thread Cleaning up sales data in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Cleaning up sales data

Chocolate — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 15:38:58 GMT

Hello there -

We purchased a business and the previous owner wasn't exactly the most organized. We went through a process to properly categorize each item. Then the store manager changed some of the categories each item was in - making the reporting incorrect.

So we have three phases of data. Phase 1: previous owner, item and their categories are a mess. Phase 2: data is clean. Phase 3: data is 90% clean, but not perfect.

What I would like to do is be able to download all the items ever sold into an excel file, add the correct category and upload that to the Square system. This should allow all of the reporting to be accurate, across all transactions. Right now I can't accurately compare anything unless I export to Excel and do the clean up myself.

Does anyone know if this is possible? Has anyone else had similar issues? If so, how did you deal with it?

Re: Cleaning up sales data

RHatch — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 15:49:14 GMT

You cannot change or alter past transactions. The only thing you can do is attach a customer to a past transaction.

What I would do is export all data and correct it as you stated. So at least you can make you own reports.

You may consider starting a new location then you know from that point forward all data is correct.

Re: Cleaning up sales data

mintboutique — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 21:27:39 GMT

The problem with not being able to alter past transactions is if something in my shop is rang up under wrong category or ahs "un categorized" and I am not able to change the description then the sale is going to the wrong person and when you give me my end of year reports it will be incorrect. Our shop has several "vendors" that sell with us and we write them a check for all their sales each month. If we are not able to go back and correct issues with the description of items/categories, not only will we not be able to pay them correctly, but the 1099 forms will also be wrong. THIS IS A DEFINETE FLAW IN YOUR SYSTEM. Changing the description or category will do nothing to the actual transaction and the way the payment was processed.

Re: Cleaning up sales data

MayaP — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 20:39:00 GMT

Hi @mintboutique,

Thanks for providing this feedback and breakdown of how your business operations work!

I certainly understand how editing the category of the transaction after the fact would be extremely helpful.

I'll be really honest though, I am still not seeing this as a feature that will be available anytime soon. From the discussions I have seen it just boils down to compliance issues. And being wary of people having access to edit a transaction after the fact, and incorrectly using it.

Again I know this is major set back for legitimate issues that come up like the one you described for us.

I would go ahead and pass a request along to our team. Be really detailed in how this feature would be beneficial to your business. But again I don't anticipate this coming about anytime soon.

Please let me know if I can assist any further!