Square Australia Taps Into Employee Management Via POS

Square announced new features for Australian users of its POS technology this week.

Reports Monday (Dec. 12) said Square has added employee management features to its POS app for customers in Australia, enabling business owners to manage employees and gain insight into their sales performance, location management, custom permissioning and other capabilities.

According to the company, the new features cost Australian companies A$3 a month and support additional reporting tools for small business owners to identify which of their employees is most efficient. They can also enable SME owners to customize employee access to various features of Square‘s POS app.

“While payments remains our core business focus, small business owners need more tools and features as their business grows to help them manage their operations more effectively,” said Square’s Australian country manager, Ben Pfisterer, in an interview with ZDNet. “Square has always worked closely with businesses to gain direct insights into what features or products would make the most positive impact to their operations.”

Square’s new features support employee time tracking and sales reports and offer additional insights based on employee passcodes and timecards, reports said.

While it launched with an initial focus on POS solutions, Square has recently pivoted towards its clients’ back offices. Among the most successful of these ventures is Square Capital, a financing solution that uses data from the POS to assess creditworthiness of the business and link a company to financing.

Last month, Square said it’s already lent more than $1 billion to its SME users just two years after Square Capital launched.

In addition to the new features, Pfisterer said Square recently surveyed its Australian users to understand their demands. Among the biggest response was a need for greater functionality in their POS hardware and a more flexible contract to use that tool.

“A recent survey of our customer base found that over 80 percent weren’t using existing terminals because they found that the device didn’t meet their needs, it wasn’t mobile enough and it didn’t fit their aesthetic environment,” he said. “Also, the contract was too restrictive; they didn’t want to be locked in for three years or have monthly fees.”