The Acuity Scheduling Square integration is built into Acuity and works on all three Acuity plans. In Acuity you click Payments, find Square under Payment Processors, click Connect and sign in to Square. Clients can then pay in full, pay a deposit, save a card or add a tip when they book, and you can take card payments in person with a Square reader through the Acuity mobile app. Where it stops: refunds have to be done in Square and never show in Acuity, payments land in Square as a Custom amount instead of the service, and Square card readers only work with Acuity in the United States. Someone still checks that each visit was paid and each refund matches. AI agents do that check every day.
What the Acuity Scheduling Square integration does
Clients book in Acuity. The money goes through Square. Acuity's help pages call Square a payment processor: you connect it once, and from then on Acuity charges the client's card and the money lands in your Square account. You control payouts to your bank in Square. Acuity says you can't make payouts from inside Acuity.
So connected has to mean more than taking a card. Each booking should be paid the way you set it up, deposits should be collected before the rest of the bill, and a cancel with a refund should leave both programs telling the same story. Acuity and Square do the first part well. The last part, making the two agree, is still a person's job at many clinics and practices.
Three ways to connect Acuity Scheduling and Square
Most businesses use the first one. The other two fill gaps or replace Acuity.
Acuity's built-in Square connection
- How it works
- You connect Square under Payments in Acuity. Acuity's help says clients can then pay while booking, pay a deposit, pay the rest later, save a card to be charged later, add a tip, and pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay. Acuity's Square page says it is on all three Acuity plans.
- Good for
- Practices and studios that want clients to pay or leave a card when they book, with no extra app.
- Where it breaks
- Acuity can't issue refunds, and refunds done in Square don't show in Acuity or its reports. On Square's developer forum, a business owner said Acuity payments show in Square reports as a Custom amount, and Square staff said Acuity would need to fix that. You can't connect Stripe and Square at the same time.
A Zapier zap
- How it works
- Zapier's Acuity triggers include New Appointment, Appointment Canceled and Appointment Rescheduled. Its Square actions include Create Customer, Find Customer, Create Invoice and Create Paid Order.
- Good for
- Adding each Acuity client to your Square customer list, or sending a Square invoice for a booking that wasn't paid online.
- Where it breaks
- Each trigger is its own zap. Zapier's help says Acuity allows 25 active zaps per account, recurring bookings fire New Appointment once for each visit, and Appointment Start fires only once, so a moved visit is missed. A zap can't tell you a payment is missing.
Square Appointments instead of Acuity
- How it works
- Square's own booking tool, with Square payments built in. Square's pricing page lists a free plan for solo professionals with unlimited staff calendars and an online booking site. Cancellation policies and no-show fees are on a paid plan.
- Good for
- Businesses that want booking and payments in one account and don't need Acuity's intake forms or packages.
- Where it breaks
- It's a switch away from Acuity, not a link to it. You set up your services again and move your clients over.
Arkeo agents
- How it works
- Agents read each day's bookings, cancels and payments in Acuity, check each one against the payments and refunds in Square, and send your front desk a list of visits that are unpaid, part paid or refunded in one program but not the other.
- Good for
- Practices with a full calendar, where a missed deposit or a refund nobody wrote down costs money each month.
- Where it breaks
- Anything your rules keep for a person, like a refund over a set amount or a client asking about their care, goes to your staff in one message.
How to connect Acuity Scheduling to Square
These follow Acuity's own help pages. Open them for the screens.
- 1Make sure your currency matches
Set the same currency in Acuity and in your Square location. Acuity's help says payments fail if the two don't match.
- 2Connect Square in Acuity
In Acuity, click Payments. In the Payment Processors section, find Square, click Connect and sign in to your Square account. You can connect one Square account only.
- 3Set how clients pay
Click Payments, then Payment at Booking. Turn off Use the same method for all appointment types if each service needs its own rule. Then set full payment, a deposit, or saved card details, and click Save.
- 4Pair a reader for in-person payments
In the Acuity Scheduling Admin mobile app, tap Menu, then Payment Settings, then Manage, then Connect a Reader. Only the magstripe reader, the contactless and chip reader and Square Stand work, and only in the United States.
- 5Book a test visit and find it in Square
Book and pay for a test appointment. In Acuity, open it on the Calendar and click Square on the Paid line to see the payment in Square. Then refund it in Square, since Acuity can't.
Where the Acuity Square integration stops
The card gets charged. What happens after that is still worked out by hand, in two places.
Refunds live in one program only. Acuity's help says it's not possible to issue a refund in Acuity. When a paid visit is canceled, Acuity emails you a link to the payment, and you refund it in Square. Acuity then says refunds done in Square aren't shown in Acuity, including in its reports. So Acuity's numbers say you were paid for a visit you gave back.
Square doesn't know what was sold. On Square's developer forum, an owner said an Acuity payment showed in Square's report as a Custom amount, with the service name only in the note. Square staff answered that the Acuity team would need to fix it. Your Square sales by item can't tell a first visit from a follow-up, so that report gets built by hand, often from the Square sales your bookkeeper pulls into QuickBooks.
In-person payments have rules. Acuity says Square readers only work with Acuity in the United States, and you can't take Acuity payments on a Square Terminal, a Square Register, or in the Square app. A reader can be paired to one device at a time, so a front desk that also sells products in the Square app has to switch it back and forth.
And nobody checks the gaps. A client who booked with a deposit and never paid the rest, a saved card that was never charged, a no-show with no fee: none of it shows up as an error in either program.
The agents that do it
Each agent does one job from start to finish in your own Acuity and Square. Your staff get what needs a person.
Unpaid visits found before month end.
- Checks each visit is paidevery day
- Finds unpaid and part-paid visitsper visit
- Sends the list to your front deskevery morning
Fewer clients lost after a cancel.
- Spots canceled appointmentsas they happen
- Sends the client a link to rebooksame day
- Tells your front desk who hasn't rebookedevery week
Know what sold without building the report.
- Pulls sales, refunds and top itemsevery Monday
- Compares it to last weekevery Monday
- Sends it to your teamMonday morning
Questions
Is my customers' information safe?
Yes. Agents work in your own Acuity and Square and see only what their job needs. Card numbers stay with Square, and client details never go into public AI. Agents connect to AI through business-grade connections audited under SOC 2.
Does Acuity Scheduling integrate with Square?
Yes. Square is one of three payment processors built into Acuity, with Stripe and PayPal. You connect it under Payments in Acuity, and Acuity's Square page says it works on all three Acuity plans.
How do I refund an Acuity payment made with Square?
In Square. Acuity's help says you can't issue a refund in Acuity. When a paid visit is canceled, Acuity emails you a link to the payment in Square. The refund won't show in Acuity's reports.
Can I use my Square Terminal with Acuity?
No. Acuity's help says only the Square magstripe reader, the contactless and chip reader and Square Stand work, through the Acuity Scheduling Admin mobile app, and only in the United States.
What does it cost?
You get the price on the call, along with the hours it saves your team.
Sources
- help.acuityscheduling.com: Connecting and disconnecting payment processors
- help.acuityscheduling.com: Choose a payment processor
- help.acuityscheduling.com: Handling refunds and price adjustments
- help.acuityscheduling.com: Accepting Acuity Scheduling payments in person with Square
- help.acuityscheduling.com: Accepting payments
- acuityscheduling.com: square
- squareup.com: acuity scheduling
- developer.squareup.com
- zapier.com: square
- help.zapier.com: Common Problems with Acuity Scheduling
- squareup.com: pricing