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

[FarmMom]

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?

[Sean]

@StitchNicheRMO @ExposeIt - Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback. I'll definitely pass them along to our product liaison team! 

[EmmettsMeats]

We run a local butcher shop and I was just wondering if there has been any progress with implementing weighed items into Square. As of now, I have to manually find my item and then enter in the price, so being able to scan those items would make our days easier. When we first signed up I read that it was in development, so I was just curious.

[Sean]

Hi @EmmettsMeats — I went ahead and moved your comment over to the thread where we are tracking this feature. I don't have any sort of update for you right now, but I'll be sure to share in this thread in the future if/when we do. 👍

[farmstand]

Not being able to enter decimals is a deal breaker for me.  I learned here that this has been an issue for over a year for many businesses. 

I'm looking for another POS system and card processor.  Sorry, Square.  Grow up!

[Cityfoodscoop]

So this has been a known issue since Q2 of 2016. Anyone figured out the better way, or heard from Square that it'll be included in the next update?

[ninjacowfarm]

I'm one of the posters on this thread from a year back. With no results to the never ending requests for this fix, I've left Square and started using NCR Silver. It works as well for most items, better for some, and costs a bit less all in with our volume level ($150,000 per year). I gave Square a year + to get this fixed. Sorry and goodbye. 

[Tom]

Hi @FarmMom and @ninjacowfarm, sorry for the delayed response to your posts.

I wanted to circle back and let you know that, while we still do not have any developments to share regarding this request, I am passing your experiences to the appropriate team members.

While I wish I had more helpful solutions to offer, I invite you to keep in touch as we will announce any updates or changes that would make running your business easier. We would love to have you back.

[FarmMom]

Hi Tom.  It's good to know someone is still listening.  This simple change, of just allowing the unit quantity to be a decimal number, will be huge in managing customer purchase inputs.  It's downright embarrassing at times having to either juggle a calculator and phone, or flip back and forth between a calculatir app and Square on the same phone, while a line is building at the farmer's market.   And if customers can then actually see that in their receipt it will look so much more professional. Thanks for checking in, and I hope this seemingly simple fix is implemented soon! 

[mcdonaldsl4]

Any update on entering a quantity using decimals? I have only started setting up my square items/categories. I own a yogurt shop and have to put in a weight - 5.1 ounces x .48  for total. If I cannot do this, guess I won't be using square. I read through everyones responses, and can't believe you can't enter a quantity using decimals. I think it would be nice to say if it is coming out in a future release and give a time estimate or just come out and say it won't be added so we can all decide to use square or not. Thanks

[FarmMom]

Yes, I'd really like a definitive answer as well!  I've been asking about decimal quantities for close to 3 years now, before the forum even started.  This is the one thing about using Square that is a major pain.  And I know they are losing customer's over it.  Another vendor at one of the farmer's markets I'm at, a meat vendor like us, recently switched to Paypal just because of this issue.  Now, Paypal still had a little glitch they had to work around to enter the decimal, but it was doable.  So now they can enter the price per pound for all their pork cuts, and just enter the weight from the package and the charge for each cut shows up.  No having to us a separate calculator or bounce around between a calculator app and Square for each cut.

Now, I didn't like Paypal's interface as well.  I don't know what their receipts look like, but maybe I just am so used to Square I'm biased.  I considered switching to Paypal, but now I've invested in Square giftcards as a way to keep track of advanced payments and our kind of CSA, and I don't think Paypal has gift cards.

I'd just like a bit of honesty about why this feature is not happening!  Is it really that hard to program decimals for quantities?  Is it something to do with the language used by Square, that it uses Whole numbers and not integers here?  This is a pretty basic, big deal with a lot of different customers!  And with more competitors to Square showing up, I'm sure this will be a feature they will have.  Please tell us what's going on!  Get something working, and if you want someone to Beta test a new version with the the decimal quantities, I'm game!

[lior]

Hello! I am a product manager at Square working on our inventory features. I don't have a timeline to share about when this feature will be available, but we've definitely heard you and know how important this is. This thread has helped us better understand how you will use this feature so I also want to thank you for taking the time to share the details! I'll be using your feedback to dig into this feature further with the team and will update this thread as soon as we have more details to share.

[ExposeIt]

Whilst I appreciate this response. It STILL tells us nothing! Are decimal places going to be implemented? If so, has the technical development of this feature begun? If not, can we expect it to be implemented this year, next year, 3 years??? OR Simply tell that no plans have been made to impement this request at this stage so we can move on and find a more suitable product.

[ninjacowfarm]

I was refraining from posting something similar. Didn't want to appear negative. Your response was well stated.

We've had the same response for years. "Thanks so much. We are aware. We are working on it." No actual, usable information though. No reason to believe that the fix is in the next release. Or the one after that. 

I do appreciate the fact they respond, and politely and professionally too. BUT, there is no actionable information and in my opinion no reason to believe a fix is coming in the foresseable future. I can only guess that Square has a core data problem and it's a HUGE fix. Something like the Y2K issue, if people recall that. In the 70's there was no need to put four years in the date. Come 2000 it was a big deal. I'm guessing they used whole numbers with no decimal places in the beginning and the entire system is built around that now and it will take a MAJOR rewrite to fix it.

