How do I "86" an item from the menu?

[alldaymia]

For a restaurant/cafe, when the kitchen/bar is temporarily out of or unable to make an item, typically front of house is told the item is "86'ed", meaning no longer able to be served. Is there a way to mark the item as unavailable on the POS without having to delete it, which is clearly impracticle?

[AStarDanced]

I asked about this feature more than two years ago-- has there been ANY development on this issue?  Using Inventory/stock tracking is valuable-- but it's hugely limiting for point-of-sale when items with zero quantity/stock can still be sold.  (On the web store, they're "not available," but at point-of-sale, stock can still go into negative numbers.)  When is this going to be addressed?

[nika]

I'm sorry this has been something you've been waiting on. I went to check for an update and regrettably I don't have one to share. Valentina's answer above is currently the best way to go about making your items unavailable.

We'll absolutely keep the Community posted if this changes along the way.

[barthur]

Is this still not an option?  Is there still not a way to get alerts for low stock on the point of sale app or to prevent out of stock items from being sold?

[NOLAPearl1]

A couple of months ago we started seeing "sold out" in red letters underneath an item on our Square register when we tried to sell it when the inventory was at 0. I thought "Yay!!! They finally fixed the issue!!" Then, the next day, it was gone! What happened?! I've been hoping ever since that it would reappear again but nothing. Is this truly a thing now or was it only a fluke or a test from your tech? Is this going to happen again? Do I need to do something to make it happen? Even a "low stock" alert would be helpful. We constantly oversell items at the POS. We manually keep a tally check list but we get busy and human error is always a factor. It seems ridiculous that we need to keep a physical tally of inventory in order to try not to over sell. BTW, our online sales are perfect. No one can purchase an item online when the stock hits 0, just wish the same could happen for our POS.

[Valentina]

Oh no, @NOLAPearl1! 💫
 

Firstly, welcome to the Seller Community + sorry to hear that you're here because you've run into trouble. 
 

If you haven't already, your best bet is to get in touch with us directly, so that a member of our team can dig in with you. If you saw a feature appear, but then stop appearing, we'll need to take a closer look at your account than we're able to via the Community in order to pinpoint what you may have seen and why you are no longer seeing it.

When you have a moment, please reach out directly by logging into your Square account and heading here.

[AStarDanced]

Valentina, is this an auto-reply or a script answer?

Square sellers have been having this problems-- please read through the entire thread-- for a long time.  Square's software, at point of sale (because it seems to work online?!) must stop allowing inventory-identified items to continue to be sold after inventory reaches zero.

I do not understand why Square didn't do this in the first place, and why it still hasn't been fixed now, years later.  To allow items to continue to be rung-up and sold (leading to tallying up negative inventory numbers-- WHY??) after inventory reaches zero completely defeats the purpose of keeping inventory numbers tied to point-of-sale AT ALL.

PLEASE-- for those of us who have TRIED to reach out to Square to solve this longstanding and ongoing problem-- take this thread to your team members who can FIX THIS.  This problem is NOT unique to NOLAPearl1!

[AStarDanced]

I've sent an inquiry via the link you cited above.  I initially came to the Seller Community, here, after receiving no help/answers/support from Square directly.  PLEASE fix this, Square!

[Heaven1]

Very hard for a restaurant to set a stock qty of the food they make on the spot. There should be an option of just "available" or "not available" for stock tracking of foods. Sure, keep track of how many units are sold, but having a qty stock tracking sometimes just doesn't work. 
We just yell at the kitchen and ask "Hey, are there any fries left?". The answer will be Yes or No. We don't need any more detail than that for most restaurant items.

[AStarDanced]

Right-- this issue doesn't affect people (in any industry) who aren't using inventory tracking.  If you don't need inventory tracking, don't use it.  For the rest of us who have been asking Square for this crucial feature for multiple years now, please don't say it's not needed!

[Valentina]

Hi there @AStarDanced - we made this a Best Answer so that the folks looking for an update like this will be notified and can read about it, but if we have other updates to share that are relevant in the future, we'll always come back to post again ✨

It sounds like rather than an 86 feature - typically found in Food & Beverage industries - you're more broadly looking for a feature that would essentially mark a Sold Out item Sold Out everywhere you sell your items. Does that sound pretty accurate?

[AStarDanced]

Yes-- anyone who uses inventory tracking, anywhere in retail, generally ALSO needs to know at point of sale when an item is GONE before trying to fill an order-- much less AFTER an order has been made/sold, and then can't be fulfilled.

I genuinely don't understand why this hasn't been part of Square's functionality since the very beginning.  If I have ten items, use inventory tracking (to track multiple locations, where that item may exist in multiple places in different numbers), it is CRUCIAL to know at point of sale when they're GONE.

An 86 feature is functionally the same thing, within that industry, but it's not like it's something "new" in retail.  If inventory is zero and online ordering shows the item as "SOLD OUT," why is it NOT also shown as "SOLD OUT" at Point of Sale?

[AStarDanced]

Yes.  Exactly this.  The food/beverage/restaurant industry (English-speaking/USA, at least) has called this "86ing" an item for nearly 100 years (or more).  The concept is the same across industries.

[Valentina · Accepted solution]

Hi all! Dropping in with a quick update ✨

We launched an Item availability feature for anyone using the free tier of Square for Restaurants, which will sync in-store and Online availability. This is available for Square for Restaurants users on both iPad and Register. Learn more here!

[AStarDanced]

HEY HEY HEY, this item is NOT SOLVED.

This functionality is needed by EVERY Square seller who tracks inventory, not just restaurants!  Come on, guys!  This is an inventory-based need, not an industry-only need!

[Bergs]

Hello Valentina,

I have the free tier of the restarunt app and do not see the item availability option on my POS? Is there something I need to do to install it? I have the most updated version. 

[sayra]

Hey, @Bergs. If you are signed up to use Square for Restaurants and none of the steps here have helped you find this feature, please contact our Customer Success via phone to help you troubleshoot your account further. 

Thank you. 

[espresslyapps]

Great to see this 86 feature. Thanks Square.

[Allstars1989]

Is this only for restaurants???? We also desperately need this function! We held a school event last night and now have to go back and contact parents who ordered online because the POS let us go into the negative!! Why spend the time to track inventory if your platform will not allow us to sync online AND POS ordering to it? 

This is a critical need for our business. 

[AStarDanced]

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️

THIS! My businesses rely on tracked inventory.  People can't order an item online when inventory is 0/Zero, which is GOOD.  It shows as "sold out."

HOWEVER: People can ring up POS sales of Zero/0-Inventory items, causing incredible headaches for workers, frustration for management/owners, and negative responses/feedback from customers!

This is NOT just a Restaurant issue-- the same concept applies ACROSS sellers who use Inventory Tracking.

This is NOT a request for an "added feature."

This IS a request to FIX a bug/gap/oversight in Square's setup/programming.

PLEASE, Square, FIX THIS-- we've been asking for this for LITERAL years.  One of my fellow sellers has dropped Square completely as their sole-service provider because of this issue-- and I'm sure he's not the only one.

[AStarDanced]

PLEASE make this function available ACROSS SELLER TYPES.  Restaurants are NOT the only industry to need this feature!  EVERY seller using Tracked Inventory needs this function available to them.

[deslock1]

I saw a video on that. It would be nice if it actually worked.