thread Do you find Parent Categories helpful? in Orders, Menu Items, Catalog & Fulfilment

Do you find Parent Categories helpful?

PAstore — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 09:53:40 GMT

When I set up Square I used the categories from our previous POS that were set up prior to my arrival with the company. Now I have close to 100 categories. I'm considering updating this to create parent categories to nestle categories under (ex. clothing as parent category, with shirts, sweatshirts, and pants as part of that category). Can anyone tell me the benefits of doing this and if it will dramatically change my reporting? Thank you in advance!

Re: Do you find Parent Categories helpful?

maxpete — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 20:10:01 GMT

@PAstore appreciate your question here! Tagging in some folks to potentially weigh in from their experience.

@BofBArtStudio, @JTPets, and @rtfulk

Re: Do you find Parent Categories helpful?

JTPets — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 20:16:28 GMT

I use parent categories but be 100% sure you do not accidentially put an item in the parent category or it breaks any sub categories and you cant see the links @maxpete I am sure I have flagged this in the past but it is worth a visit again.

Bug Summary

When adding items to a parent category in Square, the subcategories under that parent become invisible on the website.

Steps to Reproduce

Create a parent category in Square.
Add one or more subcategories to this parent category.
Add an item to the parent category.
Check the website's category navigation or subcategory display.

Expected Behavior

Subcategories should remain visible under their parent category, even when items are added to the parent category.

Observed Behavior

Subcategories under the affected parent category become invisible on the website after adding items to the parent.

Impact

This bug prevents customers from accessing subcategories through the website, impacting navigation and potentially reducing sales visibility for products grouped under subcategories.

Re: Do you find Parent Categories helpful?

BofBArtStudio — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 20:31:38 GMT

We use parent and child categories quite frequently and it's great. I like the reporting on it. It allows us to have just straightforward number of parent categories and then a bunch of subcategories under them. Then I can run a report on the main parent category or on specific subcategories when I'm running sales reporting.