Learn about seller referral revenue sharing and App Marketplace subscription revenue sharing for applications published in the Square App Marketplace.
This topic describes two types of revenue sharing:
- Seller referral revenue share from Square - Developers can receive a share of the payment processing revenue generated by sellers that developers refer to Block, Inc. or its affiliates ("Square").
- App subscription revenue share to Square - Square receives a share of app subscription fees that developers earn from sellers who use their application.
Developers who use the Square self-service workflow to publish an app in the Square App Marketplace can get paid for making referrals to Square.
Note
Any partner that doesn't initiate signup using the self-service workflow and instead signs a partnerships contract with Square should reference the economic terms in their partnership contract.
If you use the Square self-service workflow to accept terms and publish an app to the App Marketplace, you can collect a revenue share on any payments processed by referred sellers for their first 12 months of card processing. When you make your first referral, you'll provide Square with banking information that is used to pay out any referral revenue share earned. The process includes onboarding through Certa and might include the international invoicing tool used by Square, Tradeshift. Currently, Tradeshift onboarding is only required if you're invoicing in Australia, Ireland, or the United Kingdom.
Shortly after your app is published in the Square App Marketplace, Square provides you with unique cookie links to be used for:
- Square sign-up links on your website.
- General Square links on your website.
- An in-app OAuth link for authenticating Square sellers into your application.
Square uses these unique links to attribute any traffic from your website or application back to your company. Setting up these links ensures you get credit for any new sellers you refer to Square.
If your integration has been published in the App Marketplace and you didn't receive an email with your cookie links, contact Developer & App Marketplace Support.
Following the launch of your app, your email address is enrolled in an automated payout report workflow. A payout report email is sent to your address on or about the 15th of each month. It contains summary information and payout data for the past complete month. If you've referred sellers to Square that have started processing payments through Square, you should receive a payout report in the month following the first processed payments.
Making your first referral to Square starts an onboarding process with Block Procurement Ops. You're sent an onboarding email through Certa from Block Procurement Ops ([email protected]) with the subject:
Heads up: Supplier Registration request from Block, Inc (formerly Square Inc.).
This onboarding email is sometimes mistaken for spam, so make sure to check your spam folder if you haven't received an email.
Follow the steps in the email to submit your banking and tax documentation using Certa. When complete, this information is referenced for any revenue share payments made to you. You're paid to the bank account you provide to Certa. Square requires that you provide Certa with the same bank account that you’ve linked to your Square account. You might be required to complete additional submissions if your app is available in more than one locale. You can do so by using the Developer Support Form by selecting this response: “Payouts > I want to change details about my payout.” to the I have a question about: field.
Note
Any revenue share payouts for earnings in the United States or Canada occur automatically. You need to submit an invoice to Square for revenue share outside of these countries.
Additional submissions are required to receive revenue share generated in multiple locales. If your app is available in more than one locale, you need to complete supplier onboarding for the bank account you have in each locale.
You can do so by using the Developer & App Marketplace Support form and selecting Payouts > I want to change details about my payout in the I have a question about: field.
After your applicable bank accounts are registered, you might need to submit referral revenue sharing invoices to the corresponding Square entity for each locale.
Any revenue share payouts for earnings in the United States or Canada occur automatically. For each of the other locales where you've referred sellers, you must submit a locale-specific revenue sharing invoice to the corresponding Square entity shown in the following table.
| Locale | Square entity |
|---|---|
| US | Invoice not required |
| CA | Invoice not required |
| UK | Squareup International Limited 70 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland |
| IE | Squareup International Limited 70 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland |
| ES | Squareup International Limited 70 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland |
| FR | Squareup International Limited 70 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland |
| AU | Square AU Pty. Ltd L8, 376-390 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 |
| JP | Square K.K. 7-7-7 Roppongi, Minato-Ku, Tokyo, 106-0032 Japan |
For example, if your referred sellers are in Japan and Australia, you'll submit two payout invoices: one to Square K.K for Japan and one to Square AU Pty. Ltd for Australia. To submit payout invoices, fill out the Square supplier Accounts Payable form shown in the following image:
Complete the profile using the following guidance:
- Supplier Name - Your name.
- Supplier Company Name - The legal name of your company, as written in the signed contract with Square.
- Email - Your email address.
- Contracting Entity - Select Square.
- Category - Select Invoice.
- Sub-Category - Select Invoice submission.
- Subject - A subject line for the supplier invoice payout request.
- Description - A short description of the invoice(s) you're sending to collect your share of revenue.
- How many files do you want to upload? - Select the number of invoices you want to attach to this request (up to a maximum of 10). Make sure that all invoices you attach have invoice dates.
After completing the previous fields, choose the files to upload to attach your invoice files.
If the Choose File button doesn't appear automatically, make sure that you filled out the required fields marked with an asterisk, select a different number of files, and then re-select the original number of files you had intended. The SUBMIT button should now be enabled for selection.
When you're onboarded and making referrals to Square, revenue share amounts are paid monthly. After you submit an invoice, you should receive your revenue share payment before the last day of the month. If your revenue share is less than $50, it will be aggregated into a quarterly payment.
Developers who use the self-service workflow to accept terms and publish an app in the Square App Marketplace are responsible for a 20% revenue share of subscription referrals payable to Square. This fee applies to the subscription revenue that you collect from Square sellers who sign up for your app through a referral from the App Marketplace.
You're required to report revenue share to the appropriate Square entities on a quarterly basis, after which Square invoices you for the amounts due. For example, if your referred sellers are in Japan and Australia, you would report revenue to Square K.K for Japan and Square AU Pty. Ltd for Australia. For a complete list of Square reporting entities, see the Square Entities table. Failure to report could result in the delisting of your app.
Each quarter, developers will receive an email from Square Accounts Receivable ([email protected]) with instructions about how to report revenue share to Square. Follow the instructions in the email to complete the report. If you don't have any revenue share to report, you can select the No revenue share this quarter option.
Did you know?
If using our beta App Subscriptions feature, you aren't charged any revenue share fee for the first year after launching App Subscriptions in your app, after which a 20% revenue share fee is automatically applied on subscription payments.