thread Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Entering an item to multiple catagories

goodc71 — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 18:44:36 GMT

I sell bottles and flavorings in different catagories. How do i add to one catagory that would be retail and to another that would be wholesale to keep track of inventory correctly? Very frustrating. Can i really not link 1 tiem to multiple places?I try to add and it actually moves the item. The same bottle is also different prices and some will have liquid in them. How can i correctly manage my inventory this way without needing a warehouse to have different inventories for the same items? over 300 flavorings need to be linked to different places. Square is becoming way more work than i wanted. 😞

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

katieand — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 21:17:24 GMT

Hi @goodc71 - I'm looping in @VanKalkerFarms who is a Square mastermind!

@VanKalkerFarms - do you do wholesale business in addition to retail? How do you manage your differing inventory?

Thanks for your help! 🙏

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

goodc71 — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 21:22:18 GMT

Yes I do. I have a DIY shop and also wholesale but fill orders as ordered or sold.

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

VanKalkerFarms — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 23:49:28 GMT

Unfortunately, I don't use inventory feature in our business as we don't restock as our spring season progresses. We grow what we sell and when we run out I'm not reordering based on inventory. We do use separate locations for wholesale and retail so that the data that Square provides can be more accurate as our wholesale averages $700 per transaction and our retail $93.

maybe @RHatch, or @pessosices use inventory and could fill you in but it does sound like you are wanting some complicated tracking from a free Point of Sale system. I know using some square apps can add tons of inventory features https://squareup.com/app-marketplace.

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

goodc71 — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 00:05:21 GMT

I appreciate the feedback. I think I’m going to go with Lightspeed. I talked to someone from Square and was told I shouldn’t have a problem doing what i need before i purchased the entire bundle pack so I’m extra angry now after spending weeks getting everything set up. I know Square is free but it sure does lack in some very important areas I’d think for any retail. So disappointed after all the work I just did.

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

goodc71 — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 00:07:24 GMT

Oh and I did just add the retail for $60 hoping it would fix my issue but it actually didn’t add very much.

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

RHatch — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 00:55:16 GMT

You have a unique situation here, most retailers have one inventory or one inventory per location. I have a friend that sales Retail and Wholesale and this is what he did. May or may not work for you. He actually created two locations, one for retail and one for wholesale. He loaded all his inventory into the wholesale location. Now everything he sales at wholesale is in cases. When he needs something for retail he subtracts a case and adds the piece count to retail. For him, inventory is simple because if it is a case it is wholesale and if it is a piece it is retail. Allowing him to not have to have a bunch of storage space. Also, note that he has two different devices to ring or invoice customers because you can only log into one location at a time in the app.

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

goodc71 — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 01:40:36 GMT

Hmmm. Let me think on this. Here’s an example. I sell food flavorings. I buy gallons and sell in ml. So, say i have 3785 ml in my inventory of Strawberry. Which is 1 gallon. I sell my flavorings in 15ml, 30ml and 120ml. I do not prefill purchases but when I ring them up, I want those mls to be deducted from the main count of 3785 Mls. Square wants a separate inventory for each size. Ok... so i thought I will just let it go in the negative and then just subtract from the main myself. However i have about 350 flavors between 6 flavor companies. Headache to think about. Then there’s the bottles I put them in. Since I can’t have 1 item in more than 1 catagory it won’t take from the main count I have entered for, as an example, just 30ml bottles. Then I have the wholesale side which is just bottles but our main store ( other business) gets them cheaper than everyone else so same item but different prices. I just want 1 main number for a product and to be able to add that item to different categories. I have a kit for beginners and I will have to manually take things out constantly and I see employee error big time with this. I haven’t opened yet and am ready, just need the POS lol

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

RHatch — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 02:12:32 GMT

Ok, I don't know if this will work or not.

One item is the bottle with a variation of the sizes and a zero price. This will subtract it from inventory.

Bottle 15

Bottle 30

Bottle 120

Flavor if 1 item is 1 ml can you enter qty 15 for 15ml, 30 for 30ml etc. The only problem is the more you buy the more you save, correct? So maybe on top of that, you have a 30ml discount and a 120ml discount. This might get complicated for employees. And then you can do a discount on Wholesale too.

Or are all your prices the same, meaning a 15ml flavor is the same no matter what flavor? If that is the case then put the price on the bottle and zero price on your flavors. So then you ring the bottle with a price and the flavor at 0. Then you have a discount for Wholesale.

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

goodc71 — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 02:14:45 GMT

Maybe if i get rid of the flavor size variations and make a cheat sheet for employees to price by ml and just let bottles run in the negative and I can manually zero them out. Perhaps I’m over complicating my inventory? I really want Square to work!

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

RHatch — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 02:17:02 GMT

Is the price the same for all flavors?

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

goodc71 — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 02:18:32 GMT

Different brands of flavoring are different prices. Some are from Poland and Italy so more expensive

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

RHatch — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 02:45:12 GMT

So can you do a Good, better, best pricing Then have 3 bottle items each with the tree sizes. Only problem with this is if you hvae 10 bottles I would put my counts in one item. Then if the other 2 go negative zero them out and subtract from the inventory.

Or put your base price in the bottle and the flavors that cost more put in a price per ml on top. Ex

Bottle 15ml $2

Bottle 30ml $3

Bottle 120ml $10

This would be the price of the base flavors.

italian grape 1ml .02

thne a 15ml bottle of Italian grape is $2.30

Just shooting out ideas. Hard when I don't know all the variations of your inventory and your needs

Good Luck

Re: Entering an item to multiple catagories

goodc71 — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 18:27:39 GMT

I very much appreciate your ideas and taking the time to help me! I think I’ve decided to just charge per ml and manually zero off a bottle. Now I just hope setting up the website through Square doesn’t mean it will mirror any changes! Online i will have to manage separately which I’m fine with but i do need the variations and running in the negative. Thank you so much again!! 🙂