Quickstart

This page outlines the path from signup to a live branded app. It’s aimed at merchant owners and evaluators who want to understand the flow without touching the dashboard.

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Prerequisites

• A Square account with your locations and catalog set up.
• Your business branding (logo, primary color, business name) ready.

No need to change your existing POS or KDS setup; Layout connects to what you already have.

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Step 1: Create your account and choose a plan

Merchants sign up through the Layout dashboard. Account creation is standard: email, company/business details, and verification. Once in, you choose a plan: Billing is handled via Stripe. A trial promotional offer may be available at signup.

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Step 2: Connect Square

Layout uses Square OAuth so you authorize access once from your Square account:

1. In the dashboard, start the Connect Square flow.
2. You’re redirected to Square to sign in (if needed) and approve the requested permissions (catalog, locations, payments, loyalty, gift cards, inventory, and more).
3. After you allow access, Layout receives and stores a secure connection to your Square account. Tokens are stored in a secure, tenant-scoped way and automatically refreshed by the backend — you never have to reconnect due to token expiry.
4. Layout then performs an initial sync of locations and catalog (items and categories) into the platform.

From then on, catalog and location changes in Square are reflected in the app via Square webhooks and a daily scheduled sync job. You keep managing menu and locations in Square; the app stays in sync.

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Step 3: Configure branding and app behavior

In the dashboard you set:

• Branding — Business name, logo (light/dark), primary CTA color. These drive the look of the customer app.
• Locations — Which Square locations are enabled for mobile ordering (all or a subset). Additional active locations beyond your plan’s included count are billed at $150/month each.
• Order and pickup — Settings like default pickup time estimates, scheduled ordering slots, and prep lead times for the kitchen.
• Catalog source — Whether to sync from standard Square categories or Square Menus (if your account uses the Square Menus feature).

The customer-facing iOS app reads this configuration so it shows your name, colors, menu, and locations.

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Step 4: App submission

Layout prepares and submits your branded iOS app to the App Store on your behalf. The app is published under your brand name with your own App Store listing. This is a one-time process handled as part of onboarding — you don’t manage Xcode or provisioning profiles. Universal Links (so shared links open the app directly) are also configured per brand.

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Step 5: Configure engagement features (optional)

From the dashboard you can also set up:

• Push notifications — Available on all plans; send targeted messages to your customer base. Loyalty point notifications fire automatically via Square webhooks.
• Announcement cards — In-app cards to highlight promotions or news.
• Welcome offer — A first-order discount for new customers, automatically deduped by phone, device, and email.
• Promotions — In-app promotions with optional Square discount code integration.
• Featured items — Highlight specific menu items at the top of the app.
• Gift cards — Available on Plus; configure gift card designs and let customers buy, reload, and redeem Square gift cards in the app.

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Step 6: Kitchen display (optional)

If you use Layout’s kitchen panel:

• Staff sign in and select a location.
• Orders for that location appear on the panel with status (accepted → making → ready → completed).
• Updating status drives what the customer sees in the app (and optional push notifications or iOS Live Activity).

If you use Square KDS or Square Expeditor, you leave kitchen display in Square; the app can still show an estimated pickup time and order confirmation.

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Step 7: Go live

Once Square is connected, branding and locations are set, and (if applicable) the kitchen panel is configured:

• Customers download your branded app from the App Store, choose a location, browse the menu, and pay with Square (card or Apple Pay).
• Orders appear in your kitchen (Layout panel, Square KDS, or Square Expeditor, depending on config).
• You keep using Square for payments, reporting, and menu/location management; the app and panel stay aligned with Square.

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Summary

No code or infrastructure is required on the merchant side. The technical work is connecting Square once and configuring the dashboard; Layout handles the rest. For more detail on how data flows end-to-end, see Integration flow. For how we keep payments and sync reliable and secure, see Reliability and Security.