If a guest hits your booking checkout and gets an error, or your test booking fails to process the card, the cause is almost always a missing location → Square location mapping. Easy to miss, easy to fix.
What's going on
Square supports multi-location businesses. A bookings transaction has to be tied to one specific Square location so the revenue, tax, and tips post to the right ledger.
When you connect Square, we pull the list of Square locations on your account. But you still need to tell us which ArtistryHost location maps to which Square location. Until you do, we can't route the payment.
Fix it in 60 seconds
- Settings → Locations.
- Click your venue location to open it.
- Look for the Square location field.
- Pick the matching Square location from the dropdown.
- Save.
Test the checkout again. Payments should go through.
"I only see one Square location and it's already selected"
If you have a single-location Square account and the mapping looks right, the issue is something else. The two most common:
- Square account is unverified. Brand-new Square accounts can take a card but not actually process it until Square completes a quick KYC check. Log into squareup.com and look for any "complete your account" prompts.
- Card was a test card. Test cards (4242 4242 4242 4242 and similar) only work in Square sandbox, not production. Use a real card to test, then refund the test transaction.
If neither resolves it, send us the guest's email and the time of the failure via the Question button. We can look up the Square transaction by timestamp.
Multi-location operators
If you run multiple venues, you'll have multiple ArtistryHost locations and multiple Square locations. Each ArtistryHost location maps to one Square location. Always.
A common mistake: mapping two ArtistryHost locations to the same Square location. The revenue still posts, but you can't tell which venue earned it. Don't do this. Split your Square locations first.