Pay-period close checklist for Square sellers

1. Close every timecard in Square

Open Square Team and look for shifts that are still running. A forgotten clock-out is the number one reason a report looks wrong: Better Tips treats an open shift as still running for the tip split, so that person keeps collecting a share of tips until you run the report, while the shift adds no hours or base pay until it's closed. Fix the end time, save, and move on.

2. Check the period's dates

Know exactly which days you're paying for. Better Tips includes a timecard when its shift start falls inside the range you pick, so a shift that starts at 11 pm on the last day and ends at 2 am belongs to this period, not the next one. Keep the same cut-off every time and the periods will never overlap or leave a gap.

3. Run the report by employee

In Better Tips, open By employee, enter the start and end dates, and click Run report. If you only want part of the team, pick the employees first. The report pulls fresh data from Square each time, so there's nothing to sync.

4. Scan for surprises

Before exporting, give the table a 30-second read:

• An employee with hours but $0 card tips usually means their job isn't marked tip-eligible in Square Team, or they worked a shift where no card payments came in.
• An employee whose tips look high for their hours may have an open timecard: an unclosed shift keeps collecting tips until you run the report but adds no hours. Close it in Square Team and run again.
• Net Hourly Pay that's wildly higher or lower than the rest of the team is worth a second look at that person's timecards.

5. Check by location if you need to

If each site runs its own payroll, switch to By location and repeat for each one. The columns are the same; only the grouping changes.

6. Export the CSV

Click Export CSV. You'll get one row per employee with Hours, Wage, Gross Card Tips, Fee, Net Card Tips, Net Hourly Pay and Total Pay, plus a totals row. Save it with the pay period in the file name so you can find it later.

7. Hand it to payroll

Import the CSV or type the figures into your payroll tool. The two numbers most providers want are Hours and the tip amount you're paying out. The Fee column tells you what Square's processing cost on those tips came to for the period, so you know the number either way.

8. Keep the file

Drop the CSV in the folder where you keep pay-period records. Every figure in it traces back to specific Square timecards and payments, so if a question comes up months later the answer is already in the spreadsheet.

That's the whole close. The first time through takes ten minutes while you find your way around; after that it's a two-minute job. Getting started covers the one-time setup if you haven't connected Square yet.