Entering an item that has not been entered into Square

[Gourmet1]

Once in a while an item is brought up to my Square register that was not initially entered when I switched over to Square. Therefore I have had to create items that have the same labels as my categories, except without a set price or sku, but the correct tax code.

For example, a customer will bring up an old bakeware item that mistakenly had not been entered into square. Instead of having the customer wait while I enter the item, I hit the item button on the register that says "Bakeware", then enter the price. "Bakeware" is also the category name. The problem is that that this does not give an accurate report when I have ten items that have the same names as my categories, just so I have the accurate tax applied. My reports are off. There has to be an easier way. Any ideas would be appreciated. 

[Candlestore]

@Gourmet1 ;

I have a few ideas for you depends how your setup.

1) I have two Square stands within 10 ft of each other for 2 checkouts.  If I ring up an item that is not in my system, I scan it with the Stand I am not using to enter it after the customer leaves. Problem  with this is if they have multiple items you do not have in inventory. 

2) Take a Picture of the Barcode or Item to get it after the customer leaves and enter it in Square.   My Scanners can scan off of a cell phone image so that works for us too when both registers are being used.

3) Write down a shorthand of what the item is quick so you can go get it off the shelf and enter it later or have an employee go grab one off the shelf to place in a box to enter after close or when your not busy.

4) Instead of using Bakeware and entering the price, use Misc. or something non descript for the item so you do not confuse your Category with the Item.  We have a lot of items that we may only have 1 or 2 of and never entered them in Square and just have a price tag on them and use that for Price as Marked items.

5) Depending how busy you are, you can type the item in as you talk with the customer, my partner does that.  She informs them of our products or other items that would compliment the item or items they are purchasing.  

I wish Square would have an OOPS screen meaning:

You scan an item it is NOT in Square yet and you can save it to enter later.  Only problem is if a person comes up to the counter with say 6 similar items that you missed, you would have to locate each item on you OOPS list to make sure the barcodes match the item later.

[PartyManiaMD]

The way I usually handle Oops items that are super old inventory is to use a MISC item Button, if you tap it and then go to the bottom you can add notes. I'll scan the UPC code and put a short description of the item so that I can find it later.

I took over a store that's 11 years old and cleaned house on the inventory to get rid of a LOT of old SKU's and every now and then stuff is still popping up. Eventually it won't be an issue as hopefully it will all be sold down in the next year or two.

It's kind of amusing that some of the stuff we have pre-dates e-commerce so the items literally do not exist online even though they were mass produced at one point.

[Candlestore]

@PartyManiaMD ;

I just tried your suggestion, but on my Square Stand in the Notes section I am not able to scan a barcode into the notes.  My scanner beeps, and there is no text that gets entered.  I am wondering if this was a feature that Square has disabled or removed from an Update at some point.  I actually Liked your idea since I could see the Barcode and do a copy paste at a later point in time.  I can type in the name and other data but just can not use the scanner to save the Barcode. 

Thanks for the idea too. 

[Gourmet1]

Thank you both. This helps greatly!!