Hi! Is there a way to archive old categories so POS errors are minimized?

[Clay-Collective]

We are a small community art center and use Square for our POS at our holiday sales.  We have set up each sale as a Category and all our vendors as Items within that category. 

We are finding sales transactions in our event that were made against old categories - this happens when someone leaves the current category and is in the Library instead.  Is there any way for us to archive old categories so we can avoid selling from incorrect ones? 

Also, has Square added a way to archive items? There was talk of it in 2020....any updates on that?

Thank you! 

[crystalimages]

Unfortunately, there isn't currently a way to "archive" an item, per se. However, if you delete an item or category that is no longer used, your records will retain old sales, but it will no longer be an option to sell the item again. 

I suppose we should confirm this, I tried looking in the support center but didn't find it right away:

deleting a category should not delete the items associated with it. Let's definitely confirm this if you want to consider this option.

Do the items repeat, but the category is different each year? If this is the case, you would just reassign the items to the new category. Deleting the old category or items no longer available is probably your best option.

Do the vendors enter their own items or give a list to an admin who enters it. It sounds like someone is just assigning an old year category to new items. If you delete old categories, it won't be an option for them to enter the wrong one.

If the items are the same every year, you might consider adding a modifier for the year instead of assigning a new category each year. I can only image that you probably have some repeat items, some new, and some discontinued. I guess it all depends on how you do reports and how you assign items. 

I'm curious, do you sell items from previous years under those categories after that season has ended?

I'm just wondering why you use the categories to separate years. Couldn't you just run reports for the dates of sales?

Especially if the items repeat. This could free up categories for other uses. 

Happy to help on this. I just need to understand a little more how you're organizing things and what reports you need.

[Clay-Collective]

Thank you @crystalimages for your detailed reply. Our system is really simple.  We have two shows each year that are set up as Categories.  Our vendors who may or may not be in both shows are setup as Items that get added into the current category just before the sale. We create new items for our new vendors.  Their wares are sold with the marked price on a sticker on the piece(s).We certainly could run reports based on dates but it seemed easy enough to leave our Categories as is without deleting them. If only we could archive them instead, we wouldn't be selling out of the wrong category or sometimes as 'Unassigned' Items (when the POS person is not in the right category but just in the Library). 

I am not sure what a modifier is that you suggest - that maybe a workaround for us - I will have to research that. Thanks again! 

[crystalimages]

In essence, when you delete a category, it is "sort-of" archived. It will still show up on old transactions and reports, but will not be available for new transactions and can't be added to new items. I don't think there's a way to reactivate a deleted category, but I'm not sure what would happen if you recreated an old category. It doesn't sound like you would reuse the old category anyway.

So, the way I understand it. The "item" is "vendor bob" and you key in the price of each item?

I guess what you need to know how much each vendor sold and which event it was sold at. 

There's another way you could do this, using "Dining Options". 

Go to Items under the menu, settings, dining options.

This would typically be used for a restaurant for Dine in, Drive Thru, carry out, or dining room, bar, patio, etc.

I use this similar to how you make your vendor an item.

We are a photography company and each photographer is contracted and works on commission. 

They get a percentage of the sales from their photos. 

You can assign a different dining option for each item on the ticket.

Although, for your scenario, it may be faster the way you have it set and I know making changes confuses people and causes mistakes.

Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Modifiers are basically a note added to an item.

For instance, a Burger would have modifiers for what goes on it.

Toppings: lettuce, tomato, onion 

Condiments: ketchup, mayo, mustard

Cheese: American, Cheddar, Swiss

You can have multiple modifier groups for each item.

You might use this to add a modifier for specific items under each vendor, depending on how many various items each would have.

The more modifier options you add, the longer the list on the screen becomes.

You can even set each modifier to add a price.

You can also create variations which each has their own price, or no price and it prompts you to key in the price.

It's very similar to a modifier, but will be the first choice on the list.

If the vendors don't have multiples of each item, then keyed in price is probably easiest.

Although, you could have variations under Vendor Bob for Painting, Bracelet, Plate, etc.

If all the different item types are the same price, you could set the price, if not, you can leave it blank and it will prompt you to give a price when adding it to the ticket.

This might help vendors know what they sold, what sells the most, where to put their focus and increase revenues for everyone.

Happy to help with this if you want to pursue any of these options.