Auto Upholstery on Square pay $29/month — $348/year. Over three years, that's $1,168. Nexa is $279 once. Break-even runs about 9.6 months. The median Auto Upholstery Trimmer earns $48,000/year, so Square's annual cost is roughly 0.7% of typical revenue — every year, forever.
That's $1,168 gone. And you don't own anything. Stop paying, lose access.
You're not the only one who's had enough.
Auto Upholstery face unique challenges: Jobs are quoted before tearing into the seat, and a sagging headliner or a 'just reupholster the driver's seat' turns into rotted foam and a broken frame once it is apart, blowing the estimate. Material is bought by the hide or the yard with long lead times on color matches, so a discontinued OEM vinyl or a backordered leather color stalls a car in the shop for weeks. It is slow custom work where one seat can take days, so the shop holds a customer's car or seats for long stretches and the customer keeps calling asking when it will be done. Restoration and custom interior jobs are bespoke, so pricing is a craft estimate not a menu, and underbidding a full classic-car interior is a five-figure mistake. On top of all that, Square charges $29/month ($348/year) — money that comes directly from your revenue. The median Auto Upholstery Trimmer earns $48,000/year. Software at $348/year is a meaningful percentage of that income, every year, forever. And you do not own anything.
Your Walking-foot industrial sewing machine for heavy materials is yours. You bought it once. Nexa works the same way — $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, and full accounting. All connected. All offline-capable. You own it like you own your tools.
Square is just one piece. What else are you losing money on?
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Your exact Square cost, full stack total, and what switching saves. 10 seconds.
| Feature | Square | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| CRM | ✗ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Full Accounting | ✗ | ✓ (SIMPL) |
| Task Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Price | $29/mo forever | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Cost | $1,168 | $279 |
| Stop paying? | Lose everything | Keep everything forever |
Most auto upholstery are fully switched before the weekend.
Go to Square Dashboard → Customers → Export. Also export transactions and item library.
15-minute setup. Import your customer list and service/product catalog.
Run both for 1-2 weeks. Test invoicing and booking through Nexa.
Cancel paid subscriptions. Keep free account for records access.
Auto upholstery is old-world craft running on an industrial sewing machine. A typical job might be a classic car interior, a worn-out daily driver's seats, or a sagging headliner, and almost none of it can be fully quoted from the outside. The real work begins with teardown: pulling the seat, removing the old cover by snipping the hog rings, and discovering what the foam and frame actually look like underneath, which is frequently worse than the customer admitted or knew. From there it is pattern-making, often using the old cover as the template, cutting new material whether it is OEM-match vinyl, leather, or cloth, and sewing it up on the walking-foot machine that can chew through layers of hide and foam. Hog rings cinch the new cover down over fresh foam and batting, pulled tight so there are no wrinkles. Headliners are their own headache, gluing fabric to a board and fighting it back into the roof without bubbles. The material side dominates the calendar: a color match might be backordered for weeks, and the customer's car sits in the shop the whole time, with the customer phoning to ask when their daily driver will be back. The frustrations are estimate risk on teardown surprises, lead-time risk on materials, and the simple pressure of bespoke work that takes as long as it takes while a customer waits.
Real auto upholstery near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you an auto upholstery trimmer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every auto upholstery trimmer on Nexa →
For solo operators and small teams (1-5), yes. Nexa includes invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting. Square may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
It's $7.75/month over 3 years. Square is $29/month — that's $1,168 over 3 years. Which is more? And if you'd rather split it, Nexa is also available as 3 payments of $99.
Yes. Nexa is $279 as a one-time payment, or 3 payments of $99 ($297 total). Either way it's a one-time purchase — no subscription, no recurring fees ever.
30-day money-back guarantee. Full refund. If Nexa doesn't save you $500 in year one, you get every penny back.
Export your data from Square as CSV, import into Nexa in about 5 minutes.
The average solo operator there spends about $1,500/year on software — and Auto Upholstery Trimmer face their own version of that math. Chile requires SII electronic invoicing. IVA at 19%. Requirements vary by country and locality. Check local regulations.
Numbers reflect typical solo operators in the Concepción metro. Your situation will vary.
Specific gaps Auto Upholstery run into with Square, and what Nexa does instead.
$1,168 over 3 years. Or $279 once (or 3 × $99). Own your tools.
Get Nexa — $279 Once