What is Square Balance?

Square Balance is a financial management platform designed to help small businesses manage their cash flow. It offers tools to track sales, expenses, and payments in one centralized place to gain visibility into the financial health of a business.

How Does Square Balance Work?

Square Balance connects directly to a business’s Square sales and payments data to provide real-time insight into money coming in and going out. Here’s an overview of how it works:

• Sync Square sales and card payment data into Square Balance automatically.
• Categorize transactions as they happen to see where money is being spent.
• Set up rules and budgets to track costs over time.
• Monitor accounts receivable with payment tracking tools.
• Forecast revenue based on sales patterns and seasonal trends.
• Reconcile accounts automatically by matching transactions between Square and accounting systems.

By centralizing all this financial data in one platform, Square Balance provides a cash flow management hub with visibility into daily account balances, upcoming bills, payroll, income projections, and more.

Key Features of Square Balance

Some of the top features that help small businesses track their finances in Square Balance include:

Sales and Revenue Data

Square Balance pulls sales and revenue data in real-time from Square’s point of sale and payments systems. This provides an up-to-date look at money coming into the business with no manual tracking required.

Expenses and Payments

Expenses and bills paid through Square are automatically logged for historical reference and expense tracking. Businesses can also manually enter any outside expenses or payments.

Cash Flow Calendar

An overview calendar shows payments due, payroll, projected deposits, and other cash transactions at a glance. This helps with cash flow management and predicting high and low revenue periods.

Budgeting Tools

Set budgets across categories of your business to track costs over time. Budget vs. actual spending is mapped out in easy-to-read charts and graphs.

Bill Pay

Pay bills directly within Square Balance to keep everything reconciled in one system. Payments integrate with expenses tracking.

Account Reconciliation

Square Balance can sync data with accounting software like QuickBooks Online for automated reconciliation. This matches transactions between different systems.

Receivables Management

Send invoices, track payments owed, and collect outstanding receivables from customers all within Square Balance.

Financial Insights

Charts and graphs provide insights into sales patterns, most profitable products, hourly sales traffic, and other analytics for smarter financial decisions.

Benefits of Using Square Balance

Square Balance provides several benefits for small businesses compared to traditional accounting and cash flow management methods:

Streamlined Processes

Square Balance automates manual tasks like data entry so businesses can focus on daily operations instead of bookkeeping. Sales data, expenses, and payments automatically sync in real-time.

Cash Flow Visibility

The centralized dashboard provides real-time visibility into money coming in and going out. Businesses can predict highs and lows and make informed decisions about when to purchase inventory, pay bills, and manage payroll.

Categorized Transactions

Expenses and sales are automatically categorized with tags like “travel,” “payroll,” “advertising,” etc. This makes it easy to track costs and see where money is being spent.

Budgeting

Create budgets for categories of your business to keep costs on track. Square Balance provides instant visibility when you go over budget so adjustments can be made.

Receivables Management

Collecting outstanding invoices and payments owed is streamlined in Square Balance. You can instantly see receivables, send invoices, and collect payments online.

Reconciliation

By syncing accounting systems and matching transactions, Square Balance saves hours spent reconciling. This provides accurate books with minimal effort.

Analytics

Square Balance uncovers insights into your best customers, top products, sales patterns, labor costs, and other analytics to run your business smarter at a glance.

Cost of Square Balance

Square Balance offers different pricing tiers depending on your business needs:

Starter

• Best for businesses doing less than $250,000 in annual sales
• $6 per month
• Sync up to 2 bank accounts
• Send unlimited invoices
• Accept online payments

Plus

• Best for businesses doing $250,000 to $1 million in annual sales
• $12 per month
• Sync up to 4 bank accounts
• Send unlimited invoices
• Accept online payments
• Track bills and pay bills

Premium

• Best for businesses doing over $1 million in annual sales
• $25 per month
• Sync unlimited bank accounts
• Send unlimited invoices
• Accept online payments
• Track bills and pay bills
• Automatically categorize expenses
• Sync to accounting software

Square Balance offers a free 30-day trial so you can experience the benefits firsthand.

Getting Started With Square Balance

It’s quick and easy to set up Square Balance for your business in just a few steps:

1. Sign up for a free Square Balance account online or through the mobile app.
2. Connect your Square sales account so sales and payments data flows into Square Balance.
3. Link bank accounts you use for business transactions.
4. Categorize transactions as they occur to track where money is going.
5. Set budgets for categories relevant to your business.
6. Add users so staff members can collaborate and monitor finances.
7. Sync accounting software or export reports as needed.

Square Balance pulls your existing financial data from Square and bank accounts to pre-populate your account from day one. There is no starting from scratch!

Popular Alternatives to Square Balance

Some other cash flow management platforms businesses commonly use include:

QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online offers accounting, invoicing, and robust reporting. It syncs with bank accounts to track income and expenses and categorize transactions. Advanced QuickBooks plans also include budgeting and cash flow management tools.

Float

Float provides cash flow forecasting to predict highs and lows. It connects to accounting systems and analyzes bills, invoices, expenses, and timesheets to create rolling forecasts.

Brex

Brex provides real-time cash management, spend management, and rewards on transactions. Tailored specifically for ecommerce companies, Brex syncs transactions and facilitates invoice payments.

Spendesk

Spendesk specializes in spend management for business expenses and supplier payments. It enables creating budgets, approving purchases, processing invoices, and monitoring spending.

Conclusion

Square Balance offers automated cash flow management and financial insights tailored for today’s small businesses. By centralizing sales, payments, invoices, expenses, and accounting in one intuitive platform, Square Balance provides real-time visibility and control over the financial health of your company.

The key benefits Square Balance provides include streamlined money management, cash flow forecasting, budgeting tools, receivables management, and synchronized accounting. This saves hours spent on bookkeeping while optimizing financial decision making.

Square Balance integrates directly with Square’s point of sale and payments system making it a natural fit for current Square sellers. But the platform is flexible to connect with external accounting systems and bank accounts from any provider as well. If you want an all-in-one financial hub tailored for small business growth, Square Balance is worth exploring.

Sign up for a free 30-day trial to experience the platform firsthand. Square Balance offers transparent pricing starting at $6 per month. There are no commitments required to get started.