Setting Up With Square
Bid Beacon is now integrated with CommuniBee to give fundraisers even more tools to manage and execute successful fundraising events. With CommuniBee, you can choose to subscribe (monthly or annually) to unlock the use of Alternate Payments.
Alternate Payments includes Stripe, Square, PayPal, and offline acceptance (cash, check, e-transfer, etc.). Bid Beacon will charge the credit card that was used to subscribe to CommuniBee for the platform fees incurred during the auction. If platform fees are not paid in full, the auction host will be restricted from creating future auctions until their outstanding balance is settled.
Please check out our Pricing page more information on CommuniBee, available subscriptions, and additional silent auction perks.
Before you start:
We want you to know about this common issue when choosing Square as your payment provider:
Popup Blockers not allowing winners to open the payment fields & complete payment
We cannot control this from our application, their device or browser settings control that blocker. The workaround options are:
- Have the user “allow popups” and then close the box and try again.
- Have the user switch to a different device to log in and pay
- Have the user try the app vs an internet browser to log in and pay
- To avoid popup blocker issues altogether, use Stripe or PayPal for payment collections
Get Started
For quicker set up, it is recommended you use two browser tabs.
In one internet browser open Bid Beacon and navigate to Manage Auction
- Navigate to Payment Settings in left side menu
- To set up your online payment connection select the SETUP SQUARE tab
In a second internet tab, log in to the Square Developer Dashboard (this is not your usual sign in link) or create a new account, then log in again through the link provided above.
- From the Applications screen, click on the plus icon to create an application (or if one already exists for this purpose, open it)
- Type in a name such as “Bid Beacon Auction” and click Save
- You should now see your application in blue, click Open
- Toggle from Sandbox to Production. Sandbox means test keys, production means live keys
- Click Show beside the Production Access Token, and then copy the token
- Return to the Bid Beacon tab to paste this key into the Access Token Field
- Return to the Square tab and in the left side menu under Webhooks, click Subscriptions
- If this is your first time using Square, you will need to create a new webhook. Do this by clicking Add subscription
- Enter in the Webhook name (it may be helpful to use a name that relates to your auction, organization, or purpose of the webhook)
- Copy and paste the following in the URL field:
- https://api.bidbeacon.com/api/transactions/square/session
- For API version, use the version that says Default
- Under Events, select the following four choices:
- order.created
- order.updated
- payment.created
- payment.updated
- Click Save
- On the Subscriptions page, you will now have a webhook appear under the Webhooks section. Click on the available webhook
- A window will appear on the right side of your screen. Find the Signature Key field and click Show
- Copy your Signature Key and navigate back to your Bid Beacon tab to paste this in the Signature Key field
- Return to the Square tab one last time and click on Locations from the side menu
- Copy the Location ID
- Return to your Bid Beacon tab and paste it into the Location ID field
- Scroll to the bottom of the Bid Beacon tab and Save
- Click the Test Payment button.
- Note that you will be using a real credit card to test a $1 payment. Once completed, a successful payment message will appear. *ensure you turn off any ad blockers for the payment modal to open
- Return to the Square tab and log out of the developers dashboard
- Log in to your standard dashboard using this link: Square Log in
- View your sales at a glance. The $1 payment should appear within minutes. This is where you can review and manage any payment made by your guests going forward
Want to Enable Auto Pay for Your Guests?
Unfortunately, Square does not have an auto pay feature. This means that once your auction ends, guests with winning bids will log back into Bid Beacon to pay for their items.
If you would like to automatically charge guests as soon as your auction closes, you have two options:
- Accept payment through Express Banking (i.e. Stripe Connect). This version of Stripe allows funds to flow directly through to your bank account. See the Express Banking Setup guide.
- Accept payment using Stripe (non-Connect version). See the Stripe Setup guide
