Track a merchant application in the OrderOut Reseller Portal
Your merchants list shows every application's status in the OrderOut Reseller Portal.
Steps
- Open Merchants. Every application anyone in your organisation has submitted is listed here, with the ISO and agent it is attributed to, the products and pricing it came in on, and its status. Every role can see this page.Open full size ↗
- Form Started means the merchant opened your onboarding link and began filling it in, but has not submitted it. Nothing has reached OrderOut or Square yet, so if it sits there, the next move is yours: check the merchant actually finished the form.Open full size ↗
- Under Review means the application has been submitted and is being worked through. Square's own email to the merchant is the outside signal that it has completed — it normally arrives within about a day.Open full size ↗
- Missing Info means something on the application needs correcting before it can go further. This is the one status that is genuinely waiting on somebody — usually a detail only the merchant can supply.Open full size ↗
- Active usually means approved — but the status on its own is not the proof, because it can also be set by hand inside the portal. What confirms it is the status together with the Square Merchant ID on the merchant's own record. When Square approves an account it writes the Merchant ID and the Active status at the same moment, automatically, so the two arriving together is the machine-written fact.Open full size ↗
- Open the merchant to see it. A merchant Square has genuinely activated carries an External IDs card with a Square Merchant ID, a Square Location ID and the activation date. That card is the green light.Open full size ↗
- A merchant with no External IDs card has not been activated by Square, whatever the badge says. The card is absent entirely rather than showing empty fields, so its absence is the signal. Nothing is missing from your application — Square simply has not finished.Open full size ↗
- Use the Merchant ID as your green light before you ship anything. If you buy hardware and resell it to your merchants, this is the check that matters: a record can read Active on an account Square has never approved, and shipping against the badge rather than the ID is how equipment goes out to a merchant who cannot take a payment yet.
- If a merchant has shown no Merchant ID for more than a few business days, send the OrderOut reseller team the name and ask them to check that merchant's real status. Do not wait for it to fill in on its own — a Merchant ID that has not appeared by then usually means activation never completed, not that it is still on its way.
Worth knowing
- The Merchant ID, not the status badge, is the thing to trust. Square writes the Merchant ID and the Active status together at activation, automatically. A status can also be set by hand in the portal, so Active on its own can describe an account Square has never approved — while Active with a Merchant ID cannot.
- A status can also be stale in the other direction. Some applications keep showing Under Review after the merchant has actually been approved. The reliable outside signal is Square's own email to the merchant: once they have received it, typically within about a day, the account is active and attributed to you.
- The absence of the External IDs card is the signal, not an error. The card only renders once there is a Square ID to put in it, so a merchant who has not been activated has no card rather than a card full of blanks.
- This matters most if you ship equipment. A reseller may buy Square hardware and resell, finance or lease it on their own margin — and a merchant who is not really activated cannot take a payment on it. Check the Merchant ID first.
- Everyone in your organisation can see this page, including VIEWER accounts. What changes by role is what you can do elsewhere, not what you can see here.
- The products and pricing shown against a merchant are the ones frozen onto their application when they submitted it. Editing the onboarding link afterwards changes what the next merchant is offered, never what an existing one already applied under.
In the video
- 0:00Where your applications live
- 0:09What the statuses mean
- 0:31Active is not the proof
- 0:58What to do about it
Questions resellers ask about this
My merchant shows Active in the portal — does that mean approved, or is more information being requested?
Usually yes — but the status on its own is not the proof, because it can also be set by hand in the portal.
What confirms it is the status together with the Square Merchant ID on the merchant's record: when Square approves an account, the Merchant ID and the Active status are written at the same moment, automatically. So:
- Active with a Square Merchant ID — Square approved it, and nothing further is being asked of you or of the merchant.
- Active with no Square Merchant ID — the status was set by hand, and Square has not completed activation. On the merchant's record this reads 'Waiting for Square ID' on the Square tab, and the Overview shows no External IDs section. Square's own email to the merchant, normally within about a day, is the outside confirmation to look for.
If a merchant has been Active with no Merchant ID for more than a few business days, ask the OrderOut reseller team to check that merchant's real status rather than waiting for it to fill in.
Source: OrderOut (official)
How do I know it is safe to ship equipment to a merchant — how can I tell they are really approved?
Use the Square Merchant ID as your green light, not the status.
The Merchant ID and location ID are written automatically the moment Square approves the application, so their presence on the merchant's record is a machine-written fact. When they are absent the merchant's Square tab reads 'Waiting for Square ID' and their Overview carries no External IDs section — either way, Square has not completed activation.
The status on its own is not safe to ship against: it can be set by hand in the portal, so a record can read Active on an account Square has not approved.
If a merchant has shown no Merchant ID for more than a few business days, send the OrderOut reseller team the name and we will check rather than leaving you to guess.
Source: OrderOut (official)
Why is the Square Merchant ID missing / 'Waiting for Square ID' on some approved merchants?
A merchant's Square Merchant ID appears in the portal once Square activates their account — it links automatically at activation, not at submission. In the portal this shows up two ways, and both mean the same thing: the merchant's Square tab reads 'Waiting for Square ID', and their Overview carries no External IDs section at all. Neither means data is missing from your application. Activation is typically fast — the merchant usually receives their Square email within about a day — so if a merchant has shown no Square ID for more than a few business days, ask the reseller team to check that merchant's status rather than assuming it will fill in on its own.
This is why the Merchant ID, not the status badge, is the signal to trust inside the portal: a merchant reading Active with no Merchant ID has had that status set by hand, because Square's approval writes the id and the status together.
Source: OrderOut (official)
My merchant shows 'Under Review' in the portal but is actually approved — which status is right?
Some merchant applications can show a stale 'Under Review' status in the portal after the merchant has actually been approved — a known display issue we are fixing. The reliable signal is Square's email to the merchant: once the merchant receives it (typically within 24 hours), the account is active and the merchant is attributed to you for residual payments. If a status looks stuck beyond that, contact the OrderOut team and we will confirm the merchant's real status.
Source: OrderOut (official)
Full transcript1:12
0:00Where your applications live
Your merchants list shows every application's status in the OrderOut Reseller Portal.
You'll need any portal role, and we're starting on the Merchants page.
0:09What the statuses mean
Form Started means your merchant opened your link but has not submitted it yet.
Under Review means they submitted it, and the application is being worked through.
Missing Info means something on it needs correcting before it can go any further.
Active means the account is open. This is the one worth reading carefully.
0:31Active is not the proof
On its own, Active does not mean Square approved them. A status can also be set by hand.
Square writes the Merchant ID and the Active status together, automatically, at activation.
Open the merchant. This one carries a Square Merchant ID, a location ID and an activation date.
That one is genuinely approved. This one reads Active with no External IDs card at all.
0:58What to do about it
So use the Merchant ID as your green light, especially before you ship any equipment.
If a merchant shows no Merchant ID after a few business days, ask the OrderOut reseller team to check.
Answers on this page come from the OrderOut reseller answer ledger (2026-08-26.1). Still stuck? Email reseller@orderout.co.·All guides