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Layout Mobile is built for merchants who already use Square for POS, payments, and often loyalty. This page explains how we integrate with Square — what we sync, how the connection works, and what that means for your data.

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Why Square-first

Many local and multi-location coffee shops run on Square for register, payments, and reporting. Layout adds a branded mobile app and kitchen visibility without replacing that stack. We:
  • Use Square as the source of truth for catalog, locations, and payments.
  • Process payments through Square so funds and reporting stay in your Square account.
  • Sync catalog, locations, inventory, and loyalty so the app stays aligned with what you manage in Square.
  • Support Square Loyalty, Square gift cards, and Square discount codes natively in the app.
You keep one place to manage menu and money; we keep the app and kitchen in sync.

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Connecting your Square account

Layout uses Square OAuth 2.0 — a standard authorization flow used across the Square ecosystem:
  1. From the Layout dashboard, start Connect Square.
  2. You’re redirected to Square to sign in and grant access.
  3. After you authorize, Layout securely stores the connection — scoped to your company only.
  4. The backend automatically keeps the connection active over time; you never need to manually reconnect.
  5. Layout runs an initial sync of your locations and catalog right after connecting.
The connection uses only the permissions needed to run the features on your plan. We don’t document the specific technical permissions here.

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What we sync

We do not write catalog or locations back to Square from the app or dashboard. All menu and location edits happen in Square; Layout reflects them.

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Payments

  • Checkout — The customer pays using Square’s payment flow (card or Apple Pay) in the app. A one-time payment token is sent to the Layout backend, which creates the payment in Square on the customer’s behalf.
  • Idempotency — Each payment is sent with a unique key so that network retries or accidental double-taps can’t create a second charge.
  • Settlement and reporting — All settlement and reporting stay in Square. Layout charges zero transaction fees and does not hold card data.

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Square event handling

Layout listens for Square event notifications to keep data current. When Square tells us something has changed — catalog, inventory, loyalty, locations, orders — we update the relevant data for that merchant. All events are cryptographically verified before processing, and each event is handled only for the merchant it belongs to. We don’t publish the specific event types or internal handling logic here.

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KDS modes

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Security and isolation

  • OAuth tokens are stored per company and used only for that company’s Square API calls — never shared across tenants.
  • All incoming Square events are cryptographically verified and tenant-scoped before any processing occurs.
  • Customer identity is verified before any payment is created; order state is checked to prevent duplicate or invalid charges.
For a broader view of security, see Security. For reliability and sync details, see Reliability.