thread Re: Update causing Fulfilment and Prep Time conflict for Square Online Site in Orders, Menu Items, Catalog & Fulfilment

Square Online Pickup Times Showing “Unavailable – Available Later” Due to Prep Time Settings

TruckeeCookies — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 01:54:34 GMT

I was on the chat for a few hours with Square support yesterday about this issue, but it is not resolved. My business is open for fulfilment from 5 PM to 10 PM on Friday and Saturday with a 20 minute prep time. If someone orders for the next time we are open, they get pickup options starting at 5:20 PM (to account for prep time). For the past year, when someone scheduled an order for a future date they could choose 5 PM onward - this was not ideal but worked for my business. With the newest Square update they can still choose a pickup time of 5 PM and 5:15 PM but all the items show as "Unavailable - Available Later" and they cannot add to cart. If they choose 5:30 then they can order as normal. Square support found that this is due to 20 minute prep time. I'm not sure why an order for the next day we are open is treated differently than future days and they could not answer that. This is confusing for customers to be able to choose a time but then no items are available. The suggested work around was to make my menu hours start at 4:30 PM. I have it set now this way but the issue is still there, and if I change the prep time then it will affect all orders. Does anyone have another suggested work around? I would like for customers not to be able to choose a time that nothing is available. Maybe somehow have all pickups at 5:20 or later and treat ALL future dates the same?

Re: Update causing Fulfilment and Prep Time conflict for Square Online Site

Laurie_ — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 01:53:22 GMT

Hi @TruckeeCookies,

Thanks for including all of this detail with your use case, it makes it really easy for me to understand what you're referring to here, and I'd be happy to provide a solution that should hopefully resolve this issue for you. Take a look below:

Right now, this is your current configuration:

Item fulfilment hours: 5:00 PM–10:00 PM on your available days

Item prep time: 20 minutes

Prep setting: “I start preparing orders as soon as they are received”

I propose changing to this configuration to resolve the issue:

Item fulfilment hours: 5:00 PM–10:00 PM on your available days

Item prep time: 20 minutes

Prep setting: “I only start preparing orders after a certain time” (instead of “as soon as they are received”)

When “start preparing as soon as orders are received” is selected, Square works backward from the selected pickup time to make sure prep can begin immediately. So for a 5:00 PM pickup with a 20-minute prep time, the system checks whether prep could start at 4:40 PM. Since your fulfilment hours begin at 5:00 PM, items appear unavailable for that time.

By switching to “I only start preparing orders after a certain time,” you’re telling the system not to calculate prep backward into closed hours. This allows customers to successfully schedule orders for 5:00 PM on your next available day. I’m also assuming that you’re preparing the cookies in advance, rather than mixing, baking, and boxing them all within that 20-minute window. If that’s the case, this setup should work well for your use case.

This keeps your 20-minute prep time intact while preventing customers from selecting times where items appear unavailable.

Give this a try and let me know how it goes! Remember you can change the setting and check the fulfilment calculator before saving and publishing the changes on your site.

Re: Update causing Fulfilment and Prep Time conflict for Square Online Site

TruckeeCookies — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:47:57 GMT

Hi Laurie,

Thank you so much for your help!

I have investigated changing this setting and it says:

"Customers placing orders after this time will be shown a pickup time on the next available fulfillment day. E.g. if you enter 10:00 am, customers ordering after 10:00 am will see a pickup time on the next day."

So if I enter 5:00 PM that I start prepping orders then all same day orders after 5 PM will get a next day pickup time, and that will not work either.

Interestingly, the system treats the next day I am open differently than any following day:

For example, I place an order today, Monday, for this coming Friday the 27th which is the next time we are open for fulfillment. The earliest pickup time available is 5:20 PM. This is exactly what I want it to do. However, if I choose to pickup on Saturday the 28th or any date after that then I can choose pickup times of 5 PM or 5:15 PM and the items are unavailable. Is it possible to make all future dates show 5:20 as earliest pickup time AND also be able to fulfil same day orders?

Side note: I found a workaround that isn't great and I don't really understand why the system works this way. If I choose a pickup time for this Friday, the next time we are open and then fill my cart but don't check out. THEN, I change the date to Saturday or a future date at 5 PM. I can't add more to my cart because all items are unavailable but I can checkout with what was already in there. This doesn't match the flow of how people think because they will first choose date and time, and then fill the cart but thought it was interesting to share.