> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Order Volume (all channels), Square Online > Order Volume (all channels): excludes failed/cancelled. Pairs with revenue to spot AOV-vs-volume issues. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) > Excludes failed/cancelled. Pairs with revenue to spot AOV-vs-volume issues. ## At a glance > Total count of orders placed in the period across every Square channel. The Friday-9am volume read, paired with [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/total-revenue) it tells you whether last week was driven by more customers or bigger baskets. | | | | ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(orders)` returned by the Square Orders API in the window, every order with a `state` of `OPEN` or `COMPLETED`. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | n/a, this is a count, not a money figure. Every order contributes 1 regardless of tax handling. | | **Shipping** | n/a, this is a count. Each order with one or more shipping fulfilment lines counts once. | | **Discounts** | n/a, this is a count. A 100%-off order (free, e.g. a gift card paid in full from balance) still counts as 1. | | **Refunds** | **NOT excluded.** A fully refunded order still counts. Square keeps the order record; the refund is a separate `Refund` object on the Refunds API and reduces [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/refund-rate), not Total Orders. | | **Cancelled / voided orders** | **`CANCELED` orders are excluded.** `DRAFT` is also excluded (cart abandons that never converted). `OPEN` and `COMPLETED` count. | | **Currency** | n/a, this is a count. A multi-location merchant (US + CA, USD + CAD) still has one count of orders across locations. | | **Channels / sources** | **Square POS, Square Online, and Square Invoices all count.** Square's omnichannel design means in-cafe transactions, web orders, and B2B invoices all sit in the same Orders API. To split, filter by `source.name` or `location_id`. | | **Time window** | `30D vsP` (default 30D vs the prior 30D) | | **Alert trigger** | `drop >20% WoW`, driven by `sentiment_key: order_count_trend` | | **Roles** | owner, marketing, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Square Online data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A boutique gift store in Austin running on Square, one retail location plus a Square Online site for nationwide shipping. The 30-day window covers 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26. | Source | Orders | % of total | Notes | | ------------------------------------------- | --------- | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | Square POS, in-store register | 2,840 | 78% | Mostly small impulse buys, candles, cards, small homewares | | Square Online Store, web | 612 | 17% | Higher-AOV gift sets and shipped orders | | Square Invoices, wholesale | 14 | 0.4% | Local florist + two corporate gifting accounts | | **CANCELED** orders excluded from this card | (180) | | Mostly POS register voids same-day | | **DRAFT** orders excluded from this card | (95) | | Web cart abandons | | **Total Orders (this card)** | **3,466** | **100%** | | Three things to notice: 1. **POS dominates volume; web dominates revenue weight.** 78% of orders are in-store (averaging \~$22 per ticket, candles and cards), but web orders ($85 AOV) carry far more revenue per order. This card can stay flat while [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/total-revenue) swings hard if the channel mix shifts. 2. **The 180 excluded `CANCELED` orders are mostly register voids.** Square POS lets staff void a transaction up until tender is finalised. These don't count here, which is the right behaviour: a voided register order isn't a real order. If a merchant sees a sudden spike in cancellations, that's a separate signal worth investigating in Square Dashboard. 3. **The 30-day prior window was 3,910 orders.** Total Orders is down 11.4% vsP. Below the `drop >20% WoW` alert threshold, so Vortex IQ Nerve Centre stays quiet, but pairing this card with [AOV](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/average-order-value) shows whether the revenue impact was softened by basket-size lift or amplified by basket-size drop. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Total Orders | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/total-revenue) | The other half of the equation. Revenue / Orders = AOV; tells you whether revenue moved on volume or basket size. | | [Average Order Value](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/average-order-value) | The arithmetic dual. If orders dropped 10% but AOV rose 10%, revenue is flat, you lost low-value transactions. If both fell, revenue is in real trouble. | | [Conversion Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/conversion-rate) | For the web slice, conversion rate explains *why* order count moved. POS volume is independent of web sessions, so a CR drop only explains a portion of an order-count drop. | | [New Customers](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/new-customers) | A drop in new customer acquisition usually shows up here first. The trickle of repeat customers is steadier than the new-shopper top-of-funnel. | | [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/refund-rate) | Refunded orders still count here. If Refund Rate spiked alongside flat Total Orders, the realised volume is lower than the headline. | | [`shopify.order_count`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-orders) | Same metric on Shopify, useful for agencies operating clients across both platforms. | | [`bigcommerce.total_orders`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-orders) | Same metric on BigCommerce, the closest SMB / mid-market peer for Square. