thread Re: Problems with Options and Variations and how they display on Square Terminal in Orders, Menu Items, Catalog & Fulfilment

Problems with Options and Variations and how they display on Square Terminal

Richard71 — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 09:20:01 GMT

I'm new to Square and we've recently bought a Terminal with the aim of upgrading from Zettle. The challenge I face presents itself once I've imported all the Item data from Zettle. I copied the necessary data between the two spreadsheets and had various attempts at getting this right which worked well. Square's importing tools are great! The challenge I now face is around both understanding the difference between Variations and Options and then the Terminal displaying them consistently.

I run a Bike Shop. I have a Item Category called 'Brakes'. In there, I have an Item called 'Brake Cable' and an Item called 'Brake Pads'. Initially, I only have one 'Brake Cable' ie, there is no list of Variations. Under Brake Pads, I have listed four variations of 'Brake Pad'. These are listed online as Variations and I'm able to edit the prices which, when I look at my Square Terminal, are listed along side the Variation name thus making it easy the price differences across the Variations. I can also easily add more Variations to this list.

Now, if I want to add another Brake Cable, therefore, creating two Brake Cable Variations, I only seem able to do this by adding an Options List called, in this case, 'Bike Cable Type'. This is ok and I can live with doing that, however, even though I can edit my 'Bike Cable Type' Variation list online and view the prices, there are no prices listed alongside the 'Bike Cable Type' Variations on the Square Terminal, as is the case with the above Brake Pads example, so we are unable to easily say what the price of each Option List Variation is without clicking on it.

Is this a simple 'Feature Shortfall" or am I doing something wrong? Thank you

Re: Problems with Options and Variations and how they display on Square Terminal

Lou8 — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 16:16:06 GMT

Hi @Richard71, thanks for posting and welcome to the Community 👋.

I understand the difference between Options and Variations can be confusing at first - I'm here to help.

We have a great Support Centre article that explains the different terms:

Variations: Define the unique varieties of an item. Each variation can have its own cost, price, SKU, etc. Looking at the t-shirt example, small, Green_ or Large, Red are both distinct item variations.
Option Sets: The attributes of a variation – the combination of options form the variation. For example sizes and colours.
Options: The values within the option attribute. For example, small, medium and large.

Would you be able to provide some screenshots of how the items Brake Cable and Brake Pads are set up on your Dashboard, and how the variations for both items look on your Terminal? This will help me understand better what the issue is and how we can fix it.

Re: Problems with Options and Variations and how they display on Square Terminal

Richard71 — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 10:36:02 GMT

Hi @Lou8, thanks for coming back to me on this.

I believe I only really need to use Variations at this stage but it's not possible to create a Variation from a single Variation Item without an Option.

So, here are my only imported Rim Brake Pads Item with their Variations https://photos.app.goo.gl/yyFTCDdBiEdp2SrMA (sorry, I could insert the images)

Here is the Item screen on the Terminal: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oAcpY3RMYK66Ky6Z9

Here are the list of Variations WITH prices along side: https://photos.app.goo.gl/MHovQvrQH6zkFz6Z6

This is my Brake Parts item where I initially had no Variations but to add or create a Variation, I had to create an associated Option List: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CLDAwf9Zr4AbaKoZ7

The item screen on the Terminal where it shows the Brake Part Type Option list heading: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7xmfsY2vzArJ72kL8

Here are the Options on the Terminal without prices: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zUMPNapKMPyMSY8fA

Finally, if you look at this Item that has no Variations, there is no way for me to create another variation without adding/creating an Option, first. https://photos.app.goo.gl/c7ZwNmFvjM1XhDmi6 This makes life a bit awkward.

One final question, if that's ok. If I were to reimport my data having exported the data first, and keeping all the necessary Data IDs the same, can I reimport over the top of my Items in the system and retain the Transaction history?

Thanks, Richard

Re: Problems with Options and Variations and how they display on Square Terminal

Breffni — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 13:51:45 GMT

Hi @Richard71 , just taking over from Lou here.

Firstly, yes, updating your idea library won't impact any historical transactional information.

We're taking a look at these links now will have an update shortly!

Re: Problems with Options and Variations and how they display on Square Terminal

Breffni — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 13:53:03 GMT

Thanks for your patience @Richard71 . After some investigating and testing by @Lou, we think what may be happening here is that you are trying to create Variations using Square for Retail and that's where the confusion lies. The layout is a bit different, and you have to scroll further down to see the action button "Variations". (The screenshot on the left is on the Dashboard and, the one on the right is using Retail). Let us know if you can check that.

For the second item, you created an option set which ends up being the same thing as it creates variations anyway (as in, it will look the same on the Dashboard). When using the Retail Point of Sale (on the Terminal for example), the prices of the variations are not displayed if you created your variations with an option set. This may seem strange but it is expected behavior.

Re: Problems with Options and Variations and how they display on Square Terminal

Richard71 — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 17:28:36 GMT

Thank you so much for this, and please accept my apologies for my oversight in not spotting the "Create Variation" button!

I have now sorted this problem out following your help. I have simply exported the Items data and removed all references to Options and Option Lists. I then re-imported the worksheet NOT overwriting the existing data and it updated the Items exactly as I wanted it to be. All now works perfectly!

Thank you again. Square support is really excellent.