thread Re: Stock numbers go negative! in Community Corner

Selling out of stock items at POS

ChromatixArt — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 15:34:07 GMT

Hi,

I have added my items to the POS app. I have noticed a problem with the inventory management at checkout.

Say I stock a blue shirt and there are 2 X size Small left. When I click on the item at checkout, I am able to add 3+ size Small blue shirts to the order, despite there only being two in stock. This will create alot of confusion for me during my market stalls.. I don't want to be able to add items to the checkout when they are our of stock..

Thanks

Re: Selling out of stock items at POS

ChickenRacer — Sun, 01 Sep 2019 09:36:01 GMT

My understanding is that square doesn’t support this level.

ive certainly tried.

maybe chuck this suggestion on this thread, as I’m trying to help square keep it in one spot!

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/General-Discussion/Suggestions-for-Square-POS/m-p/131064#M464

Re: Selling out of stock items at POS

Seamus — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 01:25:12 GMT

Thanks for the feeback @ChromatixArt,

At the moment Square allows stock to go into the negative, because we don't want merchants restricted from selling things they may have in stock due to inaccurate tracking.

With this said, I understand that the flipside could mean you're accidentally selling stock you don't have on hand. This is feedback we've received before, and we'll continue to track demand. Ideally it would be useful to be able to toggle something like this off and on for your Square account - I'm going to pass your feedback on to our product team for consideration.

Re: Selling out of stock items at POS

ChieflyEast — Sat, 09 May 2020 08:06:44 GMT

Hi @Seamus ,

Is there any update on this?

I'd suggest one of the main reasons you would turn on stock tracking is so that you can't sell items that you don't have: its far easier to add new stock at time of sale to allow you to sell something, than it is to go and disappoint a customer 15 - 20mins later.

This also conflicts with what the Online Store does: that prevents you going negative in stock.

Regards,

Re: Selling out of stock items at POS

Seamus — Mon, 11 May 2020 05:50:16 GMT

Hey @ChieflyEast,

Thanks for reaching out and providing feedback here.

I don't have any news about if or when this feature may change unfortunately! The way this feature works assumes that you have the item in hand at Point of Sale when you're selling it via the POS app, so it won't prevent you from making that sale.

I imagine Online Store works a little differently because the order has to be fulfilled once the sale has already been made, which is why the two systems operate differently. If you can tell me more about how you're selling using the POS app I can certainly pass your feedback on as a new use case!

Re: Selling out of stock items at POS

ChieflyEast — Tue, 12 May 2020 00:22:10 GMT

Hey @Seamus ,

We are a cafe so I think a pretty standard use case? We choose square since it provides a seamless integration between online and POS.

My point is that the default should be you are not able to sell out of stock items. If someone physically brings an item to you at the POS, and it is shown as out of stock you are not going to turn around tell them its out of stock and can't sell it to them? You are rather going to add stock or put in a dollar value item to sell it.

In the reverse case you can sell something you don't have and subsequently you have to go to the customer and apologize / refund etc. which is never a good look.

Re: Selling out of stock items at POS

Seamus — Tue, 12 May 2020 00:40:03 GMT

Thanks @ChieflyEast, I can see that having the option to turn this off or on would cover more use cases that the default does at the moment.

I'll pass on the feedback to our product team, though I don't currently have a time frame as to if or when this feature might be built.

Stock numbers go negative!

chilecoloradovt — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 19:38:38 GMT

Hi!

We are running into what has become a major issue at our food cart.

We take preorders online (and set stocks for those items) a day before we set up our cart.

We also take walk-up orders that day as we are filling pre-orders. Those tickets are sold in-person through the app on our ipad square stand.

What is happening is that the in-person orders are still counting against our pre-loaded stock amounts at that location, HOWEVER, as we are taking the orders in-person, there are no alerts in the grid that show us if we are low or sold out of items or not. It allows us to go ahead and take the order, make the sale, print the ticket, only to find that we now have a negative stock number and I'm short on the product and having to go back, apologize to the customer and do a live modification based on what food we do have in stock.

IS THERE A SETTING I AM MISSING SOMEWHERE that will turn on alerts on the in-person checkout grid to notify the person taking the order that we are low on any items in real-time as the orders are being taken? I am hoping that this is a feature that I am simply missing and not an oversight with the app or Square. Otherwise, what is the point of setting stock numbers at all if it still allows me to oversell an item?

Thanks in advance for your help!!

Mara

Re: Stock numbers go negative!

JustinC — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 13:15:17 GMT

Hey there @chilecoloradovt - unfortunately this behaves as expected. Square's Inventory system is very basic and doesn't prevent an item from being sold past 0.

It might be useful to turn on low stock alerts so you are reminded to replenish inventory before it hits 0. From the Item edit page, next to Stock, click Add low stock alert > None then enter a number threshold.

Re: Stock numbers go negative!

chilecoloradovt — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 13:56:38 GMT

We did add low stock alerts, but the way we get alerted is through email, most unhelpfully.

We really wish that banners would show up on the POS items in the grid in the app like they do for the customer - LOW STOCK & SOLD OUT would be helpful things to alert the person taking the order so that we may provide good customer service and be able to say, “I only have one of those left”, etc.

There must be a platform that provides this kind of basic functionality - since restaurants are forced to take orders online these days and will be continuing with simultaneous online and walk-up sales, the need for this functionality will only increase!

Re: Stock numbers go negative!

Seamus — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 06:52:35 GMT

Hey @chilecoloradovt,

Your use case is completely understandable!

Online orders will currently refuse sale of out of stock items, while the POS system assumes you have the stock in hand at point of sale. I can see it would be useful to prevent selling out of stock items and having to check prior to ringing up the sale in person though! While I don't have an time frame on if this may become a feature in the future, we pass feedback such as your on to our product development team for consideration.

I'll update this thread if I hear any more on this feature.

Re: Stock numbers go negative!

FlatRockCinema — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 17:22:34 GMT

We sell movie and concert tickets and it's important that we don't over sell tickets (inventory). Online store shows sold out but POS allows negative inventory. Please add an option to the POS so we can't sell more tickets than we have seats. It creates big problems when that happens. Not all of our staff have access to inventory management so they don't know when it's sold out at either register.

Re: Stock numbers go negative!

firedog — Thu, 26 Nov 2020 10:56:11 GMT

Hi ChileColorado-

I'm wondering if they have actually made an update here. We're a small bakery and in the same boat as you, juggling online and in-store retail orders. We have to manually toggle to item inventory for in-store retail sales to make sure we have enough of an item to sell, as what we see on our shelves may already have been purchased online. It's a pain but works. However, after the most recent update, we now get out of stock alerts AT POS, which of course makes things so much easier. The only snag is that it only does this for products with variations. For instance, a chocolate croissant will not give us an alert. But our baguettes will, as there are two variations. It's not feasible for us to group everything in larger categories with numerous variations but maybe for you? I tried contacting Square about this but didn't get much clarification. Hope this helps

Re: Selling out of stock items at POS

Seamus — Thu, 26 Nov 2020 22:57:57 GMT

Hey @firedog,

From what I understand our team are making some changes here and full functionality with the "Sold Out" feature should be coming for all items - not just variations.

Sorry for the confusion here! I'm hoping to hear more on when the full changes are released so I can put up a product update post and tag everyone who has requested this in the past!