From Square Appointments to goldenhour.

Why artists make the switch

What you'll get here.

• Beauty-specific surface, not generic appointments

  Intake form per service with medical/contraindication flags, photo consent + watermark + face-blur, spray-tan rinse-window automations, DHA exposure tracking, bridal package locks, in-home setup checklist. Square is appointment-shaped, not beauty-shaped.

• Custom domain (book.yourbrand.com) included

  Square's online booking page lives at squareup.com/your-business: not under your brand. We provision a CNAME-based custom domain with TLS in the base subscription.

• Mobile-first wedges

  Travel zones with per-zone fees, GPS check-in, masked-number SMS chat, drive-buffer minutes added to slot availability. Square treats appointments as office-located by default; mobile is a workaround there.

• AI features included

  Growth analyst Q&A, intake-form TL;DR, voice-note transcription, tag suggestions. Square has no AI surface today.

Where they win today

What you'd give up.

Honest list. If any of these are deal-breakers, stay on Square Appointments: we'd rather you be on the right tool for you than churn from us in 30 days.

• Square Hardware + POS integration

  If you also do retail/POS sales through Square hardware (terminals, registers), Square Appointments shares the same back-office. You'd lose that integration on a switch. Card payments on goldenhour run through Stripe, card readers and Tap to Pay included (Stripe Terminal); taking payments through your own Square account is not available yet. The retail / inventory side of Square POS is its own ecosystem either way.

• Square ecosystem (Square Online, Square Loyalty)

  If you're already on Square Online for a retail website or Square Loyalty for a rewards program, Square Appointments slots into those for free. We have our own loyalty + photo + booking-page systems, but the Square ecosystem is a real lock-in.

How to export from Square Appointments

Pull your data out.

1. Sign into Square's web dashboard (squareup.com). The Square iOS app doesn't expose the customer/appointment export surface.
2. Customers menu → Directory → top-right "Export" → all customers → CSV. Email arrives in a minute or two.
3. Appointments menu → Reports → "Appointment list" → filter to last 12 months → "Export" → CSV.
4. Items menu (this is where Square stores Service catalog) → "Export library" → CSV. Filter to your service-line items only after we ingest.
5. Settings → Appointments → Intake Forms. Square's intake forms don't have a clean export; screenshot each form's question list. We recreate from screenshots.
6. Connect Square under Settings → Import, or upload the CSVs there. Book the setup call if you want the whole thing done together.

Stuck on any step? Email support@goldenhourhq.com. We've done Square Appointments exports before: happy to screen-share through the part that's blocking you.

What we import

Clean ingest.

The importer reads Square Appointments's export directly. Upload it in Settings, and re-upload whenever you like: rows are matched on the id Square Appointments gave them, so the same export twice does not create anything twice. The one exception anywhere is a client with no email address on an export that carries no client id of its own, which has nothing stable to match on and comes in again; the import check flags those before you commit to it.

• Customer ("client") list: name, phone, email, birthday, notes
• Appointment history: date, service, status, price, no-shows
• Service catalog (filtered from items export)
• Intake form questions (recreated from screenshots)
• Booking notes
• Cancellation + no-show history

What needs reconfiguring

Five-minute jobs.

Stuff that can't come over via CSV: usually because each platform structures it differently. We walk through each on the setup call (or via email).

• Card payments: connect Stripe. Taking payments through your own Square account is not available yet. Cards your clients saved in Square are not brought over, so a client saves a card again here when a booking asks for one, and a client who also buys from your Square POS has one saved card in Square and a separate one in Stripe.
• Booking page slug: claim a new handle on goldenhourhq.com or point a custom domain at us.
• Square hardware: if you have a Square Reader or Stand, you can keep using it for retail/POS through Square's own app. Our card readers and Tap to Pay run through Stripe Terminal (BBPOS or iPhone NFC). Some artists end up with Square for POS + goldenhour for appointments: works fine, two separate dashboards.
• Square Loyalty cards: if you used Square Loyalty, the punch history doesn't export. We can grandfather customers in by manually counting their visits + creating a starting loyalty balance on import.

The money side

What you'll save.

• Subscription: Square Appointments runs $0/free for solo, $29/mo for 2–5 staff, $69/mo for 6+. goldenhour is $19.99/mo (founding) or $39.99/mo (standard). At the higher Square tier the savings are real; at the free tier you're paying for capability.
• Card processing on goldenhour runs through Stripe: 2.9% + 30¢ online (Stripe's published rate). Square Pay charges 2.6% + 10¢: slightly lower per-charge, but Square also takes a 3.3% + 30¢ on online card-not-present, which is higher than Stripe. Check your invoices.
• Add-on packs avoided: Square SMS marketing ($15/mo), Square Online add-ons, etc.

See full pricing detail at /pricing.