thread Re: Price embedded barcode setup in Orders, Menu Items, Catalog & Fulfilment

Price embedded barcode setup

flourgirl1996 — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 09:47:55 GMT

I've read that Square for Retail can now read price embedded barcodes. I cannot figure out how to set it up. I've tried both Square chat support and by phone but they don't seem to understand how their product works.

I have a barcode for potato salad.
The UPC is 150 so I put 00150 in the SKU.
I added 5.25 in the price input for the price per pound.
My barcode is UPC-A (I'm fairly sure) - which Square is supposed to be able to read.

The barcode is 2 00150 70551 4.
When I scan an item it reads that it is potato salad, but rings it up at 5.25 instead of 5.51.
If I remove the price per pound from the price input - when I scan it it will ask me to input the price.

What am I doing wrong?

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

HC_Charlie — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 20:12:10 GMT

Hello @flourgirl1996 thanks for your post. I'm sorry you're having trouble with this. I don't personally use this kind of barcode or scale, but I found a help article here. Based on a chart in that article, the third group of numbers is supposed to be your price (per pound?), and your number is "70551". So there is a discrepancy somewhere if your price per pound is 5.25.

Have you successfully used this kind of barcode/scale for other products, or is this you're first time trying to get this setup?

How are you printing your barcodes...from a scale or a printer hooked to your Square Dashboard or POS?

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

flourgirl1996 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 20:21:29 GMT

We print our barcodes off of our scale. Yes, we currently use them in Toast POS and they work fine. Actually $5.25 is the price PER pound but the embedded price (the third group) should be $5.51 (based on the weight of the item in the container). The system should read the price from the barcode.

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

flourgirl1996 — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 15:48:01 GMT

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

Candlestore — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 17:16:41 GMT

@flourgirl1996 ;

I have tried doing what the attached Help article (Best Answer) states, as a test. No matter what I tried I could not get it to work for our Fudge sales by the pound. Now I did not have a Scale or Barcode Printed that was attached to my Square POS. I was just testing before buying the scale. I tried Googling for a Video on how these scales are setup and how they work with Square, and had zero results. Found scales and Price embedded features for other pos sytems and how to get them to work but none from Square. Not even in their Youtube Channel. I gave up and just kept with my older system for fudge pricing.

Now that I am looking at this again, with your Barcode and your PLC/UPC code only being 100 and you add 00 to make it 5 digits, try not using 00 infront of your SKU/PLC..... create a 5 digit PLC/SKU for the item and do not have it start with a 0 (zero).

The other thing is the yellow Check Digit is a Number that is assigned by your Barcode generator.

I just tried this on my fudge creating a Test Variation using SKU 89562 and a Price of 7.51 but had my item per lb of $14.99

The barcode was 2 89562 00751 5, this worked this time for me.

2 I add to front of SKU to show Square price was embedded

89562 I assigned 5 radom digits to the SKU field in Square

00751 were digits I used to assign a $7.51 price to this Test Barcode ( yours is 70551 or $705.51 ?)

The 5 was Auto Generated by my Barcode Generator as a Check Digit.

This image shows My settings in Square for this Variation, make sure you have the Price as per LB and not by Unit or Item.

This Image shows what Happens when I scan the Barcode.

This is how My barcode Software made the Barcode, Note on the right side I have Fixed data with

2[Redacted] but the Barcode has the same numbers with an added 5 for the check digit my software created.

This just shows I am using Barcode Font UPC-A, I also see another Tab for Check Digit where I can Enable it which I have done so.

So the UPC with Price Embedded Does work but we are un able to see what Exactly you may have done differently.

Check your settings and if still having issues, add images and maybe we can help better.

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

Filljoy — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:32:42 GMT

@flourgirl1996 your barcode looks correct, can you show us a video of the scan and it adding the product to the cart? And also can you confirm you don't accidentally have a product in your catalog with barcode 2 00150 70551 4?

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

flourgirl1996 — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 22:28:52 GMT

Hi @Filljoy I appreciate your reply.

I'm just now setting up my items so there are currently only 3 items in the database. I want to switch from Toast to Square but have to get the barcodes to work first.

For some reason it says I don't have permission to upload images. So here is what I have: for Potato Salad the barcode reads (like in a previous post)
2 00150 70551 4 . 150 is the PLU and 551 is the amount it should ring up.

I changed my scale after re-reading the Square info that says it should have a 5-digit price.

So for Ham Salad it reads 2 00146 03121 4. 146 is the PLU and 3121 is the amount to charge.

Both actually scan but they both ring up the price per pound (5.25 and 5.99 respectively) and not the amount embedded in the barcode.

In the item setup I have the following fields and values

Unit -> Per item

Unit cost -> blank

GTIN -> blank

SKU -> 00150

Weight -> blank

Price -> 5.25 (if I leave this blank and scan an item it will pop up a screen to enter an amount)

Is there a setting somewhere I'm missing?

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

flourgirl1996 — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:02:38 GMT

Here is the setup for Potato salad

The barcode

and after scanning this is what I get

Today I changed my scale and set it to a 5-digit price. The barcode now looks like this. However, after scanning - it still brings up the same screen. It is reading the PLU correctly as far as I can tell, it is not reading the price embedded. I'm pretty sure it is a setup failure on my end somewhere - but I agree - I can't find any documentation to help.

