thread Re: record donated items in Payments Troubleshooting

record donated items

LBLfarm — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 05:51:53 GMT

Every so often I donate items to local non-profits. I want to record the value donated. So for example, if I donate 10 pumpkins at $10 each, I want to record that I donated the $100. But I don't want to record it as a sale. One thought I had is to have a negative value item that would subtract the value of the amount donated. So in the example above, I would record the 10 pumpkins for $100 and then have an item on the invoice with a value of -$100 for a net total of $0 while still subtracting the 10 pumpkins from the inventory.

All ideas are welcome.

Re: record donated items

TheRealChipA — Sat, 26 Oct 2024 18:58:36 GMT

Hey there, @LBLfarm. So negative item amounts are not allowed currently with Square POS. So that will not work and, honestly, I doubt it ever will. You only really have one option that is available to you, and it is what I use. Keep in mind that even though you are ringing up your donated items as sales, your taxes will be unaffected by this as long as you book the discount correctly — ie - you book the discount to a P&L line used for donations.

Just create a discount code that you only use for donations. Lock it down to require a manager code in order for it to be added to a transaction, to stop any ideas that “some” employees might get. Ha. Make that code a 100% discount, and use it to discount the donation items to zero. The only manual work you’ll have to do it to move that particular discount amount in your accounting software from your normal discounts P&L like to your new donations P&L line. Your accountant/tax preparer can give you their ideas for best practice for booking this properly. For the record, this is what the IRS considers to be best the best practice for non-cash donations like this.

Re: record donated items

TheRealChipA — Sat, 26 Oct 2024 19:00:24 GMT

@LBLfarm I’ll add that another option would be to just not ring this donation up in Square at all. Manually adjust your inventory for the donated items. Then just make the appropriate journal entry in your accounting software to record the donation. Your accounting might like this one better since it is cleaner AND it achieves your goal of “not recording the items as a sale.” But if you are going to ring up the donation on any POS, then those items are required to be booked as sales.

Re: record donated items

JKO — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 13:48:13 GMT

Thanks for this suggestion on making a 100% discount code! Very helpful!