In person ordering and pay later options

[nateyandbode]

Hi! I primarily use Square Online, but do occasional events. I have two scenarios that I'm not sure how to best handle within square.

1) Place an order in person for shipment later

I take custom orders at events and would like to be able to record that information through Square. Currently, I've been taking their info and putting it into an invoice. That works OK, but I'd prefer that they go into the open order "hopper." Is there a way to do that?

2) Place an order from the "back end" 

Sometimes I'll get somebody that texts me a request for an item (custom or not). Is there a way to add that person to the open order "hopper"? 

Basically, I guess I'm wondering if there is a manual way to add an open order. That would solve both issues. 

Thanks!

[crystalimages]

The Orders tab on the tablet POS is for orders placed through your Weebly Online Store. 

As far as I can tell, the only orders that will show up here are orders placed on the Weebly Store website.

There's no way to create an order on the Square POS and have it show up in Orders.

I thought this might be possible by signing into the POS as the Online Store profile, but it still doesn't put it in Orders.

This is a huge piece I'm missing from square. I wish all orders could transfer into the Orders list where you could mark complete when done.

The only way I see to do this is to use a computer and have the customer shop your website like they would at home and manually input the card info.

When I take orders that someone is going to pay for later, I just ring it up on the iPad and send as invoice from the Charge screen.

Not sure how you're sending invoices. I prefer this method because it's easier to take a sale as normal than to switch devices or apps. Sometimes I don't know this is the case until the order is written and then the customer realizes they don't have a wallet.

[ryanwanner]

@nateyandbodeand @crystalimages 

You can set up your point of sale to manually enter orders into the order manager!

Two caveats: you need to have dining options turned off if you're using them, and you'll need to have the customer name, address, email, and phone number to enter the order--quite like if they were placing the order themselves online.

To enable this, on your Point of Sale go to

More -> Settings -> Orders -> Order Creation -> Enable Order Creation in checkout

Now you'll have a way to create an order alongside your Checkout button in the bottom right (horizontal view).

From the Square Help File:

Creating Orders on a Tablet, Mobile Device, Square Terminal, or Square Register

In order to start accepting pickup orders, you’ll need to turn on the Create orders in checkout setting on Square Point of Sale. To do so, follow the steps:

1. From the navigation bar of your Square Point of Sale app, tap More > Settings > Orders.

2. Tap Order Creation.

3. Toggle on the Create orders in checkout button.

To create an order:

1. From the Library tab or Favorites tab on your Checkout screen, add items to the current sale.

2. Tap Schedule for pickup on the right-hand side.

3. Tap Add a customer to add your customer to the sale.

4. Select an order type (e.g. In-store or Curbside pickup) > tap Next.

5. Select a Pickup time > tap Done.

6. Continue the Checkout process.

[crystalimages]

Thank you for correcting me.

I had seen this, but I forgot because my older iPad doesn't have the option. 

I have a newer iPad that I just got and see that option on there. 

Do custom modifiers from online, such as the Dropdown list or textbox option then work on the iPad, or are these still only available on the website?

[ryanwanner]

@crystalimagesThe modifiers you make for the online store don't transfer over to the point of sale unfortunately, especially the textbox option.

[crystalimages]

That's what I thought. Unfortunately, I need either the textbox option or the dining option. 

I suppose I could create another modifier with a ton of buttons, but the way I need to run reports it would mean editing every single sale item manually in a spreadsheet since modifiers export into a single column, and I'm just not up for that.... 

[nateyandbode]

That is close but doesn't quite have the detail I need. I have to be able to enter custom information from the modifiers. I also don't see how this can show that it has to be shipped (not picked up). I essentially need to be able to do an online order, but from my side rather than the customer's side. As if I'm putting in the online order on their behalf. 

Is there something like this?

[Arie]

Square Invoices have the option to request a shipping address, @nateyandbode. Scroll down to More Options to add this:

You can add details in the message section, however the modifiers would be limited to what you've set up in your Item Dashboard, and text box modifiers aren't available for Invoices at this time. 

[nateyandbode]

Yes, I've been using invoices, and it's close to what I'm looking for. It's good for keeping track of who has ordered and their payments, but it doesn't really have a way to track the progress of the order. I'm looking for a way to streamline my order fulfillment and I can't figure out a way to get orders that aren't placed on the website to be merged with the online orders. 

[crystalimages]

I totally understand! I have the same exact problem.

I'm not sure how much detail you need as far as tracking the progress, but Square KDS is a relatively inexpensive option to mark orders done. While intended for a kitchen, it could be useful to a lot of businesses. Although, the ability to send a confirmation message to the customer when it's ready would be extremely helpful. We do a lot of pickup orders, so it's nice to notify the customer when to come back.

I have found a partner with Square that offers something that works.

However, I have an old grandfathered plan that makes it worth the cost.

Although, they are changing their pricing structure and I will soon have to find another solution. 

Salesvu connects with your Square account and they have a more robust system for order handling/tracking.

However, it doesn't always fully work with online orders. It allows you to change the progress of your orders.
I use their Incoming app and when I select a certain point of progress on the order, it sends a notification (if I have set it to). For pickup orders it tells them when it's ready. For Digitally delivered orders it sends a confirmation to ensure they received the link.

