Square Inventory & Item Management: Ask our Product Manager Anything!

[Helen]

Hello!

On Thursday, September 9th @elaine_p from our Inventory team joined us in the Seller Community for another Q&A all about Inventory and Item Management.

This event has now ended - thank you for everyone who asked a question!

We've released a lot of features over the last year, and we asked you to share what's working well and where are the areas where we can improve. We can't share out specific details on our roadmap, though we make sure any feature requests that came through during the event are considered for further versions of our products. Read through the replies below to learn more! 

[LeahfromProduct]

@woudstrameats You are able to use label printing scales that support UPC-A and EAN-13 bar codes, such as the CAS CL 5500L or the Mettler Toledo bPro Terminal with Square Point of Sale. Once you have your items labeled with bar codes using a compatible printer scale, you’ll need to go into the Square system to ensure that all of the items are setup with per unit pricing for example “Per lbs” or “Per oz” pricing instead of “Per item”. Once you do that, when you scan the price embedded barcode using Square Point of Sale. Once scanned the price that was associated with that item when it was originally weighed and labeled will be entered into the cart automatically. You can read more about price embedded barcodes here. Note: this feature is not currently available in the Square for Retail app, but we’re hoping to support it soon. It is available if you use the Square Point of Sale app.

[woudstrameats]

Leah,

Thank you for your help. I actually already have all of that set up. What I need to track is what I have in current inventory using the price embedded barcodes. Because otherwise I have to add all the pounds together in order to figure out what is in stock before I use the barcode to sell the item.

[dotspantry]

i way to track inventory at multiple locations that come from the same stock

[elaine_p]

Hi @dotspantry - would you be able to provide an example? Is this the idea that I have stock in a location, we’ll call it Warehouse. Locations 1, 2, and 3, all sell stock from Warehouse?

[dotspantry]

Yes I got a warehouse that I the distribute to farmers markets I sell at and at some stores I stock at.  Would be nice to have one inventory for it all and not separate inventories

[elaine_p]

Makes sense, thank you!

[Mrs_Sai]

I am selling greeting cards. I would like to showcase each set because they are hand painted. Do I need to create a separate item for each set just so I can showcase the picture? I want to sell them all but I would like them to fall into the same item. 

[wiggins]

Hi there @Mrs_Sai! If you’re looking to showcase your cards through a Square Online store, you can create a single item with multiple variations in Square. In the Square Online item editor, you can add an image for each variation you’re offering. Here’s a quick refresher on creating items online.

[JenTom1709]

My husband and I run a RC car hobby shop - only us, no employees.    I wish there were a way to alter my purchase order so that the actual ITEM somehow shows it has been ordered and is pending delivery from one vendor so I can avoid ordering duplicates from another vendor.   I order certain items from 2 or 3 different vendors as some vendors only have specific brand items and some brands I can get from quite a few vendors.  We have over 10,000 individual items and only need to order one or two of that specific item number at a time but that particular part may be restocked either as this part # in this brand, or this part # in this brand etc.  so i have set up an A, B C type system so it flags if out of stock and shows B rating  then I know to check if in stock in another brand etc.  but that doesn't stop me from duplicate ordering as item still shows up out of stock even though ordered and pending delivery.   

[elaine_p]

Thank you for sharing @JenTom1709  that makes sense! This is not a full solution, but until we have a status to reflect that something is ordered, the PO Draft may be helpful. Prior to putting in the order, you can save a PO as a Draft and see the draft status in your PO status column. When you’re ready to send the order to the vendor, then you hit create and it will show with a status of pending. That would help you quickly sort to what is on order by sorting for the pending + partially received status.

[alynn]

We are new to square, and haven't found the easiest way to count inventory. We have a lot of inventory, and at the moment, do not have a handheld scanner. Is there a way to complete an inventory count in an excel spreadsheet and upload it? That is how we uploaded our items and prices to begin with.

