Create custom reports with Custom Report Builder
About Custom Report Builder
Custom Report Builder lets you create flexible, personalized reports right from Square Dashboard. You can select the metrics, groupings, and filters you need, or start from a preset report, to answer specific questions about your business.
With Custom Report Builder, you can:
Build reports across sales, items, payments, taxes, and more
Choose your own metrics, groupings, and filters
Start from a preset for common report types
Save your custom views and return to them at any time
Use the AI prompt to describe what you want to see in plain language
Forecast future sales and other metrics with confidence ranges
Schedule reports to be emailed to you on a recurring basis
Compare current and prior time periods side by side
Custom Report Builder is different from multi-block custom reports, which let you combine several prebuilt report blocks into a single saved view. Custom Report Builder gives you more control over the individual metrics and dimensions in your report.
Before you begin
Custom Report Builder is available on the web from your Square Dashboard. It is not available in the Square POS app or on iPad.
If you previously used the Custom Item Report, it now redirects to Custom Report Builder. Your data is still available, you can recreate the same view using the Items preset.
To get the most out of your reports, make sure you've set up your items, categories, modifiers, discounts, and tax settings in your Square Dashboard. Learn how to Create and edit items, Create and edit item categories, Create and edit modifiers, Create and edit discounts, and Create and manage sales tax settings.
Report data may have a short delay. If you just completed a transaction, it may take a few minutes to appear in your report.
When you export a report, results are limited to 10,000 rows. If your report exceeds this limit, apply additional filters, such as a narrower date range to reduce the results.
Some metrics in Custom Report Builder, such as Total sales and Total collected, may be calculated differently than in legacy reports. If you notice differences when comparing old and new reports, this is expected.
Access Custom Report Builder
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Reports.
Click the Custom tab.
From here, you can start from a preset or build a report from scratch or use the AI prompt.
Create custom reports
You can describe what you want to see in everyday language and Custom Report Builder will configure the report for you. To do so:
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Reports.
- Click the Custom tab and select the AI prompt box at the top of the page.
- Type a question or description, such as:
- “Show me sales year over year”
- “What are my top-selling items this month?”
- “Compare labor costs by location last quarter”
- Custom Report Builder automatically selects the relevant metrics, groupings, and filters.
- Review the results and adjust as needed.
- Click Save to keep your report.
Presets are pre-configured starting points for common report types. You can use a preset as-is or customize it further by adding or removing metrics, groupings, and filters. Custom Report Builder includes presets organized by topic:
- Sales: Sales summary, Sales by location, Sales by time of day
- Items: Item sales, Category sales, Modifier sales
- Team: Team member sales, Labor summary
- Payments: Payment methods, Fees
- Taxes: Tax summary
- Cost of goods: COGS summary
- Restaurants: Kitchen performance, Table turn
- Loyalty: Loyalty activity
- Appointments: Appointments summary
- Gift cards: Gift card activity
- Other: Comps & voids, Online orders, Discounts
Custom Report Builder includes preset views organized by topic — such as Sales, Items, Team, Payments, Taxes, and more. Each preset starts you with a relevant set of metrics and groupings so you can get results quickly, then customize further as needed. To use a preset:
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Reports.
- Click Custom > Custom Report.
- Select a preset.
- Review the report results.
- Adjust the metrics, groupings, or filters as needed to customize.
- Select Save to keep your changes.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Reports.
- Click Custom > Custom Report.
- Select Create report.
- Select the metrics you want to include, such as gross sales, net sales, or item quantity.
- Choose your groupings to organize the data, such as items, category, location, team member, or customer.
- Apply filters to narrow the results, such as a specific date range, location, or item category.
- To compare time periods, select Compare and choose a prior period, such as the previous week or previous month.
- Review your report results. You can switch between a table view and chart view (bar or line) using the view toggle.
- Select Save to save your custom view for future use.
Note: If your items use nested categories of up to 3 levels, Custom Report Builder automatically shows subtotals for each parent category.
Custom Report Builder can project future values for metrics like sales, item quantity, and more. To forecast future metrics:
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Reports.
- Click Custom and open a saved report or create a new one.
- Select Forecast and choose a forecast horizon.
- Review the day-by-day projection, which includes a confidence range showing the expected high and low values.
Forecasts are based on your historical data patterns. The more data you have, the more accurate the forecast.
You can schedule a saved report to be delivered to your email on a recurring basis.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Reports.
- Click Custom.
- Open a saved report and select Schedule.
- Choose how often you want to receive the report: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Quarterly.
- Set your preferred send time and time zone.
- Select Save schedule.
The report is emailed as an attachment based on the schedule you set. You can edit or cancel the schedule at any time from the saved report.
View and manage saved reports
Your saved reports appear in the Custom tab. To view a saved report, select it from the list. You can edit, rename, or delete saved reports at any time.
Share feedback
Your feedback helps us improve Custom Report Builder. After viewing your report results, you may see a short survey asking about your experience. You can also share feedback by selecting the thumbs up or thumbs down button on the report view.