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How are others that price by a decimal quantities working their charges?

We sell our farm's meat and poultry at farmer's markets, on farm and by delivery, and price mostly by the pound.  I'd love to have the ability to set the quantity to a decimal input, so I can enter the weight on the package meat and be able to have a set price on the item, but that is still not available.  So most of our items are just "variable" pricing, and I have to have a calculator in one hand, or go to back and forth from the calculator app on my phone to Square, to calculate the price on all our beef and pork.  The only other option I've been told is to set a price for .01 or .001 lb, and enter the decimal amount in as a whole number.  So if a Pork Shoulder Roast is $8.00/lb, and weights are in tenths, like 2.78 lbs, I'd have to set the price for the item as $.08 and input the quantity as 278, since it only takes whole numbers.  This seems like an expensive accident just waiting to happen.  And trying to explain why I have to do this to customers, and how it would show up on their receipts, just doesn't seem worth it, even if it would save time not having to calulate everything while inputing.  Are their any other farmers, butchers, or others who price by decimal quantities doing it this way successfully?  If so, do customers care?

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Best Answer

Square now offers the ability to charge decimal quantities. Start by visiting Items in Dashboard, then set the unit type. You can choose from a list of preset units, such as pounds, ounces, and feet.

 

You can also choose to add your own custom unit — in whole number or decimal quantities. Learn more here

 

 

Justin
Community Moderator, Square
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Wow - A simple feature requested over a year ago, and no resolution from Square?  Have you noticed how many replies to this thread are recommendations of other products?  Each of those replies is a customer lost.

 

Square is clearly not in the business of actually selling, as omitting the ability to invoice fractional quantities shows a clear gap in understanding the needs of a huge number of your (potential or past) customers.  Any plans to actually address this incredibly simple request?

 

Also - Having this thread included in your article about how your feature requests process works and presenting it as one where the community worked to develop a great workaround is laughable.  A significant number of the workarounds amount to "Dump Square and use something else."  If that's your example of a great community solution, then you have me convinced.

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I am a mobile service business, billing in 1/4 hour increments. The invoice only allows whole numbers, I cannot enter a quantity such as .5 hour or .25 hour. What I've had to do is create individual items at each fraction of an hour, for each rate of service. I would be inclined use Square Invoices more often if I wasn't confined to a whole number quantity. As an IT consultant, I cannot recommend Square Invoices for hourly service providers until that time as it is not user-friendly or efficient as it stands. Is there a workaround for this?

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Square Community Moderator

Hi there!

 

I definitely agree with you that the work around is not user-friendly or efficient. The work around that you're currently using is actually what we recommend to all Square Sellers that sell things in quantities as a decimal or a fraction. 

 

Selling in fractional quantities isn't yet available with Square, but it's a very popular request that our Product Team is looking into. 

 

I'll send over your request as well so they're aware of it and keep an eye out for updates in the future. 

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This is something I've been waiting on for years!

It doesn't seem like it would be that hard to impliment. just if someone enters a decimal in quantity, do the math for them. If not, keep everything as is (I'm sure the majority of people like the increment system) I'd also like to see quantity with a slider or dial so that I can easily get to big numbers. Another way to fix this would be to give specific items an option to be recorded in fractions and which. With hourly rates, might want to bill in 10 or 20 min intervals (⅓ or ⅙ instead of being limited to decimal values)

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I agree, as a service provider this would be a great feature.

 

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Seriously? This is the ONLY reason I can't use you guys now. I can't believe this is an issue.

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Yes, Add my name to the petition list for this feature. I'd like to get off PayPal and use Square for hourly rate invoicing, please.

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Has this been updated yet? I bill out my consultation services per hour through paypal and would like to jump to Square, but it seems nearly impossible as often my service per hours is not a perfect whole number and the hours billed vary greatly! 

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There has been no response from Square on this since my initial posting and on the last invoice I created this was still an issue. Honestly, I no longer send many invoices due to the difficulty. It is easier to email a PDF via Quickbooks. If I change my rates, I have to change each individual item I created in Square at .25 hour increments to try and make this work. The resulting invoice is weird and although the dollar amount is accurate, it does not look professional. Come on Square!!! This is a mobile platform for mobile providers selling service hours. Not to mention the storefront that wants to sell 1/4 pound of something.

