Card Payment and Statement Description

Applies to: Payments API

Learn what Square does with statement description identifiers in constructing statement descriptions that it sends to banks.

For card payments, you can optionally specify statement_description_identifier in a CreatePayment request. Square uses this identifier in constructing statement descriptions that it sends to banks.

Square sends statement description information for payments that Square processes on behalf of the seller, per bank requirements. This information then appears on customer card or bank statements when they make or receive payments.

Clear and accurate statement descriptions explain charges and payments and can help reduce the risk of chargebacks and disputes. Bank and card network rules require that statement descriptions clearly indicate the business responsible for the charge or payment, in addition to providing other details to help customers understand their statements.

This is an example statement description: SQ *MYPHARMACY*#02943

The general format of a statement description that banks include on a customer card or bank statement is as follows:

<Payment-facilitator-id><Business-name><Delimiter><Identifier>

• Payment-facilitator-id - For Square-generated descriptors, this value is SQ *.
• Business name - This is the business name shown in the Square Dashboard. A seller configures this information as part of the business receipt configuration in the Seller Dashboard.
• Delimiter - This is the required delimiter. Square adds this only if you provide the identifier.
• Identifier (optional) - The preceding example shows a pharmacy store number (#02943) as the identifier. If a CreatePayment request includes the statement_description_identifier, Square uses the value as the identifier.

The Payment object stores this information in the card_detail.statement_description field. Note that this information isn't guaranteed to be exactly what the buyer sees for the following reason:

• In constructing a statement descriptor, after Payment-facilitator-id, Square is limited to 20 characters. Accordingly, Square truncates the identifier portion as needed.
• The statement description that Square sends to the card networks can be further truncated before being displayed to the cardholder.

• Delayed Capture of a Card Payment
• Partial Payment Authorizations