Sum of completed orders. The morning question every Square Online merchant opens with.
At a glance
Headline gross revenue across every Square Online order placed in the period. The arithmetic sum of total_money.amount for every completed order, omnichannel by default (Square POS in-store sales sit alongside Square Online web sales in the same Orders API).
| What it counts | SUM(total_money.amount) across every order returned by the Square Orders API in the window, the customer-paid total in the smallest currency unit (cents). |
| VAT / tax treatment | US-only sales tax is auto-calculated by Square and is added on top of line items. total_money.amount is the customer-paid figure, so it includes any tax Square collected. Square’s automated sales tax is US-only; in non-US markets merchants configure tax rates manually in Square Dashboard and the same field still represents the customer-paid total. The card sums total_money blindly. |
| Shipping | Included. Shipping fulfilment lines are added to total_money before payment. |
| Discounts | Already deducted, this is the post-discount, customer-paid total. Loyalty redemptions and Square gift card spend are also netted. |
| Refunds | NOT deducted. Square exposes refunds as separate Refund objects via the Refunds API. The order’s total_money does not change after a refund is issued, the refund lives on a separate object and reduces the Refund Rate card instead. |
| Cancelled / voided orders | Included if Square indexed them. Square has a state enum on Order (OPEN, COMPLETED, CANCELED, DRAFT); this card sums every state except DRAFT. |
| Currency | Single-currency by location. Square locations are pinned to one currency (USD, GBP, CAD, AUD, EUR, JPY). A US merchant with both a US and a UK location gets two separate revenue streams, this card sums them without FX conversion, which produces a meaningless mixed number for multi-location international merchants. Use the per-location filter for accuracy. |
| Channels / sources | Square POS and Square Online combined. Square’s killer feature is one merchant of record for in-store and online; both surface in the same Orders API. To split web vs retail, filter by source.name (= Square Online Store for web, location-specific for POS) or by location_id. |
| Time window | 30D vsP (default 30D vs the prior 30D) |
| Alert trigger | drop >15% WoW, driven by sentiment_key: revenue_trend |
| Roles | owner, marketing, finance |
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 US specialty coffee roaster running on Square. Three retail cafes plus a Square Online web storefront for whole bean and brew gear. The 30-day window covers 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26.| Source | location_id | Orders | Avg total_money | Channel revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Square Online Store (web) | (web) | 612 | $58 | $35,496 |
| Cafe, Brooklyn flagship | LOC_001 | 4,180 | $14 | $58,520 |
| Cafe, Williamsburg | LOC_002 | 3,920 | $13 | $50,960 |
| Cafe, Park Slope | LOC_003 | 2,640 | $12 | $31,680 |
| Square Invoices (B2B wholesale, weekly subscriptions to local restaurants) | (mixed) | 38 | $640 | $24,320 |
| Total Revenue (this card) | 11,390 | $17.65 | $200,976 |
- POS volume dominates order count, web dominates AOV. 88% of orders are in-cafe transactions averaging 58 AOV) and B2B wholesale ($640 AOV) carry disproportionate revenue weight. A great web week or one big wholesale invoice can swing the headline meaningfully even though POS volume looks flat.
- B2B wholesale via Square Invoices is hidden from the merchant’s daily mental model. Square’s Invoices product creates orders in the same Orders API; this card includes them. If a single $5,000 wholesale invoice is paid on a Friday, Friday’s revenue jumps and the merchant might mistake it for a retail surge. Filter by
source.name = INVOICEto separate. - The 30-day prior window was $209,800. Total Revenue is down 4.2% vsP, which is below the
drop >15% WoWalert threshold. Vortex IQ Nerve Centre stays quiet, but the card itself shows the trend and pairing with Refund Rate and AOV reveals whether a real shift is starting.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Total Revenue |
|---|---|
| Total Orders | Total Revenue / Order Count = AOV. Tells you whether revenue moved on volume or basket size. Square merchants with a heavy POS mix often see order count swing far more than revenue. |
| Average Order Value | The other side of the volume-vs-basket question. Square POS AOV tends to sit much lower than Square Online AOV; a mix shift between the two will move this card without anything else changing. |
| Refund Rate | This card is gross. Refund Rate tells you what proportion of revenue is leaking back via the Refunds API. A gross headline that looks healthy but a high refund rate is a quality or fulfilment red flag. |
| Conversion Rate | Web revenue without conversion-rate context can mislead. A strong web revenue week from a small but high-intent audience reads very differently to one from a large low-intent surge. |
| Top Products by Revenue | Tells you which SKUs drove revenue. Square’s catalog covers POS-only items, web-only items, and shared items, mix shifts here often explain headline moves. |
shopify.total_revenue | Same metric definition for agencies running clients on Shopify. Useful as a documentation cross-link, not a reconciliation. |
bigcommerce.total_revenue | Same metric definition on BigCommerce, same SMB and mid-market merchant tier as Square. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in the Square Dashboard: Square Dashboard, Reports, Sales summary. Set the same date range you’ve selected here, leave the Location filter on All locations, and look at Gross sales (or Total sales if your account is configured to show net of refunds). The figure should match this card to within a few cents. Other Square Dashboard views that look like the same number but aren’t:- Reports, Sales summary, Gross sales: this DOES match (assuming all locations, same window).
