What aspect of running your business takes the most time out of each day? 🤔

[isabelle]

Hi all! Hope everyone is having a fabulous last week of September! 

Today we're wondering....

What aspect of running your business takes the most time out of each day? 🤔

Excited to read your replies! ⚡️

[lgmbts]

Managing inventory.  Square doesn't allow items to be manged from a central inventory when that item is sold as a modifier as well.  This causes us to create a separate "silo" to allocate some of that item (think croissant being sold as a croissant and also as a modifier for a sandwich).  So every time someone orders a croissant for a sandwich, we have to go in and manually adjust the item inventory.

Square's workaround for this is to allocate only a certain number of an item to a modifier.  This is where it gets really tricky.  When an item is sold as a modifier for multiple other items, you are then allocating inventory to many different "silos".  The biggest downside out side of the time suck that takes to manage this - is an item might really be in stock and could be sold, but the modifier shows it sold out.  That's an up-charge that we losing.  And if Square is getting paid on my transactions, that's money they aren't getting either.

There are many things that Square does well, but this one gives me pause - and is also the greatest source of frustration Square related, or not.

[_Brandon_]

I can second that one too!  We don't have many instances where we run into this, but it does cause a lot of issues with inventory where we do. 

[Pennys]

Waiting on vendors to make deliveries.

[AlabamaQue]

My iPads disconnect from kitchen printers. I love Square but hates how the iPads always disconnect From the printers. If it goes out for 15 minutes, it might take 2 hours to catch back up!!!!!!

[Judead]

Without a doubt keeping employees efficient.  Getting them to work and use their talents to look for idle time to get one more job done instead of hey this is easy time and I can lounge till 5.  After that it is collecting receivables.  Seems it is getting worse on getting payment.  The bigger the company the more the headache.

[JRA]

Paperwork depending on what type of business you have.  Also inventory. 

[jgrgetich]

Inventory!!! Square do better!!!
Retailors need a couple additional functions, especially when we are paying for the retail side of it.

First, give us the option of creating a placeholder for items ordered.  Meaning, when we order it, it is in a place holder, similar to the Purchase Order you created, which does nothing for us retail shops becasue we do not send purchase orderes to our vendors.  Clothing for example... the vendors pricing changes weekly,  if not daily.  There is no way to send them a purchase order because we order through their website.  Anyways, give us a place holder or add a button above inventory received called Ordered stock.  When it arrives we click one button and it adds it to our inventory after we count.  Way too often I am back tracking the inventory received, because they are either out of stock, back ordered, so on and so forth.  Waste of time and double work to now adjust items.  Give us a placeholder, when it arrives and we count, we add it to the inventory.. one button.  The script should not be that hard since you can do it for a PO,

2nd....  Give retailers the option of having a centralized inventory so we can pull the inventory from one place.  There should be no reason why I have to create another location, when I do not have a second location, to be able to pull stock from the inventory.  Especially if we are a brick and Mortar store and our inventory is depleted from our store via our online store.  Same location, same stock, same location.   By giving us the option of centralizing our stock, it would be easier to pull a report.  Its all about time and inventory control.  No reason why we need to pay for another location when we do not have one.

rant over..  Come on, help us little  guys out.  Especially when our minimum wage is $15.00 an hour.  We can not afford,,, square, for retail, loyalty, marketing and then you want to tap us for another location when we do not have one.  Call it something else for us... but its not another location, but we need the work around to be able to organize the inventory.

[Bronze_Palms]

I am been really diligent about optimizing and delegating different parts of my business so nothing is super time consuming anymore. Scheduling takes a lot of my time (especially since I have to schedule twice - once on shifts and another on square appointments) with more staff members. Outside of that, creating content!

[Bronze_Palms]

Many many many of our administrative, payment, CRM, email, and social media have been automated completely which is so fun! The only tedious task left is scheduling because we have to schedule people twice with Square - once when you schedule the shift and second to open availability. I wish they were synced.