thread Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by &quot;Units&quot; for Stock Conversion in Payments Troubleshooting

Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

MAHughes — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 09:11:45 GMT

I recently set up Sell-by Units for one of items and I need some clarification on how it works.

As an example, my item is Fireball Whiskey in a 50mL bottle. This item comes packaged in a case of 120 in several configurations ... individual, 4pk, 8pk, 10pk etc. Which configuration I order depends on availability and deals offered by the supplier. In the past, in order to track the 50mL all collectively, we received them as individual bottles, regardless of which configuration was ordered, and then at checkout employees had to adjust the quantity in the cart to match the quantity being purchased. Considering that each configuration has it's own barcode, I've alway found this annoying. I thought Sell-By Units was going to be the answer! I created Units for the different configurations, each with its own barcode. But when I scan one of those barcodes at the register I then have to manually enter the quantity and manually add it to the cart.

Why would scanning the barcode not just add the item to the cart like any other scanned barcode?

Is there something that I'm missing in a setting that would fix this?

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

MayaP — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 16:49:18 GMT

Hey there thanks for reaching out @MAHughes. To get a better idea of what you are experiencing would you be able to provide a video of what happens when you scan? I am happy to reach out to our Square Retail Team to try and get more insight into this.

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

MAHughes — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 16:07:34 GMT

I took a video of the process I have questions about, but my only option for uploading a video here is to insert a URL to a video on the web. I don't have time right now to figure that out so I'm including 2 screen shots that cover most of my issue. The first image is what happens when I scan the barcode on the "default" item .. in this case a 50mL Fireball. Scanning the barcode simply adds one of the item to the cart, just like scanning the barcode on any other item without "Units". The second image is what happens when I scan the barcode on the "Unit" ... in this case a 50mL Fireball 4pk. I'm trying to understand why scanning the barcode on the 4pk doesn't just add one 4pk to the cart.

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

gduncan229 — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 20:11:56 GMT

This seems to be a problem with square others like myself have ran into. For some reason square doesn't allow you to just set a default quantity of 1 for the different units. Currently you have to set the quantity of 1 and then it will scan.

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

Candlestore — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 20:27:12 GMT

@MayaP ,

I posted a Video of this a few months ago with me selling tapers.

The Barcode for the individual taper adds 1 Taper to the Cart from Scanning the Barcode.

When I Scan a Box of 12 Tapers (Different Barcode) it asks How many do you want to add basically.

Same thing when I scan the Barcode for a Case or 144 taper it asks how many.

Here is a quick video of 1 Taper and a box of Dozen. Both Items have different Barcodes which is why I get different screens after scanning the item.

Scan By Units Problem

I stated this before in my other post, when I go to another store and scan a roll of Toilet Paper it scans 1 roll in, but if I buy a Family pack of 24, it does not ask how many Family Packs am I buying!

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

Candlestore — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 20:39:23 GMT

@MAHughes ;

I agree and complained about this in March. That is how I was able to upload the video in my response to Mayp so quickly, already had it in my Google Drive. Back in March I was told well I could just add the Box of Tapers as its own item, but this takes away from the total quantity and the function of sell by Units. I can sell the Taper by 1, 12 box or 144 in a case, so my quantities I order are say 4 cases of 144 Tapers in a color. Square is great and shows I have remain X singles, X Boxes and X cases. Just ringing them up is a Pain!! Someone walks up with 1 box and I need to remember that THAT item needs me to tell my stupid Stand that I scanned in 1 of them..... well How did I scan in 0 of them to sell at a Point of Sale. Do you know how many time I went shopping carried something up to the register to BUY ZERO of them???? Zero.... I always wanted at least 1 of the item I scanned. LOL I pointed this out to Square too and as we see March till July they still did not address this. Maybe by 2030 they will. Glad someone else brought this up Again, thank you.

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

Candlestore — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 21:14:20 GMT

Here is another video of the issue. I have a lot of Tapers between 6" to 15" in style and color, A person may bring up 5 boxes that are all the same price but 5 different colors. I see 5 Green boxes of 12 scan 1 and type in 5..... now my inventory is off by 4 dozen on the one I scanned and positive 1 box on the other 4. OR I can scan each box of 1 then tell my square POS that I scanned 1 item that it just beeped for since Square can not count to 1. Or I scan all 5 boxes then realize the screen is waiting for me to enter how many I wanted to add to the cart. All we want is it to scan the Barcode and add 1 of the item that was scanned to the cart. If the person brings up 2, we scan the item 2 times or scan each item and it adds it in the cart like other POS systems.

(view in My Videos)

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by &quot;Units&quot; for Stock Conversion

MayaP — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 13:30:27 GMT

Thank you for your patience @MAHughes , our team did confirm this is a known limitation of the way sell-by units work currently. They did pass this feedback along to the team but I would make sure to add your input to our Ideate Board.

I am really sorry for the inconvenience this is currently causing and hopefully, we can implement something down the line to address this!

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by &quot;Units&quot; for Stock Conversion

Candlestore — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 16:30:24 GMT

@MayaP and @MAHughes ;

As of March 2023 I did put an Ideate in for this, here is the link:

Up-date-the-Quantity-for-Sell-By-Units-when-Scanning-more-than-1/idi-p/641004

thread Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by &amp;quot;Units&amp;quot; for Stock Conversion in Payments Troubleshooting

Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by &quot;Units&quot; for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by &quot;Units&quot; for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by &quot;Units&quot; for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by &quot;Units&quot; for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by &quot;Units&quot; for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by &amp;quot;Units&amp;quot; for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by &amp;quot;Units&amp;quot; for Stock Conversion

thread Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion in Payments Troubleshooting

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion

Re: Scanning Barcodes for Sell-by "Units" for Stock Conversion