[CA] Square Reporting Q&A: Get answers and influence product decisions!

[Ani_]

Happy New Year, Seller Community! ✨

Effective and reliable reporting is crucial for the smooth operation of any business, and we recognize that there is always room for improvement with the reporting tools offered by Square.

Participate in the upcoming Square Reporting Q&A to let the team know what's going well and what can be improved — because who better to provide insight on how to improve these tools than the sellers who use them on a daily basis? 😉

This event is an opportunity to speak directly with @annakepler on the Square Reporting team, and contribute to how developments are prioritized throughout 2023.

On Wednesday, January 25, 2023, she and her team will be here to address any questions you may have, and make sure your experiences are documented with their plans for the year ahead.

Not sure what to ask? Here are some example questions: 

• What is the best way to keep an eye on sales trends for my items?
• If I could do "_________" with reporting in the online Square Dashboard, that would save me so much time.
• How can I manage sales reports across multiple business locations?

Click 'Reply' below to ask your question ahead of time, and we’ll answer every question on Wednesday, January 25, 2023. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

[Artist-BP]

I am an artist. It seems that to add individual original items to the inventory, you are forced to create a square website, in my understanding and last attempt at doing that. I don't want a square website. I already have a website with e-commerce and it processes payments through square. Is there a way to do payments through my website using the square contactless card reader at a market so that my online inventory is kept up-to-date? 

[Lizandra311]

i just read on an email that it is a new feature ...

maybe they will let us test that if we ask politely. when I clicked a link it said only for new users...boooo

Inventory tracking when we do business both IRL and online is tricky - I'm also looking for solutions - hadn't thought of invnetory as a "reporting issue' but YES it is - so I hope they can address your quesion on WEDS. thx for asking! 

here is my website that is connected to STRIPE for ecommerce - 1) www.sdvforest.com  I want to use a second site 2) www.lizandravidal.com that connects to SQUARE and tracks inventory from my reader transactions too....

I use SquareSpace on 1) and Weebly as my 2nd website builder on 2)...both were point and click built and easy peasy....now to get the commerce straightened out for tracking and taxes

[annakepler]

Hi @Artist-BP ! sorry to hear you are running into issues. 
It is absolutely possible today to add items to inventory without having a Square website. If you take payments using Square card reader, it should be connected to POS app and sync your inventory properly. 

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "to do payments through my website using the square contactless card reader"? DO you mean taking payment through your own website and in-person using a card reader, but having the ability for it to sync with your inventory in Square reporting?

[Bigguynico]

If you use the website,  might as well swap to there platform and have control in 1 place.    Have you looked into invoicing

[Artist-BP]

I'd rather use my existing website. 

[Lizzard420]

I would love to be able to have more photos with objects/items were trying to sell so we can give our customers more of an idea of what the item looks like from different angles 

[annakepler]

Thank you for your question @Lizzard420 !
This is a little out of my expertise. Maybe this article can help https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6894-product-images-on-square-online-store

[jstrangebird]

Hi thanks for taking the time to take this feedback.

Our business week runs Monday - Sunday. I think this is fairly typical for many restaurants. The "sales trends" reporting feature is not useful for us because it only reports Sun - Sat. 

We can still manually adjust any report in Square except for sales trends. It would be great if sales trends matched our business work week so we can compare shift schedules, labor costs, COGS, etc.

I would love a report to see items that have been invoiced and allocated but not paid yet. We're a small brewery and want to track sales and volume allocated in real time. Currently, my understanding is that items are only depleted from inventory once the invoice is marked paid in our system. That is also when we see the sales numbers. We invoice net 30 so it's challenging to not be able to see that data until the following month. We have to manually track this data in excel and are considering moving away from square for this all together.

In short we would like to see

• Weekly sales reports that default to our business work week
• Invoice reporting that shows allocated but not paid items and sales amounts

Thank you!

[annakepler]

Really appreciate the feedback @jstrangebird !
You are not the first to bring up custom business week. We are working to introduce customization options that help you set a custom business week, fiscal year in addition to current reporting hours. 
I will also take your request on invoice reporting back to the team.

[jstrangebird]

Thanks so much!

[TamTiny]

What is the benefit of moving to a larger model, I currently use the tap pad? Are there packages available to reduce the cost for use? 

[LukeNieuw]

Would be very cool to have a Customer Lifetime Value report (CLV). We already have all the data (Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value). This helps nail down what I'm willing to spend on ads, perks etc in order to gain similar customers. 

[DrSpaceman]

Seconded - and a value for a specific time period by customer. My other CRM has this and it's extremely valuable to be able to see spend for a year, five years, a month, etc. 

[annakepler]

Hey @LukeNieuw , this is a great idea! Any more details on how you’d leverage this data for customer acquisition or retention?

[LukeNieuw]

It would definitely help me plan out ad campaigns that attract higher value customers and spend less time on ads that bring in lower value customers. 

I use Square Loyalty for retention but this would also help me understand where I could be giving more back to specific segments of High CLV customers. 

[Flowermart]

I would like a way to see all no tax sales listed on the report. 

[annakepler]

Thank you for your feedback @Flowermart !
I will take it back to the team. Can I ask how this type of report would be helpful? Any workaround you use today to get this information? 

[DJHawkin]

I want to know how I can customize the reports for my business. Thank you

[annakepler]

Hi @DJHawkin ! We definitely understand how valuable customizations are. Can you share any specific examples of what type of customization will be helpful for your business?

[AlisonS]

As we sell our products in BC, Canada, we collect and report on GST 5% and PST 7% and it's set up like that.  It would save so much time if the reports could split the two taxes, as shown on the receipt.

[annakepler]

Thank you for the insight @AlisonS !
Can I ask what specific reports you want this information surfaced? It can help us prioritize the work.