[New] Inventory Counting: Full Counts with Square for Retail

[tranguyen]

The inventory counting: full count feature is now available! 

Building off the cycle count functionalities already available on the Square for Retail app, Full count supports an end-to-end inventory stock counting experience. This functionality is available to Square for Retail Plus subscribers only. 

Save time and limit process inefficiencies by having multiple employees contribute to a count at the same time using multiple devices. With this advanced feature you can:  

• Set and assign team roles and permissions on Square Dashboard

• Review and approve a stock count before it is committed to mitigate inaccuracies 

• Ensure your stock is reflected appropriately across your inventory reports 

How to Start and Contribute to a Full Count

Before starting a new full count, login to your Square for Retail Dashboard to assign team roles and permissions. Follow step-by-step instructions here.

To begin, navigate to the Inventory tab within the Square for Retail app and select Stock Counts. From here, you will be able to complete end-to-end inventory counting management, notably:

1. To start and pause an in-progress count
1. Have multiple employees contributing to the same count
2. Count on multiple devices in a single location
2. To review, edit and approve a count 
1. Count updates will be accurately synced to your inventory reports 
3. To have a backlog of counting action details across devices

Enjoy easy and efficient inventory counting in one place.

For a detailed walkthrough of how to conduct a full count, visit our Support Centre.

To try out Square for Retail Plus features for free, get started here.

[iain697]

It would be great to have inventory management functionality for Square for Restaurants plus..... why is it only limited to Square for Retail ??

[Breffni]

Hi @iain697, thanks for posting. 

This particular feature requires certain barcode scanning features which are only available on the Square for Retail app, currently. 

For the moment, these are the inventory options available with Square for Restaurants. Feature requests are evaluated on demand (and more) for certain products, and while stock count may be a high priority for your food/beverage business, it may not be for other similar businesses. 

We do our best to support all verticals, so I'll be sure to share your interest in this feature and hopefully, it's something that we'll be able to offer in future. 

[iain697]

Wow, i'm amazed at the lack of appreciation of your customer base. Inventory management (not just stock count which wasn't really the basis of my question) has been the subject of many posts by many similar businesses in the Hospitality Sector for well over 18 months. I know in the Beta community it's something thats been talked about a while and in many posts. Perhaps it's worthwhile re-assessing some of these, as it is a source of frustration for many of your users that struggle keeping track of inventory in our sector using square.

For example when we have bottles of wine, we sell both in bottles and in glasses. It is the same with other products as well, such as when selling Pint's and Half Pints - the same product just different measures of each. This is just one example which has been mentioned and suggested time and again - yet retail it is important, but Hospitality it isn't? 

Please be rest assured that i'm sure most people including me feel you do a great job overall, but again, its things like this that drives businesses to other software providers that can do over and above what square can.

Thanks for listening x

A few examples of posts requesting inventory management for Square for Restaurants:-

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Questions-How-To/Feature-Request-Inventory-Management-for-Pints-a...

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Feature-Requests-Point-of-Sale/INVENTORY-MANAGEMENT-IN-SQUARE-FOR...

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Food-Drink-Group/Stock-amp-Inventory-Management/td-p/198454

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Square-Online-Feature-Requests/Any-way-to-add-logic-to-stock-mana...

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Feature-Requests-Point-of-Sale/Linking-stock/td-p/313846

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Questions-How-To/Adding-an-inventory-level-to-modifiers-in-Square...

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Questions-How-To/Is-there-a-way-to-link-stock/td-p/260576

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Questions-How-To/How-do-I-manage-fluid-stock/td-p/393856

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Questions-How-To/Wine/td-p/221249

[BathTCG]

If I carry out a full stock take will sales that happen during the count affect the results?

[Breffni]

Hi @BathTCG thanks for your post. 

For the sake of precision, inventory counts are typically carried out outside of regular operational hours to guarantee accuracy.

Full counts are meant to count every single item in inventory at a location so having items being sold during the count may interfere. 

I'll confirm this with the Square for Retail team. 

[Tmthy]

This is basic functionality surely? The stock function is effectively pointless for restaurants if you can only buy and sell whole items. No restaurant operates this way. Can we operate proper stock functionality if we take both subscriptions?