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How to Connect Square to Thrive Apprentice

In this article, you’ll learn how to connect your Square payment processor to Thrive Apprentice so you can sell courses and restrict access to paying customers. This guide covers connecting your Square account, setting up a sandbox for testing, creating items, configuring webhooks, and displaying the buy button.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • A Square account (create one at squareup.com if you don’t have one)
  • Thrive Apprentice installed and activated on your WordPress site
  • At least one course created in Thrive Apprentice

Step 1: Connect Your Square Account

  1. Go to Thrive Dashboard > Thrive Apprentice.
  2. Click Settings in the left sidebar.
  3. Select Payments from the settings menu.
    Settings menu with the Payments option highlighted
  4. Find the Square option and click Connect.
    Payments page showing the Square option with the Connect button
  5. You’ll be redirected to Square’s authorization page. Log in to your Square account.
  6. Authorize the connection by granting Thrive Apprentice the required permissions.
  7. Once authorized, you’ll be redirected back to Thrive Apprentice with a confirmation message.

Tip: Square offers both a live environment and a sandbox environment. Start with the sandbox to test your setup before accepting real payments.

Testing with Square’s sandbox lets you simulate purchases without processing real transactions.

  1. Log in to the Square Developer Dashboard at developer.squareup.com.
  2. Create or select a sandbox application.
  3. Copy your Sandbox Application ID and Sandbox Access Token.
  4. In Thrive Apprentice, go to Settings > Payments > Square.
  5. Toggle to Sandbox mode and enter your sandbox credentials.
  6. Save your settings.

You can now test the full purchase flow with sandbox credentials before going live.

Step 3: Create an Item in Your Square Account

You need to create an item in Square that corresponds to your Thrive Apprentice course product.

  1. Log in to your Square dashboard.
  2. Go to Items (or Item Library).
  3. Click Create an Item.
  4. Enter a name and description that matches your course product.
  5. Set the price for the item.
  6. Save the item.

Note: The item you create in Square is what your customers will be charged for. Make sure the name and price align with the course product you’ve set up in Thrive Apprentice.

A one-time purchase is paid in full at checkout. From Thrive Apprentice 11.3, Square doesn’t send the buyer a separate unpaid invoice for it.

Step 4: Create a Webhook in Square

Webhooks let Square tell Thrive Apprentice about changes that happen after checkout, such as refunds and subscription cancellations. Without a webhook, a student keeps access to a course even after you refund their payment in Square.

  1. Go to the Square Developer Dashboard.
  2. Select your application.
  3. Navigate to Webhooks in the left sidebar.
  4. Click Add Webhook (or Subscribe to Events).
  5. Enter the webhook URL provided by Thrive Apprentice. You’ll find this in Settings > Payments > Square within Thrive Apprentice once your Square account is connected. It looks like https://yourdomain.com/wp-json/tva/v1/square/webhook.
  6. Select all events, as the Square settings screen in Thrive Apprentice asks. If you prefer to pick events one by one, include at least refund.created, refund.updated, invoice.refunded, and subscription.updated. Thrive Apprentice uses these to update course access after a refund or a subscription change.
  7. Save the webhook.

Important: The webhook URL must be accessible from the internet. If your site is behind a firewall or in maintenance mode, Square can’t send notifications. Refunds and subscription changes then won’t update course access.

What Happens When You Refund a Square Payment

When you refund a one-time course purchase in full from your Square Dashboard, Thrive Apprentice removes the student’s access to that course. The refund also shows in the Course enrollments report, so you can see who lost access.

A partial refund keeps the student’s access. This lets you give a goodwill credit without locking someone out. If later partial refunds add up to the full payment, access is removed at that point.

Important: Refunds only update course access when your Square webhook includes the refund.created and refund.updated events. If you created your webhook with only payment.completed selected, edit it in the Square Developer Dashboard and add them.

Step 5: Configure Access Restrictions

Now link your Square item to a Thrive Apprentice product so that purchases trigger access.

  1. Go to Thrive Dashboard > Thrive Apprentice.
  2. Click Products in the left sidebar.
  3. Select the product you want to protect.
  4. Click the Access requirements tab.
    Product detail view showing the Access requirements tab selected with a red arrow
  5. Choose Square as the payment method.
    Access requirements panel showing Stripe and Square connected with the Square option highlighted
  6. Select the Square item you created in Step 3.
  7. Save your changes.

Step 6: Display the Square Buy Button

To let your customers make purchases, you need to display a buy button on your course or product page.

  1. Open the course or product page in Thrive Architect (or your page editor).
  2. Add or configure the purchase button element.
  3. Link the button to the Square checkout for the item you’ve set up.
  4. Save and publish the page.

When a customer clicks the buy button, they’ll be taken through the Square checkout process. After successful payment, Thrive Apprentice grants them access to the course.

Step 7: Set Up Transactional Emails

Make sure your customers receive confirmation emails after their purchase.

  1. In Thrive Apprentice, go to Settings > Email notifications (or your email settings).
  2. Verify that transactional emails are enabled for new enrollments and purchases.
  3. Customize the email content if needed—include the course name, login link, and any getting-started instructions.
  4. Send a test email to confirm everything looks correct.

Tip: A well-crafted welcome email improves the student experience and reduces support questions about how to access the course.

Troubleshooting

  • Square connection failed: Verify you’re logged in to the correct Square account and that you’ve granted all required permissions. Try disconnecting and reconnecting.
  • Webhook not firing: Confirm the webhook URL is correct in the Square Developer Dashboard and that your site is publicly accessible. Check the webhook logs in Square for error details.
  • Student still has access after a refund: Check that the refund was for the full amount, since partial refunds keep access. Then confirm your Square webhook includes the refund.created and refund.updated events. Its URL must match the one in Settings > Payments > Square.
  • A buyer sees “Your payment went through. You will not be charged again.”: After a Square payment, the checkout window shows the success message while Thrive Apprentice confirms the payment with Square and sets up access. If Square hasn’t confirmed it after about 12 seconds, a short message appears under it with a Try again button. Ask the buyer to wait a moment and click Try again. Clicking it doesn’t charge them a second time. Once Square confirms the payment, the checkout continues as normal.
  • A buyer sees “Please contact support and mention this message.”: This message has no Try again button. Thrive Apprentice couldn’t confirm the purchase, so it didn’t give access automatically. The line above it says why. To check, find the order in your Square Dashboard. If it was paid, give the student access by hand, as shown in A Member Did Not Get Access to a Purchased Course. When the Square product has a Cancel/failure URL, a checkout that Thrive Apprentice refuses sends the buyer to that page instead.
  • Customer didn’t receive access: Verify that the Square item is linked to the correct Thrive Apprentice product in the Access requirements tab. Check Square’s transaction history to confirm the payment was successful.
  • Sandbox not working: Make sure you’ve entered the correct sandbox credentials and that you’re testing with Square’s sandbox test data.

That’s it! You’ve successfully connected Square to Thrive Apprentice and configured it to sell courses with automatic access provisioning.

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