I'm only throwing this out there because I don't know your situation, but for me it's getting to the point the cost isn't worth it. When I'm forced off my grandfathered plan, I would have to pay far more than the service is worth for my needs. I will just do it the hard way. 

As of now, they want $100/month for the cloud solution and $15/month per app/per device.

You must subscribe the the cloud solution to use the app. 

If the cost is worth it to you, it's a great system. You can also use their POS and other apps for a fee.

I just don't need all the services they offer, since most of it is already available in Square.

I'm being priced out.

I wish Square would come up with something similar.

Square KDS is ok just to know if the order is done or not, well worth the current price, but it doesn't offer confirmation messages sent to the customer. That's the only part it's missing for my needs.

[nateyandbode]

Thanks for this info. I definitely don't do the volume to make this worthwhile. I just need it for occasional in-person events. 

[crystalimages]

I assume that only completed orders will show up in the orders section? If that order were completed by an invoice, it would not?

What about via a checkout link?

[nateyandbode]

I'm actually wondering if my best option for in-person events is to place an on-line order on behalf of the customer. If they are paying by cash or another payment method, I could use a discount code to make it $0 for the transaction, but they at least would go into my queue of orders to fulfill. I hate that the invoice items can't be added to the production line. 

[crystalimages]

Another idea that I had for my situation is exporting all transactions to a spreadsheet at the end of the day.

If you use quickbooks, I think you can export directly to that program, which may offer some other options.

I would have used the spreadsheet to track the order status. However, we fulfill a lot of orders throughout the day, which means I would either have to export transactions multiple times a day and keep updating my list, or not send any order until the end of the day, which neither is practical for me.

If you don't work on orders until a certain time of day, this might be an option. 

It would just be easier for all of us in this situation if you could send all transactions to the workflow, or if the custom modifiers were available on the POS.

[nateyandbode]

Just wondering if there have been any updates to streamlining in-person/custom orders and online orders? Or possibly combining invoice and online orders? 

[nateyandbode]

Any further updates on this? Thank you!

[crystalimages]

A couple other ideas I had....

@NATEYANDBODE

You mentioned needing to put custom info in like the textbox online, could this information be typed in the notes instead?

As far as getting orders into the Orders Workflow to be able to mark complete:

You can send the order as a payment link.  I haven't tried it, but all other checkout links I use show up in the orders workflow. It just seems a little silly to have to send a link to a person who is standing right in front of you to make their payment. 

Shipstation is an online shipping platform.

This suggestion doesn't fix the in person order taking issue, but has a more robust order tracking system.

I haven't looked into it for a long time because they were taken off the Square App Marketplace, but they're back now. They are a little pricey depending on your volume, but not terrible when you consider other options. 

Here's a link to their pricing: https://www.shipstation.com/pricing/   Currently starts at $9 for 50 shipments.

However, every order you create/import in shipstation goes against your "shipments" count. Whether you're actually shipping it or not. At least this was the case when I last looked.

The biggest downside is it only works with Online Orders.... so puts us back in the same boat. I'm not even sure if you signed into your Online location on the POS if those orders would populate, but I expect they would. 

When I talked to them 2 years ago they insisted you could connect all your sales by using Zapier to auto import POS sales also, but they were never able to get it to work for me. Zapier is a service that connects to different platforms and can pull information from one and create an entry in another. However, there's a limit unless you pay.... so by the time I added up the costs of all the different services it wasn't worth it to me. Perhaps things have improved in 2 years... 

Here's a screenshot of shipstation that might give you an idea of the types of things you can do with it.

Notice the "tags" which you can use to track status or types of orders, etc. You can input orders manually, or through CSV import, or automatically by connecting your square online store.

I'm considering them again, but the price is what keeps me searching. If they didn't count non-shipped orders on your monthly limit, it would be ideal for me since most of our orders are sent digitally.

I'm currently using Shippo (goshippo.com) which is another square partner. There's no subscription fee, you just pay for your postage. However, it doesn't have any way of tracking order status other than new/open or shipped.

I just took a look, it used to pull in orders from Square Online Orders, but it doesn't seem to have been doing that for the last couple months. Maybe I need to sync orders before marking complete in square... something I'll have to look into. Anyway, probably not a solution for the issue at hand, just throwing it out there in case it helps anyone.

[nateyandbode]

Just wondering if there have been any updates on this? I'm still looking for a way to view all open orders in one place - including orders placed online and orders placed in person. Invoicing works well for in-person orders, but then I have to track orders through invoices and the online system. It would be nice to have them feed into one working queue. Any ideas? Thanks!

[nateyandbode]

Just checking to see if any updates have been made on this. Thanks!

[nateyandbode]

Any other updates on this? I'm still looking for a way to have one streamlined working queue. Thank you!

[MayaP]

Hello @nateyandbode I appreciate you reaching out and checking on this request. In an effort to streamline feature requests we have created the Ideate Board, I suggest providing your feedback there for our Product Team to see. If you need anything else feel free to reach back out. We know this feature is important to your business and appreciate your patience while our team evaluates the request.