Paying with Square in Canada: how OpenRate works with your account

Your account, your payments

OpenRate is a payment and bill-sharing layer, not a replacement for your POS or your cash register. Your POS remains the official billing system. Guests pay through OpenRate, and the payment is processed by Square on the restaurant’s own Square account.

That also means no second payment provider to open. If your restaurant already takes cards with Square, or is ready to open a Canadian Square account, the setup is a connection, not a migration.

What the guest sees

The guest scans the QR code, sees the bill and chooses how much to pay and what tip to add. They then pay in their mobile browser, with no app to install, in English or French.

• Apple Pay and Google Pay appear only when the guest’s device and browser report that they are available
• A card form is always available as a fallback
• A “processing” state shows while the payment is being confirmed
• Success is shown only after the server has confirmed the payment

How card data is protected

Card details are entered in Square’s secure fields, and Square is certified PCI DSS Level 1. OpenRate never stores or sees full card numbers or security codes. The browser receives only what it needs to show the payment form, and the amounts are calculated on the server rather than trusted from the guest’s device.

What the connection asks for

An owner or manager signs in to OpenRate, selects Connect Square and approves OpenRate on Square’s own authorization page. The access OpenRate asks for is limited: your business profile, and the ability to read and create payments, including collecting OpenRate’s fee on each payment. OpenRate does not ask for access to your Square orders.

If your Square account has several eligible Canadian locations, the owner picks which one is linked to the OpenRate restaurant. Access tokens are stored encrypted and are never sent to the browser.

Connecting is not the same as going live

Connecting Square does not automatically turn on payments for every location in production. The location choice and the activation are confirmed by the owner, and “Configured” alone does not guarantee that checkout can take payment. If a guest sees that online payment is unavailable, check that the bill is payable and ask the owner or a manager to review the payment settings.

Confirmation, not guesswork

OpenRate relies on Square’s notifications to know when a payment is final. When the outcome is uncertain, it does not guess: staff should check the payment status before asking the guest to pay again. A guest is never charged automatically, and an amount the guest chose is never reduced silently.

Refunds

Owners and managers can refund confirmed Square payments from the dashboard, on the payment’s bill page. The guest receives the full amount refunded, funded by the restaurant. The OpenRate fee already charged on that payment is not returned, and no new fee is charged. Square may also keep the original processing fees. Refunds made directly in Square follow Square’s own rules. A requested refund only counts once its status is confirmed.

Disconnecting

An owner can disconnect Square at any time, which stops Square payments for that restaurant. If Square revokes the authorization, OpenRate stops accepting payments for the location until it is authorized again, rather than falling back to another provider.

Before you start

• A Canadian Square account in Canadian dollars with seller onboarding and bank setup completed
• An owner or manager account in OpenRate
• The location’s tax rate and a tablet for bill entry