Square Account (recommended): This is the most common setup where a single 7shifts account connects to a single Square account.
  • Multiple Square Accounts to Multiple 7shifts Accounts: You can have separate 7shifts accounts for different business entities, with each one connected to its own respective Square account.
  • Multiple Square Accounts to One 7shifts Account: This is ideal for franchises or businesses that use separate Square accounts but want to manage everything within a single 7shifts company. Each 7shifts Location can only be connected to one Square account.
  • Multiple 7shifts Accounts to One Square Account (possible with caution): While possible, this setup requires careful mapping. We cannot guarantee your data will sync correctly. We recommend proceeding with caution and ensuring each 7shifts Location is mapped to a unique Square location.

Add the Integration

As an Admin, follow these steps to connect your Square account to 7shifts:

  1. In the left navigation bar, head to Apps & Integrations.
  2. Search and select Square.
  3. Click on Login to Square and enter your Square credentials.
  4. Once redirected back to 7shifts, click Add Integration and select Square again.
  5. Use the drop-down menus to pair your Square account and location with the corresponding 7shifts Location.
  6. Click Connect to activate the integration.
  7. Success! Moving forward, you'll be able to view the integration within your 7shifts account by heading to Apps & Integrations > My Integrations > Square POS > Settings.

After you've activated the integration, it may take several hours for the system to start bringing in your previous sales data.

Connect Multiple Square Accounts

This setup is ideal for businesses that use more than one Square account but want to manage all locations within a single 7shifts company.

  1. As an Admin in 7shifts, navigate to Apps & Integrations > My Integrations > Square.
  2. Click the + Add Account button.
  3. The additional Square account will be available for you to choose in the Square Account field.

Employee and Role Mapping

Mapping connects users and roles between your POS and 7shifts to ensure labor data flows to the correct profiles. When your roles and employees are correctly mapped, it reduces integration warnings and prevents issues when running payroll. You can leverage 7shifts reporting and analytics tools to help you make informed decisions and track your business needs.

Important: Mapping must be completed before enabling Actual Labor or Employee Sync to prevent data discrepancies. This is one of the most important configuration steps.

  1. Head to Apps & Integrations > Mapping > choose the Employees or Roles tab.
  2. 7shifts automatically maps roles and employees that have identical names and spacing in both systems. You'll find those under the Matched heading.
  3. For Unmatched employees or roles, choose to Match, Ignore, or Add them to 7shifts to ensure data syncs correctly.

Role & Employee Mapping in 7shifts defines the universal setup rules and mapping logic for all supported integrations.

Actual Sales and Forecasting

Real-time sales data integration is enabled by default upon activation and is used to generate labor budget projections. Once connected, 7shifts pulls Net sales data from Square to provide a real-time view of your labor costs and generate AI-powered forecasts.

  • 7shifts automatically imports up to 90 days of historical sales data from Square upon activation.
  • It may take hours for the system to start bringing in your previous sales. If they do not appear initially, please check back in a few hours.
  • Both 7shifts and Square POS must be configured with the same time zone and workday hours (5:00 AM to 5:00 AM).
  • It takes approximately 1–2 weeks of data collection for initial sales projections to appear.

Actual Sales and Forecasting in 7shifts defines universal rules and how projection logic applies across all supported integrations.

Actual Labor and Tips

As labor data syncs from the POS, 7shifts pulls employee punches and labor costs to support accurate reporting, tip calculations, and payroll workflows. Once enabled, actual labor totals are displayed on the Dashboard, allowing you to compare sales vs. labor. Tips are managed alongside actual labor in 7shifts because they are earned during worked time and associated with employee punches.

Important: Employees must be scheduled in 7shifts for roles to be correctly assigned to punches when actual labor is enabled.

To enable labor sync:

  1. Head to Apps & Integrations > My Integrations > Square POS > Settings.
  2. Under the Labor tab, toggle on Actual Labor.
  3. To sync tip data, ensure Declare cash tips is enabled in the Square Dashboard under Shifts > Settings > Tips.
  • Punches will sync to the 7shifts Time Clocking section once an employee is correctly mapped.
  • Includes Card Tips, Cash Tips, and Auto-Gratuities for use in Tip Pooling.
  • Square punches for unscheduled shifts will appear in 7shifts without an assigned Role.

Syncing POS time clocking data defines universal rules and how labor data from external systems is managed.

Tip: The Square integration supports automated tip collection for use with 7shifts Tip Pooling. This data feeds into custom pooling rules based on hours worked, points, or percentages.

For a step-by-step setup, see Tip Pooling for Square POS.

Including Tips in Payroll

The Square integration supports the collection of the following tip sources:

  • CC Tips (Credit Card Tips)
  • Auto-gratuity
  • Declared Tips

Tip: It is recommended to configure these settings after your initial integration setup is complete and your first sync has occurred. This ensures 7shifts accurately recognizes all available tip sources from your POS.

These tip sources can be used with 7shifts Tip Pooling to create custom distribution rules based on hours worked, points, or percentages.

To ensure these tips are included in your reports and payroll (7shifts Payroll and external exports), you must configure your tip calculation settings. Follow the steps in Tip Management: Include Tip Calculations.

Tip Management & Integrations defines the universal rules for including tip data from your POS in 7shifts.

Schedule Enforcement

Schedule Enforcement ensures staff can only clock into Square when they have a scheduled shift in 7shifts.

Note: This feature may require an upgrade to Shifts Plus within the Square account. Grace Periods are not currently supported.

Note: If an employee is not scheduled, a manager override on the POS terminal is required to allow the clock-in.

How to enable Schedule Enforcement

Step 1: In 7shifts

  1. Head to Apps & Integrations > My Integrations > Square POS.
  2. Click Settings beside the Location(s) that you want to enable.
  3. Under the Labor tab, click Re-authorize under Schedule Enforcement:

Step 2: In Square POS

  1. After clicking Re-authorize you will be taken to a Square POS Log in page.
  2. Log in with your Square credentials and click Allow on the authorization page:

Step 3: In 7shifts

  1. You'll be returned to Apps & Integrations > My Integrations > Square POS > Settings.
  2. Under the Labor tab, toggle on Schedule Enforcement:

Step 4: In Square POS

  1. Log in to your Square POS account.
  2. From the home dashboard head to Staff > Settings > Clock in/out > Schedule Enforcement.
  3. Toggle on Block early and unscheduled clock-ins:

Step 4: Republish the Schedule

Once settings have been enabled in 7shifts and Square, be sure to re-publish the schedule in 7shifts in order for the shifts to send to Square.

  1. In 7shifts, head to Schedule.
  2. Select a shift.
  3. Checkmark BD.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Select the same shift again.
  6. Uncheck BD.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Select Publish changes.

Follow the same steps for additional locations needing to enable schedule enforcement.

Schedule Enforcement defines universal rules and how scheduled shifts sync across supported integrations.

Employee Sync

7shifts can automatically create new employee profiles when they are added to the Square POS. Employee Sync also helps ensure your employee records match in both systems, so your labor data is always up to date in 7shifts.

Important: Actual Labor must be enabled and existing employees/roles must be mapped before using this feature to prevent data discrepancies.

  • Synced fields include First Name, Last Name, and location/department/role assignments.
  • Role assignments do not sync automatically; staff must be assigned roles in 7shifts after creation.

See Employee Sync for the universal automation rules for syncing user profiles.

Related Articles

Role & Employee Mapping
Actual Sales & Projections
Syncing POS time clocking data
Understanding Integration Warnings in Time Clocking
Employee Sync
Tip Pooling for Square POS

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