Customizable Item Options?

[NorthShoreArts]

We are a nonprofit art gallery that primarily sells artwork. As such, we need to notate specific information regarding each painting that sells. The Artist's name, the Buyer's name, Painting title, etc. Currently, we enter all of this information into the "Notes" text box when making a sale through our POS System. This method gets messy fast, as different paintings and buyers might require different information to be put in, different employees might type that information in a different order, and it is difficult to organize on both receipts and our spreadsheets.

We have been looking through the various customizations Square allows for in their item menu, specifically Options and Modifiers. These allowed us to make options with preset values, like "Small and Medium" for a category called "Shirt Sizes", etc. But that isn't what we are looking for.

We are looking for a way to have Options pop up for making a sale, but instead of toggling or choosing from a list, We need an Option with an empty text box. An option for each of our requirements, one for Artist Name, one for Buyer Name, etc. So that our employees can just enter that information into each of the appropriate options when making a sale, rather than cramming it all into the "Notes" section. Something they can click on and type into, that will appear on the receipt and spreadsheets, just like how options currently function in Square.

After some searching, and calling Square Support, we realized there is currently no way to this. It seems like such a simple thing; to have an option you can enter a custom value into at checkout. Does any member of the Seller Community know of a method to accomplish this? Perhaps something to do with Third Party Software? We are scratching our heads here trying to accomplish this, it feels like something simple we may have just missed. 

[JK_Fiber_Art · Accepted solution]

Seems everyone has different requirements and understandably so however, Square is not a one size fits all.  From experience, Square is basically designed to get a business up and running quickly - no requirement for custom programming or knowledge of HTML, etc.  You may want to visit the Developer Forum as the people there are always working new ideas - maybe you can get some ideas there.  If it turns out you need a custom POS system - it's expensive - I've seen base rates start at $40,000 - that's probably not somewhere you really don't want to go.   Thinking outside the box - you could get creative with an app like Jotform whereas you can create any type of custom form you need and use Square to process the transaction.  Even that would most likely be a challenge as you would be using a desktop or laptop or tablet to complete the form which then can be processed by Square.  Anyway, just something to explore.  Last thought, check out Square's Marketplace - there you will find 3rd party solutions that use Square to process the transaction.  There is a section on POS Apps - also a place worth looking into.  Maybe some of the other volunteer Community Members have some thoughts as many here have a lot of hands on experience using Square's Hardware and Apps.