- Reports, Sales summary, Net sales: this is post-discount but may also be post-refund depending on your Square account settings, lower than this card.
- Dashboard home, Today’s sales: today only, in the location’s local time zone.
- Reports, Item sales: aggregates per SKU, not by order, useful for Top Products by Revenue reconciliation, not this card.
- Reports, Payments: counts payment events not orders; one order can have multiple split-tender payments and inflate the count.
| 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. Orders near midnight on the boundary days fall on different sides. | Boundary days off by a few orders |
Multi-location currency. If you operate locations in more than one currency (e.g. a US merchant with a Canadian location), Square Dashboard reports each location in its own currency. Vortex IQ sums total_money.amount across locations without FX conversion. | Material for cross-border merchants |
| Square Invoices. Square Invoices and recurring invoices generate orders in the Orders API, this card includes them. The Sales summary report can be filtered to exclude invoices; if the merchant has done so, our number will be higher. | Vortex IQ higher when Invoices are filtered out of the dashboard |
| Refunds. Square Dashboard’s “Net sales” deducts refunds issued in the period. Vortex IQ Total Revenue (gross) does not. | Vortex IQ higher than Square Net sales |
| Sync lag. Square’s Orders API is near-real-time but the most recent ~5 minutes may not be in our index. | Self-resolves within minutes |
| Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence |
|---|---|---|
stripe.stripe_total_revenue | Stripe is typically near-zero for Square merchants | Square’s payments are processed through Square itself (mandatory, with the standard ~2.9% + 30c fee structure). Stripe usually only sees overflow charges (a non-Square subscription tool, a separate marketplace integration), or zero. |
paypal.pp_total_volume | PayPal small subset (Square supports PayPal as an alternative tender on Square Online) | If PayPal is enabled at checkout, PayPal sees the PayPal-paid subset. Square sees every order (Square is the merchant of record) regardless of tender. |
google_analytics.ga_revenue_trend | GA4 only sees Square Online (web) revenue, never POS | Square POS sales never fire a purchase event, they happen in-store. So GA4 reads at most the web subset of this card, minus the usual 10, 25% tracking gap from ad blockers and consent rejection. Treat Square Dashboard as the source of truth for revenue. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
Does this card include my in-store POS sales, or just my web orders? Both. Square’s Orders API returns every order regardless of source, retail (Square POS), web (Square Online Store), invoiced (Square Invoices), and any third-party integration that writes to Square. This is by design, Square’s omnichannel pitch is that there is one source of truth for revenue across in-store and online. To split web from retail, filter bysource.name = SQUARE_ONLINE_STORE for web, or by location_id for a specific cafe / shop. The dashboard tab also exposes a per-location filter.
Why is my Square Total Revenue different from my Stripe / PayPal numbers?
For most Square merchants, Stripe is zero or close to zero. Square processes its own payments (mandatory for Square POS and Square Online), so card and wallet charges are routed through Square itself, not Stripe. Stripe might pick up a separate side product (a non-Square subscription billing tool, a marketplace integration), but it won’t see your Square sales. PayPal is similar, only the orders where the customer chose PayPal as the alt tender on Square Online checkout. Square Dashboard is the source of truth for total revenue on Square accounts.
Does Total Revenue include refunds?
No, refunds are NOT deducted. This card is gross revenue. A fully refunded 100 here. Square exposes refunds via a separate Refunds API; track them on the Refund Rate card. If you want a net-of-refunds view, watch this card alongside Refund Rate, or use Square Dashboard’s “Net sales” line on the Sales summary report.
My multi-location Square account, how do I see per-cafe revenue?
Filter the Square Online dashboard tab by location_id, or pin per-location panels in the Vortex IQ Nerve Centre using the per-card location selector. Square’s API exposes a stable location_id per merchant location and every order is tagged. This card sums across all locations by default; that’s the Friday-9am headline read.
Why does today’s number jump up and down so much?
Today is incomplete data. As the day progresses orders add into the bucket, and as the day rolls past midnight some orders flip date because of time-zone effects (Square reports in location-local time; this card uses UTC). Use the rolling 7-day or 30-day view for stable numbers, that’s why the alert window is 30D vsP and not 1D. For a same-day operations read, use Square Dashboard, Today’s sales tile.
Does Square Invoices revenue count?
Yes. Square Invoices and Square recurring invoices both generate orders in the same Orders API, this card includes them. Wholesale and B2B revenue collected via Square Invoices can be a significant share of a Square merchant’s total, especially for food & beverage suppliers, beauty pros, and small services businesses. To exclude, filter by source.name.
My revenue dropped 8% week-over-week. Should the alert have fired?
The default alert trigger is drop >15% WoW. An 8% drop is within normal weekly variance for most Square merchants, the alert is tuned to surface unusual moves not routine ones. If you want a tighter trigger (say 10%), the per-merchant threshold can be customised in your Vortex IQ workspace settings.
What’s the action playbook when this card drops sharply?
Three checks in order: (1) Refund Rate, did refunds spike? a quality or fulfilment incident shows here first, (2) Total Orders vs AOV, did volume drop or did basket size drop? volume drops point to traffic or conversion, basket-size drops point to mix shift or discount activity, (3) per-location split, is one cafe (or just the web channel) responsible? a single-location issue is operational; an across-the-board drop is a demand-side issue.