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Card class: Non-Hero • Category: Payment Gateway

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At a glance

Total amount Square has captured from customers but not yet deposited to your linked bank account. Square’s standard schedule is T+1 next-business-day; same-day Instant Deposit available for a 1.75% fee. New merchants and seasonal businesses may have a rolling reserve held by Square.
What it countsSum of payment captures with status = COMPLETED that have not yet rolled into a settled payout.
API endpointGET /v2/payouts for the payout records; /v2/payments for in-flight.
CurrencyPer-currency.
ReservesSquare may hold 1, 30% of new-merchant volume in a reserve account. Reserves count as pending here.
Instant Deposit usageReduces this number; instant-deposited transactions exit pending in minutes.
Time windowSnapshot (current value, not trended).
Alert trigger>3 days of avg daily volume (suggests payout schedule slipping or reserve hold increasing).
Rolesowner, finance, operations

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Calculation

Calculated automatically from your Square data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

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Worked example

The Austin bookshop, snapshot at 02 May 26 16:00 CT: 
Last successful payout    = 02 May 26 02:00 CT, USD 4,310 (1 May volume)
Today's volume so far     = USD 4,820
Pending in Square balance = USD 4,820 (will deposit 03 May 26 02:00 CT)
Reserve hold              = USD 0 (established merchant, no reserve)
Instant deposits today    = USD 1,200 (owner pulled cash for inventory mid-day)

Net pending now           = USD 4,820 - USD 1,200 = USD 3,620
Reads:
  1. USD 3,620 in flight is normal. Avg daily volume is USD 4,300; one day’s worth is in flight, exactly what T+1 schedule predicts.
  2. Instant Deposit usage of USD 1,200 cost USD 21 in fees (1.75%). Owner used it to buy inventory mid-day from a wholesale supplier; cheaper than a credit-card-funded business loan.
  3. No reserve. Established merchants typically have no reserve. New merchants in higher-risk verticals may see 1, 5% rolling reserve for 90, 180 days.

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Sibling cards merchants should reference together

CardWhy pair
squ_payout_age_daysDays since last successful payout.
squ_avg_settlement_daysAvg time from sale to bank credit.
squ_total_volumeVolume context for “what’s in flight”.
Stripe stripe_pending_payoutsCross-PSP.

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Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look in the Square Dashboard:
Balance → Square balance + Balance → Pending deposits.
Why ours may differ:
ReasonDirection
Snapshot timingOurs updates on sync; Square is real-time
Instant Deposits in-flightBrief window where Instant Deposit is “transferred but not yet at the bank”
Cross-connector reconciliation: pending payouts are PSP-specific; sum across rails for total in-flight cash if the merchant runs multi-PSP.

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Known limitations / merchant FAQs

“Why is my balance higher than I expect?” Three causes: weekend / holiday closure pushed payouts (US bank holidays close ACH for 1-2 days), Instant Deposit not used today, or a reserve is being built up. “Why does Square hold a reserve?” Risk management. Industries with high chargeback potential (digital-only, ticketing, services-future-delivery) often see a 1, 5% rolling reserve for 90, 180 days. “Instant Deposit fee, worth it?” 1.75% per Instant Deposit. Worth it for cash-flow emergencies (inventory restock during peak day) but not for routine payouts. Most merchants use it 1-2x / month at most. “My payout schedule changed, why?” Square may slow your schedule (T+1 to T+3 or T+5) if dispute-rate spikes or volume profile changes suspiciously. Dashboard’s Risk Manager shows the reason. “Multi-location, separate balances?” No; one Square balance per merchant account, even with multiple locations. “Multi-currency, separate balances?” Yes; each currency has its own balance and payout schedule. “What about my Square Card / Square Banking?” Funds in Square Card / Square Checking are NOT in this card. Square Card is a separate debit card you can spend the balance from directly. This card counts only what’s destined for an external linked bank. “Why did pending suddenly spike?” Either schedule paused, holiday backlog, or a reserve hold was placed. Check Dashboard Risk Manager.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Pending Payouts is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Square 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 or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.