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Square

Hi @CVRS & @ComputerGal. I totally understand your frustration, this would definitely be a big improvement for our invoice customers. While I can't offer any sort of update or timeline right now - your feedback is not going unheard. Thanks for taking the time to share! 


Sean
he/him/his
Product Manager | Square, Inc.
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Hi Sean,

 

Thanks for the update. As much as I would really like to use Square entirely for my business, this is essentially an achilles heel to me jumping from paypal. Hope you guys can get your programmers and upper management onboard to help those of us working as independent contractors, small business owners, and purveyors of the "Shared economy". I charge out Veterinary practices on an hourly basis and often times my employees will work 8.75 or 12.5 hours which as of yet your software is not able to understand. 
My biggest hopes would be:

  • Ability to change rates(amount dispensed, hours worked/serviced, totals ,overtime rate, etc)
  • Ability to attach company logo to invoices
  • Invoice tracking( invoice #, bill out/in)

    Thanks! 
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Square

Hi again @CVRS. Just wanted to check in with you about your number two ask. Did you mean you wanted to attach your logo to the invoice? If so, whatever you have selected for your receipts will also show on your invoices. 🙂


Sean
he/him/his
Product Manager | Square, Inc.
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Same issues as I am an interior designer & bill on an hourly basis.  I have converted my rate per minute & then change the quantity to minutes versus hours.  It works but I make sure to include a conversion within the description for my clients. Example:  I charge $60/hr and therefore enter my rate with Square as $1/minute.  If I work 4 hours, then I charge for a quanity of 240 minutes.  Within the custimization portion of the invoice, I make a notation as follow:  4 hrs = 240 minutes.   It's not the cleanest solution but it works & none of my clients have had an issue.

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@Sean I gotta know from reading through ALL the "take partial payment" posts and the HUNDREDS of folks who are asking for it, don't you get a bit sick of posting the same rhetoric over and over that the DevTeam is working on it, for well over a year? Not being spiteful or hateful here, just curious person to person... I would think that with some of the features requested for over 2 years now, someone somewhere would go HMM, perhaps we should do this... Have these issues gone anywhere BEYOND the DevTeam? Like say, higher up in the food chain?? Perhaps if we could all hear from someone else above and beyond you (I feel for your fingers by the way, and please, no offense with this meant) and above the DevTeam management folks, it might soothe a few feelings over, don't you think? 

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Exactly how I feel. When this goes on for soooo long it becomes lip service. @Sean, really believe in your good will but some meat on the bones of the responses would make us all feel better. Perhaps an explanation of some technical impediment we don't get or something beyond "not being ignored" when in fact that is what it feels like. Some actual feedback with explanation or timeline for something SO obviously necessary. Many thanks.

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Square Champion

I'm waiting too. I had to leave and am using Freshbooks & PayPal, they both suck. I sell produce in my stand and to my chef clients and can't use you guys. Been waiting on this for years!

farmersash
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Admin

Hey @sashakanno, thanks for checking in and sorry to hear about the issues that this is causing for your business. We are continuing to track this feature but we don't have any updates on it yet.

 

Though it's not specifically invoice-related, I wanted to surface a thread which has a suggested workaround for partial quantities: How are others that price by a decimal quantities working their charges? — see Sean's reply.

 

Hope this helps for now — please keep in touch for updates.

️ Tom | he/him
Seller Community Manager | Square, Inc.
Find step-by-step help in our Support Center
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Square Champion

I'm waiting for this too. I had to leave square because I sell produce and the quantity is never a whole number. What's the status?

farmersash
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Why is this not a feature yet?

 

As a software developer it is absolutely baffling to me why this is not a thing. 

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Alumni

Hey there, @bstovall

 

Customer advocacy is something we look for when developing new features, but it is not the only factor that goes into developing new features. For more details on how we tackle feature requests, take a look at Feature Requests & the Seller Community by @Kpay

I'll definitely let our Product Team know that you are looking for this feature ASAP.

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Indeed, how in the world is this not already implemented and when will Square stop giving useless answers about their product team considering it, or it being in the development queue or some other unhelpful drivel. How does Square expect to sign up more service providers without implementing functionalities core to service provider success?!?

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