thread Re: Deleted Categories? in Orders, Menu Items, Catalog & Fulfilment

Deleted Categories?

Awalker21 — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 09:36:13 GMT

I have 3 different locations and many categories within each location. Then there are sometimes many items that fall under each category. We have had these locations set up for years, my account is not new. But for some reason, within the last 2 weeks, all of my categories for 2 of my locations have disappeared. I can no longer run accurate reports for payroll without these categories. I have since added them back for 1 location and reassigned the items, but that doesn't affect my reports for the June 1-15 pay period. Is there any way to fix this or even figure out how or why this happened?

Re: Deleted Categories?

Donnie-M — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:03:48 GMT

@Awalker21 did you have categories online and categories in the dashboard? it has been a while but they merged all those categories into one place on your dashboard. Are the items assigned to multiple categories?

Re: Deleted Categories?

Summer2024 — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:40:34 GMT

Hi, @Awalker21 ! Thanks for chiming in here @Donnie-M !

I am going to outline below a few troubleshooting things to try before I suggest contacting our support team. Support will be able to look on the back end of things to see if anything is going on with syncing.

Here are a few troubleshooting steps you can try:

Quick Troubleshooting:

Check for Location Filters:
- Go to Items > Categories in your Square Dashboard.
- Make sure you're viewing the correct location at the top-left of the screen. Categories can be location-specific, so they may just be hidden based on the filter.
Review Permissions:
- If you're using team accounts, double-check that your permissions or assigned roles haven’t changed recently.
Audit Item History:
- Go to Items > Item Library, export your item list, and check if items are still linked to the original categories.
- If not, it may have been a sync or bulk edit error.
Check for Third-Party Integrations:
- If you use apps that sync inventory or items, it’s possible something triggered a bulk update or overwrite.

For Payroll Reporting:

If you’ve re-created categories, unfortunately, they won’t reflect retroactively in historical reports. You may need to manually assign or filter by item name/SKU for the June 1–15 payroll period.

Contact Support: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/contact

I hope this helps!

Re: Deleted Categories?

Donnie-M — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 11:56:32 GMT

@Summer2024 Sorry it may take you a minute, but the items that you need to be under a specific category, you can set the "Reporting Category" for that item and it will show up under that on your main reports. You can also filter your reports by category. I think the payroll thing is probably where you are hitting the snag. Where you using the category filter to see what was sold at each location like a commission? or the online categories weren't counted in your totals for that?