thread How can I work around the prep time? Its confusing my clients. Thank you. in Orders, Menu Items, Catalog & Fulfilment

How can I work around the prep time? Its confusing my clients. Thank you.

katiecooks — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 15:05:26 GMT

I'm opening an event for the future, and am struggling with pickup time. Is it best to set it as immediate, but then send an additional email personally to clients telling them when pickup is? I have it stated but Square requires a prep time and it doesn't line up with when I'm offering pickup. I'd like to open an event for the 30th, but open it now. If I pick 2 weeks, I have to change it in a week and then also every day leading up to the event? What am I missing? Thanks for your guidance.

Re: How can I work around the prep time? Its confusing my clients. Thank you.

Valentina — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 18:12:32 GMT

Are you able to provide a bit more context, @katiecooks? We'll be able to better point you in the right direction here with a little more information about your event.

It sounds like you'll be selling food at your event - is that right?
Are customers ordering food items online, or tickets to a food event?
Do you want your customers to pay ahead?
Do you have set hours for the event on the 30th (I assume June)?

Any other important details will help us understand your goals - this should help put us on the same page!

Re: How can I work around the prep time? Its confusing my clients. Thank you.

katiecooks — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 18:22:02 GMT

Hi @Valentina and thanks so much for the reply.

Yes, I'll be selling food at the event. I've marked the items as "Food and beverage Purchase" if that is relevant.

Customers are ordering ahead online from now until sold out (I've updated quantities) or 6/30 (date of the event)

They are paying ahead.

The pickup time for my event is set as 6/30 6-7pm. I have that indicated in my business hours (set to Tuesday 6-7pm).

I struggled with this the last time I had a similar event. Basically, its like a moving target, I have to keep chancing the "pickup window" so it aligns with the date of the actual event- and I missed the mark often leaving folks really confused including myself.

So, is it possible for me to bypass the "pickup time" with curbside/online ordering? I'm not sure what makes the most sense- I'm having to send so many emails in addition to what Square is sending and putting so much fine print to try to mitigate folks showing up at the wrong time. Am I missing something?

I really appreciate the help. The curbside offering was a game changer for me, its been fun to figure it all out and continue to offer my goods. Thanks!

Re: How can I work around the prep time? Its confusing my clients. Thank you.

Valentina — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 23:44:34 GMT

Thank you for providing all of this context, @katiecooks!

At this time, it's not possible to set a specific calendar date for pickup - it sounds like this is what you need. Although the Square Online Store doesn't currently support allowing customers to pay for a pickup order on a designated date in advance, our team is constantly working to improve the ordering experience. This would be considered a feature request - I'll be sure to update this thread if this changes.

Based on what you've shared with me, I think that the way you are currently working these orders is definitely one of the best options. I know you already have lots of instructions on your website - there's one more place that you can edit that may help cut down on the emails you're sending:

Would it be helpful at all for you to be able to add a line similar to what I added above? (Actual pickup is 6/30 6 PM) I'm not sure if this is helpful - or more confusing - but I'm happy to let you know how I did this if you think it could help.

Re: How can I work around the prep time? Its confusing my clients. Thank you.

katiecooks — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 19:41:56 GMT

Thank you for the guidance. I'm not interested in adding another line to the confirmation at this point, but appreciate you troubleshooting with me. Like you mentioned, being able to set a specific date and time for pickup would be most helpful to me- if thats something that may be offered in the future, I'd be very grateful. @Valentina , thanks so much for the help.

Re: How can I work around the prep time? Its confusing my clients. Thank you.

katiecooks — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 00:34:00 GMT

@Valentina - do you know if this is a possibility yet? I'm still having confused customers show up at the wrong time/day... Thanks for any help.

Re: How can I work around the prep time? Its confusing my clients. Thank you.

ashc — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 13:00:22 GMT

Hi @katiecooks,

We update the threads as we receive updates so at the time nothing's changed.

Thanks for your added input on this feature request.

I don't have a timeline on when this will be available but I would encourage you to check out our Beta Community to join and potentially get access to new features first when we test them out.