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

flourgirl1996 — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:03:20 GMT

I was finally able to attach photos - see the answer above.

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

Candlestore — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 16:50:37 GMT

@flourgirl1996;

I agree it is something with your Setup. I took a Picture with my cell of your barcode of 2-00146-03121-4 and since I have Fudge- Variation Test Fudge 2 with a SKU of 00146, the item popped up and showed the price of $31.21 with a Weight of 5.2104lb

I also made my own barcode with the your information.

I put your barcode in :

2 -to show Price embeded

00146- I changed my SKU for test fudge to 00146

03121 - Changed the embeded price to this

then left my system calculate the Check Digit of 4

Then I did get the price of $31.21 as shown in your image.

But when I try your image for item 00150 I get $705.51 for a price and 134.3829lb....at $5.25 per lb, not $5.51. Where are you getting the 7 from, in the price part of item 00150?

The only thing I can think of besides a setup issue would be your POS is not checking the most current pricing for the item. Your systems pos is still seeing a Sale price of $0.00 instead of the $5.25/lb. That would explain the Keypad to enter the weight at checkout. To help speed this up at your POS, bottom right on an Ipad is More, then Items, then do a search for 00150 and then 00146. make no changes then try scanning the Price Embedded Barcodes.

Squares syetem is set to check items every so often. Maybe your scanning right after your changes and it is not updated at the POS. By doing a Search as I described above here, it kind of forces Square at your POS to look at and Get updates for that item. I have noticed if I changed a price at a computer or my backup POS, my main POS is not always changed to the price I just entered. Within X minutes it automatically updates, but going through More>Items> search> Save. My Main POS updates right then.

Here are images when I miss typed your barcode as PLC (SKU) 00461 for Test Fudge instead of 00146. The bottom where it shows $703.12 and $3.12 are what I would expect the prices to be. I typed those in myself. I made Test Fudge 2 with SKU of 00146.

So your Barcode does work when I have SKU of 00146 for my Test 2 variation of Fudge, which leads me to think it is something as a Setup issue or a Delay in your POS updating if you changed Price then try scanning right away.

Try these suggestions and then let us know if that worked for you.

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

flourgirl1996 — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 19:26:29 GMT

Hi @Candlestore

I appreciate the information regarding when square updates. I have actually logged out and back in several times in the past thinking that would surely update it, but I did as you suggested and searched for the PLU. It does bring up the correct item, so I know it's reading that part. However, when I scan after searching, I get this screen:

If I scan it just as I would from the layout - it still brings up the pop up to add the amount. Is there a backend setup somewhere that I'm missing?

In regard to the 7 check digit in the potato salad barcode PLU 00150 - that was the barcode before I changed my scales to use a 5-digit price required by Square. I do not expect that one to work, but I do expect the PLU 00146 to work! I know it's something simple like a checkbox or input field that isn't right, I just don't know which one.

You can see the item setup for Ham Salad here:
https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cTnqq0nhm6E

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

Candlestore — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:39:56 GMT

@flourgirl1996 ;

On your latest picture from about an Hour ago, Look at the picture and in the bottom Right it has 3 lines with More.

Tap the More then you will have a menu select Items.... then on that screen search for your 00146. This looks like your on the main checkout page.

Tap More in the bottom Right

Then after tapping More you see this screen and want to tap Items

Then in the Search area type in 00146

Choose the Item and it should look like this:

The only other thing I can think of is are you using Square POS or Square for Retail? I use Square for Retail.

I was going to say that I see your Item is not marked for Available to sell , but neither are mine.

Look at my Price information below. I am noticing my screen to the Right of the 'X' above Fudge shows "$5.99/LB" For your item on your screen shot I am not seeing any $ amount per Lb, Just shows Ham Salad. Other than that our screens seem to be setup the same at the POS.

Last Idea, did you type price per Lb in? I noticed your Item is Lower cased price per lb where mine is Upper Cased.

When I go through More>Item then edit the Variation my Price per Lb is in blue, is yours?

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

flourgirl1996 — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:38:32 GMT

@Candlestore I'm using Square for Retail.

I think I finally solved the riddle!!!!! I deleted the product and the unit. I readded the unit and the product and now it works. I think the unit has been the problem all along. Unfortunately I don't have a screen grab of what I had before, but for anyone looking in the future, here's what I did. I don't know if it matters what the precision is set at, but I chose the default for now.

I can't thank you enough for sticking with me to help figure it out!

Re: Price embedded barcode setup

Filljoy — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:53:54 GMT

Hi @flourgirl1996,

If you're looking for a more integrated solution, I'm the founder of a small software company called Filljoy focused on POS-integrated weighing software and labeling. We've been working on a new touchscreen label printing scale that syncs seamlessly with your Square catalog.

We showed a preview of this at the NRF conference earlier this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lcklMPjxF8

We already have a Shopify-integrated version of this scale being used at over 50 store locations across North America, and we're exploring whether there’s enough demand from sellers for a similar integration with Square.

If you currently use label printing scales (CAS, DIGI, Bizerba, etc.) and are interested in what we're building, we invite you to fill out this short form: https://forms.gle/qyfT3W4B4SaHTmpA6

Or feel free to reply here - thanks!

Derrick