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in the Square Dashboard:** [Square Dashboard, Reports, Sales summary](https://squareup.com/dashboard/sales/reports/sales-summary) and [Orders](https://squareup.com/dashboard/orders). Set the same date range, leave *Location* on **All locations**, and look at the **Orders** count column. The number should match this card to within a handful of orders (timezone boundary effects). Other Square Dashboard views that *look* like the same number but aren't: * **Orders, list view, filtered by date**: this DOES match if you set the same dates, all locations, and exclude DRAFT and CANCELED. * **Reports, Payments**: counts payment events, not orders. One order with a split tender (half cash, half card) shows two payments but one order. Always lower than this card. * **Reports, Item sales, line count**: counts line items, not orders. Always higher than this card. * **Dashboard home, Today's orders**: today only, in the location's local time zone. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Square Dashboard:** | Reason | Direction of divergence | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | | **Time-zone**. Square reports run on the location's local time zone (configured per location); Vortex IQ runs on UTC by default. Boundary days off by a small handful of orders. | Material only at the day-boundary edges | | **`CANCELED` filter**. Some Square Dashboard views include canceled orders by default; this card excludes them. If the dashboard view includes them, the dashboard will be a few percent higher. | Vortex IQ lower than dashboard with cancels included | | **`DRAFT` filter**. Square Online shopping carts that never converted live as `DRAFT` for a while; this card excludes them. The Orders dashboard list excludes them too. | No divergence in normal use | | **Square Invoices**. Invoices generate orders in the same Orders API and count here. Square Dashboard's "Sales by item" and similar reports may filter Invoices out depending on the configured view. | Vortex IQ higher when Invoices are filtered out | | **Sync lag**. The most recent \~5 minutes may not be in our index. | Self-resolves within minutes | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`stripe.stripe_charge_count`](/nerve-centre/stripe/stripe_charge_count) | Stripe is typically near-zero for Square merchants | Square's payments are processed by Square itself, not Stripe. Stripe will only show non-Square side products if any. | | [`google_analytics.ga_transactions`](/nerve-centre/google_analytics/ga_transactions) | GA4 only sees Square Online (web) transactions, never POS | POS sales never fire a `purchase` event. So GA4 reads a small subset of this card (web only) minus the typical 10, 25% tracking gap. **Treat Square Dashboard as the source of truth for order count.** | **The Square POS + Square Online unification:** because Square's Orders API is unified across POS, web, and Invoices, this card answers "how many transactions did the business do?" rather than "how many web orders?". On Shopify or BigCommerce the same count would require stitching POS + web channels manually; on Square it's native. ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) The same definition of Total Orders lives on other commerce platforms. * [`shopify.order_count`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-orders) * [`bigcommerce.total_orders`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-orders) * [`adobe_commerce.order_count`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/total-orders)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Does this count include my POS register sales?** **Yes.** Every Square channel writes to the same Orders API, so this card aggregates POS, Square Online web, and Square Invoices into one count. To split, filter by `source.name` (= `SQUARE_POS`, `SQUARE_ONLINE_STORE`, `INVOICE`, or third-party integration source) or by `location_id`. **Are cancelled orders included?** **No.** `CANCELED` and `DRAFT` orders are excluded. Only `OPEN` and `COMPLETED` orders count. This matches what most Square merchants intuitively mean by "orders". A register void or an abandoned web cart isn't a real order. **Are refunded orders excluded?** **No.** A fully refunded order still counts as 1 here. The refund lives on a separate `Refund` object in Square's Refunds API and is reflected on the [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/refund-rate) card. Think of this card as "transactions started" not "transactions kept". **Why doesn't this match my Stripe charge count?** Square processes its own payments; Stripe usually sees zero or near-zero for Square merchants. Stripe will only show charge counts if you're running a separate, non-Square billing tool alongside (e.g. a SaaS subscription product, a marketplace integration). Square Dashboard is the source of truth for transaction count on Square accounts. **Why doesn't Google Analytics 4 match?** GA4 only fires `purchase` events on web orders, never on POS. So GA4's transaction count is at most the web subset of this card, and even that is missing 10, 25% of orders due to ad blockers, consent rejections, and tag-fire failures. **Use Square Dashboard for transaction count, GA4 for traffic and channel attribution.** **My multi-location Square account, how do I see per-cafe order counts?** Filter by `location_id`. The Square Online dashboard tab also exposes per-location panels you can pin in the Vortex IQ Nerve Centre to compare locations side-by-side. **Why does today's order count look low?** Today is incomplete. New orders are added throughout the day; today's number won't stabilise until end-of-day in the location's time zone. **Use the rolling 7-day or 30-day view for stable comparisons**, that's why the alert window is `30D vsP` and not `1D`. **What's the action playbook when this card drops sharply?** Three checks in order: (1) per-channel split, did web orders drop or POS orders drop? POS drops point to footfall (weather, local events, staffing), web drops point to traffic or conversion, (2) [Conversion Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/conversion-rate), if web is the culprit and CR fell, the issue is on-site (checkout, pricing, stock); if CR is steady, traffic is the culprit (campaign pause, ad spend cut, SEO drop), (3) [New Customers](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/new-customers) vs returning, if new customer count fell harder, it's an acquisition issue. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Total Orders* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Square Online and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.