I would like to see if we could use Square Up with our Troop Track. I think it could be used in one of two ways, we could use it to track deposits for Fundraisers. But the main thing that I would like to use it for is being able to allow parents to use credit cards to pay for an event. There are some the won’t or don’t use paypal.
We use stripe, which is already integrated with TroopTrack.
It works perfectly. The parent just enters the credit card info and the charge is processed.
Give it a look.
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Hi Neal,
I’ll look into Stripe.
Can you expand a bit on accepting credit cards? this is something my parents want, and I am happy to implement, I just need to understand it a bit more.
Do you allow parents to pay for outings via credit card, or do you only allow payment to be made from the scout account?
Also, How does your troop deal with the processing fee that is charged to the troop? I am imagining several .25 cent transactions all over the ledger and my Treasurer going crazy trying to account for everything.
Thanks!
Scott
My Pack doesn’t use individual Scout accounts. Instead, we charge a fairly large annual fee ($135 including Council charter fees). The annual fee basically covers supplies for all Den Meetings and Pack Meetings, subsidies for our Blue & Gold, and credit card processing fees.
When you have Stripe set up, whenever you create an event, you go into the advanced settings and check Payment Required for RSVP". It really simplifies the accounting and attendance for each event. We never have to chase anybody down to reply or pay for an event. We just set a deadline and whoever has paid is going, whoever has not paid is not participating.
Just be aware that in addition to the .25 TroopTrack fee, there is a Stripe fee that varies based on a bunch of factors, but is in the 2.5% neighborhood. The TroopTrack fee is nothing difficult, if you list an event for let’s say $20, the Scout is charged $20.25, so it’s basically like the event cost is $20.25.
From a treasurer standpoint, it’s really simple. You just click on “view all payments” for the event, and
Thanks Neal, glad to hear it’s easy for the treasurer. That makes me feel better.
BTW, Feel free to finish your comment… The post stopped at the word and… It’s like a murder mystery who did it!!! 
LOL
Thanks again,
Scott
Being a Girl Scout troop we currently use Square. They offer a free POS reader and have great apps for when you are selling cookies or other items. Also they do not charge a transaction fee, only a 2.5% fee. Stripe charges $.30 per transaction plus 2.9%.
We have asked TT if they would add Square to function in TT similar to Stripe. In return they have requested that we see if others are interested in this added functionality.
Would your troop be interested in having the ability to use Square?
Has anyone used both systems and have comments?
Please let us know.
Thanks!
Nicholas
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I would introduce Square to our Troop if TroopTrack supported it.
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I love square, I would really like to be able to use it for parents to pay for trips, especially as the girls get older and we will be able to go more places.
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We use the invoice function now to pay for specific trips or activities, it is easier than collecting cash or checks. You can just email the parents an invoice, they pay it and the troop gets the money.
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Hi all,
My Popcorn Kernel was at a scouting event over the weekend, and the idea of using Square was introduced.
Based on this thread, it sounds like people find it easy to use and easy to set up.
Currently, we are setup in TT to take credit cards and processing them with Stripe, as Neal pointed it, it’s pretty easy. It’s a nice integration with TT. Stripe,com does offer a point of sale system called Shopify. I don’t know if it’s also compatible with TT or not. They charge a monthly fee, so I stopped investigating. For those interested the link to Stripes Shopify product is- https://www.shopify.com/pos
With Square, my Treasurer will have to look at the bank statement and add any Square deposits into TT.
I am just starting to look into using Square, because Popcorn sales will kick off at the end of August, and my Popcorn Kernel would like to accept credit cards during show and sells. I don’t want her to miss a sales opportunity.
Are there any other comments out there about Square? What has been the sales experience from anyone who used this to sell popcorn or cookies? How are receipts given to customers? Also, is there any form of monthly payment above the processing fee? I see they will send the cell phone card reader for free and the website quotes a 2.75%/swipe. Finally, how long does it take Square to send the credit card reader?
I can see us using Square for other fundraisers as well. What account information do I need to share with my popcorn Kernel or any adult running a fundraiser? I’m assuming the phone card reader can be used with multiple cell phones…
I am adding TT staff on this thread to see if they have any comment about adding Square to TT for credit card processing. @mlsully2002 @dave
Thanks everyone,
Scott
Square is very easy to use. You log in to the app on your phone, swipe the
card, and in seconds (if you have data service or wifi) the transaction
will be sent to Square to be approved. Then you get the option to either
email or text the receipt to the customer. After that it takes 2 days to
get the money in the bank account. You can look up history of transactions
and deposits either on your phone or the computer. You can set up items in
the square so you can keep track of what the customer purchased. It only
charges you the per transaction percentage. It does not charge a monthly
fee at all, that is why I like it so well. So if I don’t use it in Oct,
Nov, Dec then I get charged nothing at all. I am only charged when I use
it. You can even purchase a chip reader if you want to get that fancy, I
haven’t.
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Thanks so much for the information @ChewelahTroop5006 .
I am thinking we will need the chip reader, as more cards are being issued with them.
I appreciate the response! I feel better about making the leap 
Regards,
Scott
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From what I understand, you don’t need the chip-reader to scan someone’s card that has a chip on it - but if you do use a chip-reader, you have extra protections in the case of fraud.
You can see this as some stores have still not adopted the use of chip-readers, and they have no trouble taking payment from my chip-ridden cards.
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Our Pack would prefer the use of Square in Troop Tracker. We’d like to minimize the number of username and passwords for money accounts we need to manage. PLEASE ADD Square as a payment option!
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+1 for adding Squareup integration.
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Yes. Square has better rates, and sells terminals that accept Chip & PIN, NFC, and ApplePay. Why would I choose Stripe when Square has them beat both on pricing and features?
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+1 for Square. We already use it for fundraisers. It would simplify our TT payment setup. Thanks!
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Is this even on the roadmap?
Square is more convenient from a customer’s perspective.
Stripe is more convenient from a developer’s perspective.
I can understand why TroopTrack added Stripe support first, but please add Square spport.
Pricing
Square: 2.75% (3.5% manually entered)
Stripe: 2.9% + 0.30 (??% manually entered)
Payment
Square: 2 days (average), optional “instant” deposits (+1% fee)
Stripe: 2 days (average)
Monthly Fee
Square: Online: free; Physical Cards: free
Stripe: Online: free; Physical cards: outsourced ($49/mo through InnerFence)
Credit Card Reader
Square: Free. Optional paid devices for NFC, Chip & Pin, ApplePay, Android Pay
Stripe: Paid device only (depends on vendor).
Online Store
Square: 2.9% + 0.30. No monthly fee.
Stripe: Outsourced. $79/mo through Shopify
The ability to accept on-site and on-line payments for fundraisers and dues using the same (Square) account would be very useful for our Pack. Square makes things convenient and relatively cheap for me as a consumer. I don’t pay monthly fees, but can still accept payments. Stripe seems to be aimed more at someone who regularly processes a higher volume of payments, and many of the options have monthly charges.
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This is on the list. I made mention that it would go well with some other features we have in beta and it might be good for collecting dues/event fees. The reason why this hasn’t been seriously considered in the past is because square is mostly known for the physical transactions and we didn’t see a lot of widespread benefit to justify the headache of adding it.
You all have made very good points that we may not otherwise have been able to gather in support of a feature like this. Well done.
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I would find square integration helpful. I currently use the square app to accept payments on the spot from parents for event fees as opposed to asking them to remember to log on to the website and pay online.
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