Brisbane Transport Museum

QOCS - Brisbane Transport Museum

Operational data for admissions, cash, stock, and daily Square reporting.

How to get the initial Square API keys

This project currently works best with a Square personal access token because it is being used for your own Brisbane Transport Museum reporting. If you later expand this into a multi-seller product, Square recommends moving to OAuth.

Step-by-step

Step 1

Create or open your Square application

Sign in to the Square Developer Console and open the application you want this reporting tool to use. If you do not have one yet, create a new application first.

Open Square Developer Console

Step 2

Open the Credentials section

In the left-hand menu of the Developer Console, open Credentials. Square provides separate credentials for Production and Sandbox.

Step 3

Choose the correct environment

Use Production for the live Brisbane Transport Museum account. Use Sandbox only for testing with non-live data.

Step 4

Copy the access token

In the Credentials page, find the Production or Sandbox access token, choose Show, and copy the token. Paste that value into this app’s Setup page.

Step 5

Find your location ID

A location ID is optional in this app, but recommended when you want the report limited to one Square location. You can find it in the Developer Console under Locations, or leave it blank and use the app’s connection test to confirm your token first.

Step 6

Save the values in Setup

In this project’s Setup page, enter the environment, access token, optional location ID, and keep the reporting timezone as Australia/Brisbane unless you have a different requirement.

Step 7

Test before you report

Use Test connection only to validate the token and preview the locations the token can access. Then save the configuration and run the cash report.

Permissions this app expects

If you later switch this project to OAuth, request only the permissions needed for the current features:

  • PAYMENTS_READ
  • ORDERS_READ
  • MERCHANT_PROFILE_READ
  • INVENTORY_READ
  • INVENTORY_WRITE
  • ITEMS_READ

Personal access tokens already have full account access, so these scope labels mainly matter for future OAuth-based expansion. Inventory write access is used only when the stocktake tool pushes physical counts back to Square.

Which Square credential should you use?

Use case Recommended credential Why
Your own Brisbane Transport Museum reporting app Personal access token Fastest setup, no OAuth flow required, suitable for one-account internal reporting.
Future version used by multiple Square sellers OAuth access token Lets each seller authorize only the scopes you request, which is the right model for multi-tenant apps.

Security notes

Keep it secret

Do not paste Square access tokens into source control, screenshots, or support messages without redacting them.

Local storage

This app stores its configuration in storage/config/app.json, which is outside the public web root in this project layout.

Production vs sandbox

Production tokens work only with Square’s production API base URL, and sandbox tokens work only with the sandbox API base URL.