MELBOURNE July 22, 2015 — Small business owners can’t always be on site at their business, which comes at a cost to growth—Australian small business owners lose 250 productive work hours each year by being unable to progress work and keep in touch with the business while they’re away from the workplace*. It’s a scary statistic—and highlights how important it is for small business owners to be able keep their finger on the pulse.
Today, Square is making it easier for small business owners to keep track of their business performance with the global launch of the free Square Dashboard app. The Dashboard app gives small business owners using Square Register access to real-time reporting and analytics about their business at the touch of a button—users simply open their iPhone, log in to their Square account and get a snapshot of real-time business performance.
Thomas Kelly is owner of Standing Room Coffee, which has two locations in Melbourne. His newest coffee bar at Royal Arcade runs its point of sale on Square, and Thomas uses the Dashboard app to keep track of this location while he’s working at the other cafe. “I check the Dashboard App at least twice a day, usually at midday and close to the end of the day, to see how the store is tracking. Because Royal Arcade is a new cafe for me, it’s motivating to see growth in real time,” he said. “Using the Square Dashboard app encourages me to actually check my reports every hour and see how Royal Arcade is tracking. It’s helping me to be more mobile with how I manage my business, and now I can work from anywhere.”
Some of the unique features available in the Square Dashboard app include:
Monitor how the business is trading: Watch live sales, with a real-time summary of what’s been sold, hour-by-hour.
See what’s selling, and what’s not: Break down sales by item and category, and make real-time decisions about what needs to be to stocked up on to ensure sales are never missed.
Sales trends and comparisons, on the go: Compare business results by the hour, day, week or year. Decide when staffing should be increased to better service your customers.
A powerful team: Combined with the powerful insights and analytics available in their Square Account, users are given a full view of how their business is performing.
Open to all: For users of Square’s free point-of-sale app, Square Register, the Dashboard App is another powerful tool for small businesses to use to better understand their business.
Being able to keep closely track business performance helps small business owners save time. There’s no need to call up staff to see how the day’s trade has been tracking—users can simply jump onto the Dashboard app and get a real time business update. To delve deeper, small business owners can then log in to their Square account on their computer to view detailed sales trends reporting and analytics.
Square’s Australian Country Manager Ben Pfisterer commented that, “We’re excited to give Australian small business owners access to their real-time sales information on the go. The launch of the free Dashboard app provides them with the ability to run intelligently and grow by leveraging analytics tools that were previously made available only to large businesses. We’re committed to building tools that help level the playing field for independent small businesses, and the Dashboard app is just another addition that we’ve launched locally since opening our Australian office in May. It’s an exciting journey for Square and the small businesses we partner with.”
The free Square Dashboard app is now available to download in the App Store.
*June 2015 Small Business Research by Microsoft.
About Square, Inc.
Square helps anyone take care of their business. Square’s free Register app is a complete point of sale with tools for running every part of your business, from tracking sales and inventory to sending digital receipts. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in San Francisco, Square’s Register app is available globally in 130 languages, while credit card payment processing through Square’s iconic reader is currently only available in the United States, Canada and Japan. Square operates in Australia through its wholly owned subsidiary, Square AU Pty Ltd.
