Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

[Tom]

Calling all sellers — especially those signed up with Square for Retail and Square for Restaurants. Our product team wants to hear your inventory questions and feedback!

On Wednesday, May 11th, we were grateful to have Mukta Dhanuka (@Inventory) and her team in our forums to address questions and feedback about Square Inventory. See the thread below for answers to your questions and keep watch for a summary of the top themes discussed.

To learn more about Square Inventory and its features, take a look at our Support Center: Basic Inventory Management. 

A few example questions:

• What are the best practices that will ensure I'm getting the most out of Square Inventory?
• What are the latest feature improvements with Square Inventory?
• If Square Inventory could take care of "_______," it would save me so much time and help me run my business more efficiently.
• I can’t seem to figure out “______” or I need help with “_________”.
• An inventory issue that keeps me up at night is “____________”.
• I wish Square for Restaurants or Square for Retail would support “________”.

Note: We can't share specific details on our product roadmaps, though this information will be helpful as we continue to make improvements.

[RiJu]

I would love to be able to take our brick-and-mortar store online through Square but for some reason, inventory is always off. We enter in all new items that arrive and a few days later the inventory is incorrect. A bit frustrating and we have been using square for 8 years now. We love the system but need better and more correct inventory tracking. 

[Inventory]

@RiJu - Can you please describe the issue in detail? Sharing screenshots will be very helpful.

I would love to invite you for a follow up call to develop a better understanding of your use-case. Please share a couple of time slots that may work best for you in the next two weeks.

[RiJu]

Lately, when we receive inventory we have to save after each entry otherwise if we enter multiple items and then save an error pops up and all entries disappear. It is very time-consuming and frustrating.

[Inventory]

@RiJu - Can you please describe the issue in detail? Sharing screenshots will be very helpful.

[RiJu]

I tried to upload a screenshot last week, but could not figure it out once I clicked on the camera in this box how to upload.

[Inventory]

@RiJu - Please share your availability for the next two weeks, will set up an interview to capture your feedback. Thanks!

[CVABG]

Hi @Tom & @Inventory,

A few things
1) When I create a new item in our inventory and try to take a photo for the item tile with my phone, it always turns the photo sideways, even if I take the photo in portrait mode.
2) Is there a way to make subcategories or collections to help consolidate items, especially on the check out screen? We have a large gift shop that I try to break down into subcategories to help cashiers find items easily. As of now, I've had to make the "subcategory" the name of the item and the specific item that goes in that category a variation. So, in our inventory reports it looks like "Category: Gift Shop, Item: Stuffed Animal, Variation: Stuffed Cat, Stuffed Bird, etc." instead of "Category(or Collection): Gift Shop, Sub Category: Stuffed Animals, Item: Stuffed Cat, Stuffed Bird, etc.

3) Is there a way to keep count on an item without having it inventoried or creating a sales report every time you want to see how many you've sold?

[CVABG]

#2 is more of an issue with T-Shirts that have the same design but different colors/sizes

[CVABG]

Update regarding the subcategories, Variations do not come up in search so I've had to go in and redo our entire inventory so that it is searchable which defeated the purpose of creating the subcategories the way we did in the first place.

[Inventory]

@CVABG - Thank you for reaching out. I would love to invite you for a follow up call to develop a better understanding of your use-case. Please share a couple of time slots that may work best for you in the next two weeks.

[gerichap54]

Many of us using Square for Retail need to be able to bundle inventory items and sell as a bundle- so that the inventory count of all the items in the bundle is changed accordingly when the bundle is sold.  

Can you tell us if this request has been heard and if there are any plans to implement this feature?

[Inventory]

Hello @gerichap54 - Our team is actively working on incrementally adding item bundle inventory functionality. We will follow up with you to better understand your use-case as we build this.

[gerichap54]

Offer a way to add in the shipping or freight cost of a purchase order as a % instead of a flat cost per item.  For example I may have 5 items in an order and 4 are small cost items - let's say - $5.00 and the fifth item is expensive - let's say $100.  Total order cost is $120 If I receive the order and there is a $12 shipping charge -I want to be able to  add a 10% (12 (shipping)/120 (item total)) to each item.  Right now my only option is to add $12- shipping/5-items or $2.40 to each item.  

A third additional useful option would be allow us to distribute the shipping cost manually - for each item.  This would be useful when we have bulky heavy items that being shipped with small lightweight items.  For example we may order an violin case and have strings shipped inside the case.  The case drives almost all of the shipping cost on the invoice so we my choose to have it bear most of the shipping cost.

Right now we have to figure the shipping percent and then go in and manually change to cost of each item on the purchase order when we receive it.

Thanks!

[Inventory]

Hello @gerichap54 - Thank you for your feedback. Currently, you can add cost for all inventory received using Square for Retail Plus. You can add cost when receiving inventory, resolve missing costs, and when you're using the Purchase Orders feature you can add freight charges. After creating a purchase order, when you're receiving it, click 'Add Fee' button underneath 'Subtotal' where you'll be able to label the charge 'Freight' and add the amount. The amount of the charge will be evenly distributed amongst received items. This will keep your inventory reports and costs accurate, also available in Square for Retail Plus.

[gerichap54]

Thanks for the message but it does not sound like you read my request fully. I am well aware that we can add freight. The issue is that it distributes it EVENLY among the number of items with no regard for item cost. It would make much more sense to distribute it relative to item cost! as a percentage not a single flat fee.

[Inventory]

Hello @gerichap54 - I apologize I misunderstood the original question. This is a very useful feedback. Proportional freight fee allocation is currently not planned. I will add this to our backlog. We are continuously evolving inventory backlog based on seller feedback. 

[homeprogreen]

This one has bugged me since Square Inventory began and it just doesn’t make sense to me. When creating an item in Square for Retail to add to inventory you first create the basic item, add vendor ,add unit cost, then selling price. Then you hit the create variation button to create a variation within that same item and you once again have to enter vendor, unit price, and retail price. That information should carry over from the basic item that you created but it doesn’t. Not bad for an item with just a few variations but I have items with a couple of hundred variations. Is there a way that I am missing to get that basic information to carry over to each variation?

[TCSlaguna]

I second this when it comes to copying over the vendor info. I think there are complications when it comes to copying cost and price, because it will not always be the same. 

For example: A shirt that comes in different colors will most likely have the same cost and price. However, different tumbled stones will have different costs, and therefore different prices. 

But the option to carry over would be great, and people can always change the cost and price if needed once it is copied over. 

[Inventory]

@homeprogreen @TCSlaguna Thank you for sharing your feedback. This feature is currently not planned. Meanwhile, you may be able to do this relatively quickly in an excel and import that excel in the system. In the coming days, our team will evaluate all product requests shared during AMA for backlog refinement.

[JUYBoutique20]

I would love for there to be a field to add shipping cost separately.  Also, it would be very convenient to have a total amount of products on hand at the bottom of the screen.   

[Inventory]

Hello @JUYBoutique20  - Thank you for your feedback. Could you please share a detailed description of your use case?