How to track raw material in inventory?

[tvo22]

Hi guys,

Let's say we have latte a a product. it has sugar, milk... How can we track the ingredient, and reduce the raw material inventory when a latte is sold? Can we specify how much sugar, milk.. is used in a latte? Is there a solution that does it? Thank you! 

[HC_Charlie · Accepted solution]

Hello @tvo22 thanks for your post. I do not think Square can track raw materials like this. You would have to first input the item into inventory, but at the same time, your raw materials are really "sold" in the same way you'd create a new item called for example "Latte" that costs $3.50. When you sell a Latte you add that item to the sale and charge that amount, but there isn't anything in the back-end that knows that Latte is created by certain parts coffee and milk, etc. You'd have to get really microscopic in your inventory; for example divide your gallon of milk into specific ounces or parts of milk. Same with a shot of espresso. Then when you'd ring up a sale for a Latte, you'd be adding a few shots or parts of milk to your order instead of just simply saying "Latte". Not the most user-friendly approach but this could work. But it also could create confusion on your customers order if they look and see inventory parts listed rather than simply saying "Latte".

There could be something to track this in Square for Retail under the COGS (cost of goods sold) but I am not aware of anything that could do this at this time. Perhaps someone more involved in restaurant operations could offer some better advice. I'm going to tag @pessosices who runs an ice cream business; he may have a separate solution to track raw materials. I know he's using up a bunch of milk/cream etc. to make some great flavors for the upcoming season 😀 🍦

[pessosices]

Thanks @HC_Charlie 

Hmm, yea, unfortunately I do not think this is possible to do automatically just using Square at this time, @tvo22 .

There might be a way to do with third party integrations like Shopventory or something, but I'm not sure.

You can track your use of ingredients and things manually, which we do with a Second Location that we named "X-Inventory" -- so when we open a tub of a flavor we "sell" a tub of it, and when we make/get more, we add them to inventory. But it might be overkill for what you're doing.

Hopefully this becomes a feature at some point!

[tvo22]

Thank you for your response!

[EvanUnderwood]

How do I track inventory for cups, lids, straws used for our coffee sold? Is there a way to attach the inventory we have on hand to be tracked in square so I know what is being used?

[Candlestore]

@EvanUnderwood ;

As of right now there is no way to do this in Square.  That is more for you accounting software.  

If you use modifiers, do not subtract from inventory.  

Now if you want to have a cup of Coffee set to a code of your Lids or straws or cups, you can do that but once you sell a Ice coffee in a cup, with a lid and straw, your done.  You could only track one of those items in Square.   

Like in QuickBooks I have build assemblies which lets me use 3lbs of wax, x amount of oz of scent, 1 jar, 2 wicks etc to make 1 of my scented candles.  So in QuickBooks I have to say build X scent in this size jar for this quantity.  QuickBooks then takes those items out of stock and says I have 40- 28oz Apple Pie candles in stock now.

[_Violet]

Hi @EvanUnderwood  - I see this is your first post in the Seller Community so I'd like to officially welcome you! 🎉👏

I went ahead and merged your post to an existing thread where other Square Sellers have discussed this topic as well. We merge duplicate conversations together to keep like comments in one place, and to make it easier for others to find the thread in the future. 

Please see the reply from one of our Super Sellers, @HC_Charlie which has been marked as the Best Answer to this question for additional details on this feature request ✅ Thank you for helping out here as well, @Candlestore!

[SMArcher]

It would seem that if the Square for Retail has a way to track COGS, then it would be great and possible to add that to Square for Restaurants.  That would be very helpful to small businesses helping them to be able to perform all tasks within one dashboard...Square for Restaurants, "What say you?"

[MayaP]

Thank you for reaching out with this feedback @SMArcher ! 

You can certainly submit a feature request for this on our Ideate Board. Please keep in mind a submission to Ideate does not guarantee this feature will be implemented, but our team will track the request and provide updates on there as more information becomes available. 

I hope that helps, please let me know if you have any other questions.