If you publish that there isn't a fix coming because it's too big of a job to tackle, you loose customers. You cannot publish there is a fix coming, because it's such a huge rewrite that it's always being pushed off into the future. So you are stuck in limbo. Yes a fix is coming, no we don't know when, thank you very much for your support and business. Wash, rinse, repeat. 

I don't know. Just my guess. But I put my money where my mouth was and moved on to another platform that handles decimal places. Btw, to the person who wanted three digit decimal places, this one only supports two so that issue isn't just Square. 

[lior]

You're right that we can't always be completely transparent about whether or not we're building a feature. We have reasons for this - most importantly the fact that our roadmaps change frequently and we don't want to promise something before we're sure it will happen in a timely manner. 

I know that's not ideal to hear, but I want to be totally honest with you, and that's as much as I can say in the community forum. As soon as we have a more concrete timeline to share, we'll post here. 

Seller feedback is a critical part of our product development process. Our product team would love the opportunity to chat more with any seller that would benefit from fractional items to better understand how, when we do deliver this feature, it meets your needs from the start. If you are interested, please comment on here or message me directly in the community and I will set up a time.

[RealHonestware]

I would be happy to explain the importance of this feature to a LARGE number of vertical markets.  I have 30+ years experience in software design and development with a strong concentration in retail POS.  I would happy to have someone contact me.  

The lack of this ability causes me trouble on a DAILY basis.

[Lassen]

I would be happy to talk to one of your team about why I need fractional quantities for my business.  I have multiple kinds of itmes that require a workaround with Square to get them entered.  The receipt from this is very confusing to my customers...and I consider my customers to be very important to my small business.

[Kpay]

Lior will be reaching out via private message to set up times - you can check your messages by clicking on your username in the upper right of the page and then clicking "Messages": 

[ExposeIt]

This is not a request for a prettier font or background colour change or customisation that really requires any sort of discussion or explanation.

It i simply a request to have your product perform the function for which it was created.

Here i obviously refer specifically to your POS system.

I would also add here that as a payment gateway i find the product excellent, it is simple and easy to use and has performed relliably for us, I really like using square and am reluctant to change, which is why i find the shortcoming with the POS so frustrating.

It is sitting right there in front of me and yet I can't use it. Instead i am stuck using a hand written carbon copy book and a calculator. Whilst most of our invoices are on account and processed through our accounting software, we still process around $120,000.00/year on site via square. 120k worth of hand written, manually calculated invoices leaves ALOT of room for error!! And yet there is a POS system "Built IN" (how awesome is that!) it's right there, at my finger tips ...... but sadly not functional 😞

Any business (and there's a lot of them), that sells by weight, distance, volume, area, hours etc etc etc requires the basic function of inputing decimal quantities. Groceries, builders, concretors, excavator drivers, carpet sales, farmers, habidashery, yard maintenance and the list goes on and on all require decimals to sell their products or service.

I'm not sure what your developers would need to discuss? It's the ability to enter the quantity of an item as a decimal. In my case I require 2 decimal places ie 1.25 hours (i don't even need the description of the unit), others i have read require 3 decimal places, which as I see it it the only part of this request open to debate.

So whilst I don't understand the need. I am certainly available to discuss the importance of decimal places to my business.

[roseH1]

We are a chocolate shop that needs to weigh items for sale. Not having Square attached to a scale is a big drawback for us.  I have been hoping this would be addressed soon, but looks like it's been "in the works" for a long time. In the meantime, our workaround is slowing things down, not acceptable for a long term solution. We are eagerly awaiting updates.

[Chad]

I hear you @roseH1. This is a popular feature request, but we have no updates to share at this time. Our road map changes often and I don't want to make a promise we can't keep. I have gone ahead and flagged your post for the product team; we are still tracking this feature request. 

If I have any updates I will make sure to share them. 

[EVFabrics]

Chad (and any others from the Square team following this thread). 

Frankly, I've been hearing (reading) the same lame evasive non-answer for years and am sick of it. As you can see from this recent flurry of examples posted by other frustrated users, YOU ARE LOSING MONEY because people are not buying your POS due to it's inability to handle decimal units. As if that wasn't frustrating enough, I frequently feel downright insulted to get numerous emails from the company, pitching me about added features, loan options, etc. If you guys were to make this a priority AND SET A DATE, you might actually fix the problem and get more POS customers. 

I have a fabric store and (as I've said previously and in other threads) I sell in partial yards. Sometimes it's fabric, other times it's ribbon, elastic, trim or whatever. I could make do, with 2 decimal points but would prefer 3. Whole number only is unacceptable and forces my to use my old-school cash register for every sale then, enter lump-sum amounts into square. Thus, I also cannot use Square for cash transactions because, why bother? Then, I end up with half-baked reports for charge transactions and different reports for cash ones. It's infuriating.

Message me if you want a beta tester. I'd be in for it.