[elaine_p]

Welcome @alynn! There is a way to complete an inventory count in excel and upload it. In your Square Dashboard > click on Items. In the upper right, there is a button labeled Actions. Click on it and Export Library. In that file, you will see a column labeled Current Quantity {location name} and New Quantity {location name}. By adjusting the stock values in the New Quantity column, you can update your inventory. 

Save the file, and go back to the Actions menu to import the changes by choosing to modify the library and follow the prompts.  

With Square for Retail Plus, you can easily perform cycle counts from your iPad or iPhone manually or using a compatible bar code scanner or the built-in camera on your iPhone or iPad. Here’s an article about Inventory Counting with Square for Retail that has more details!

[Windswept-garde]

items held on tickets need to be taken out of stock once the ticket is created.  If the ticket is paid they stay out of stock.  If the ticket is canceled then the items go back into inventory.

[elaine_p]

That makes sense @Windswept-garde, like a reservation. Do you have lots of customers that hold things on tickets?

[Windswept-garde]

yes we do have alot of wholesale customers that put stuff on hold 

[Thevioletfox]

As a bookstore, the ability to scan an ISBN barcode and add the book details (title, author, description, image, ETC.) would be a HUGE GAME CHANGER.  Right now, we manually enter every single book that walks in the door - thousands of them. 

[WaldensMusic]

When you use the free retail app (instead of the regular POS) this option exists. 

when you go to add inventory- there is a feature that allows you to scan the barcode and automatically add the stock photo of the item. 

I sk this with sheet music all the time. Sometimes the regular UPC doesn’t give the photo, but the ISBN barcode will. 

[elaine_p]

Hi @Thevioletfox ISBNs are supported by the GTIN field if you’re using Square for Retail (this attribute will also appear if you’re a Retail Free or Retail Plus user in Square Online). We don’t support book specific attributes (author, title) however, you can always add them to the item name. We aren’t able to automatically populate information in Square based on an ISBN lookup today, but our team who built “Create an Item Using a GTIN” is aware of this request.

One thing that may help would be a bulk import via spreadsheet if you aren’t already using that. (assuming title, author, description is in a place where you can copy and paste). To create a new line item in the import file, you can add the details you want to add to the spreadsheet and you don’t need to worry about adding a token. I would follow the instructions to export in the answer above to alynn to see examples and then import new items by choosing modify and following the prompts.

[lordly]

Is there a way to create a grid of common items, kind of like apps are displayed on your phone? 

Also can we have reusable, saved tickets for customers who come in and have the same thing every time? As of now if you use a ticket and charge for it, it disappears and you have to create it all over again. That's ideal for most situations, but I'd love to be able to just punch a button and ring someone up for her same order every couple days.

[elaine_p]

Yes! In the Square Point of Sale, tap the tab with a number on it. Tap and hold an empty square, then tap any plus icon on the grid. You can add an item, category, or even a discount to the grid. If you are using Terminal, I could not find a way to set up a grid.

[sotexbbqco]

Are there plans to link items to ingredients, particularly for online order management?

FOR ONLINE ORDERING:

As a restaurant owner one of the biggest hassles I run into on a weekly basis is managing INGREDIENTS that are tracked across multiple menu ITEMS, MODIFIERS, VARIATIONS.  There should be a way to tag an ITEM, MODIFIER, OR VARIATION (Maybe others)as contains "X" INGREDIENT.  If we run out of X ingredient, there is a menu that allows you to manage at an ingredient level.  If X ingredient sells out all dependents can be quickly disabled with a check box and hidden, or mark as sold out on the online store.  

For example, I have a barbecue restaurant and we tend to run out of pork belly towards the end of the day.  When this happens I have to  go through every ITEM (no problem for single items with no variations), MODIFIER, VARIATION that contains pork belly and manage it by either selling it out , or hiding/removing, only to undo the changes the next day.  Instead I usually just turn off online ordering.   The implementation would need to be refined, but that's the basic idea.

Are there any plans for a feature like this in the future?