Feature Request: Square or Retail Inventory Counts Via Scanning Barcodes

[Riki]

[Note: The title of this thread and this post have been edited by a moderator.]

I need to preform an inventory count (or stock take) of our items currently in the store.

In other words, I need to go through the physical store, and scan all my products in to see what the actual inventory is and what the dependencies are between what square thinks we have in stock v. what is really there (due to shrinkage, or user error or whatever).

we have FAR too many variants to simply hand count each and manually alter stocks. Is there any way to preform this basic function with square, and if not, is there any recommended 3rd party software that could accomplish this task. I am a bit stumped to find that square retail's "robust" inventory system is not capable of such a basic thing.

[AOASpiritShop]

When I receive a shipment, I'd like to be able to scan a case of product and have it update the number of items. For instance I scan the case and the system recognizes it as 24 candy bars. Ideally I can enter a "receive inventory" mode and just scan all the boxes in the shipment and it adds them all.

Any ways to simplify this process? Thanks in advance.

[jjgard]

Not that I'm aware of, although that would be useful.

[Russell]

Hey there @AOASpiritShop and @jjgard - 

There is not currently a way to scan inventory in through the Point of Sale app. Having operated retail stores in the past and having used both methods, I agree this is very useful. 
 

I'll be sure to pass this feedback to our Product Team. 

[rdewey6]

i have a scanner to setup my inventory and for sales but is there a way to scan inventory back into inventory so i dont have to do it manually.

[EJ_]

Hey @rdewey6

I moved your post over to this existing thread. 

It's not available at this time, but our Product Team is aware of the requests. 

If anything changes with this, we'll chime back in and update everyone. 

[samanthor]

This comment was created by merging the thread "Scanner and Square for retail". 

I am switching to Square for retail, I want to be able to scan in inventory in the stock room. I ordered the Socket S700 bluetooth barcode scanner for that. Can I also install a USB scanner and plug into the Square hub for scanning purchases? I believe that you can only install square for retail on one device. If that is correct, would i have to pay another $60 to be able to do what I want in the stockroom?

[Chad]

Hello @samanthor! 

I went ahead and merged your thread, since a similar question has been asked before. Currently scanning in inventory is a feature request for Square Point of Sale and Square for Retail. 

[DungeonDodger]

Is there any update for using a scanner to update/receive inventory yet?  this has been "in the works" for years

[Joe]

Thanks for clarifying that for me, @Riki.

Thanks for your patience here. I checked in on this with our Retail Team to double check scanning abilities. While the option to scan in initial inventory into your system is available when adding items, the ability to count inventory via scanning through the Retail Point of Sale is not currently a feature that we offer. That being said, I can definitely see how this would be beneficial to making your business run more smoothly.

I'm passing this over to our Product Teams as a feature request. If this feature comes to fruition down the road, I will be sure to update everyone here on this thread.

Thanks for your patience! And thanks for the great suggestion.

[TGPH]

Hi all,

I run a grocery store with around 800-1000 skus.  Around 95% of my stock has a barcode.

I would like to do a stock count every week or two to ensure my stock levels are correct.

What is the best / most efficient way for me and my staff to count stock.

Do I use a Bluetooth barcode scanner and maybe square retail?

or is there a 3rd party app that syncs with square?

[tranguyen]

Hi @TGPH, thanks for your post! With the Square for Retail app on an iPad, you can add stock for existing items by scanning the barcode. All you need to do is:

1. From the basket view, tap Inventory > Add Stock.
2. Search or scan items to add stock > enter stock amounts. You can also scan the same item numerous times to add multiple stock items, or scan multiple items once and adjust their quantities afterwards.
3. Once all items have been received, tap Next > Confirm.

To add stock in bulk:

1. Make sure your barcode scanner is connected.
2. From the Navigation menu in Square for Retail, select the list icon > Add Stock > Receive Stock.
3. Scan all relevant barcodes that you’d like to add > click Next.
4. Review all item information and add vendor information and unit cost, if applicable > click Continue.
5. From the stock added confirmation, confirm the number of items added.

We do have a number of integrations to help sellers sync, manage and track inventory across online and in-store but these are geared towards maintaining online sync. You can see all the integrations here. 

[TGPH]

Hello!

What if I don’t want to ADD stock but set stock levels.. so some items might go down.

a stock count

[tranguyen]

Hi @TGPH, I had a look at this on my end but at the moment, there isn't a way to perform a stock recount with the barcode scanner. To manage and adjust the stock, you'd need to click into each item from the Retail app or from the Item Library and update the stock manually.

Alternatively, you can export your Item Library, update your inventory count and then import it to your library again. That way, you'll be able to update the stock counts in bulk. 

[TGPH]

I honestly cannot believe Square doesn't have the ability to do a stock count.

This cannot be right?  Surely?  It's the most basic of functions..

Can anyone at square recommend how stock counts could be made?  Is there a third party app?

RIKI did you figure out a method?

Currently looking at orcascan / shopventory.

[BeauCorset]

I agree. New to Square this year and I am gobsmacked that I'm going to have to take stock of my inventory with a paper & pencil like this is 1998.

For Square's development team (whom apparently have never worked in retail) here's a play-by-play of what we expect:

- I click to perform "physical inventory recount/adjustment" or whatever you want to call it

- With my scanner, I physically scan every single item in my store, with a few options: 

- 1st Option: After scanning an item, I may click to modify the quantity (useful when I have large quantities of an identicle item)

- 2nd Option: Somehow I may also add items that do not have a barcode

- 3rd Option: Ideally, if I ran out of time in my day, I could interrupt the process, save and come back to it at a later time

- When ALL of the scanning is done, I can print out a report comparing the old inventory numbers with the new physical count

- Finally, with one click, I can substitute the old numbers with the new (correct) ones.

This is the minimum. Tell me it already exists and this entire thread was just a misunderstanding.

[AdamB]

In case you haven't seen it yet, this feature is now available! See our announcement of inventory counts with Square for Retail for more information.