thread Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊 in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

Tom — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 19:23:08 GMT

Calling all sellers — especially those signed up with Square for Retail and Square for Restaurants. Our product team wants to hear your inventory questions and feedback!

On Wednesday, May 11th, we were grateful to have Mukta Dhanuka (@Inventory) and her team in our forums to address questions and feedback about Square Inventory. See the thread below for answers to your questions and keep watch for a summary of the top themes discussed.

To learn more about Square Inventory and its features, take a look at our Support Center: Basic Inventory Management.

A few example questions:

What are the best practices that will ensure I'm getting the most out of Square Inventory?
What are the latest feature improvements with Square Inventory?
If Square Inventory could take care of "_______," it would save me so much time and help me run my business more efficiently.
I can’t seem to figure out “______” or I need help with “_________”.
An inventory issue that keeps me up at night is “____________”.
I wish Square for Restaurants or Square for Retail would support “________”.

Note: We can't share specific details on our product roadmaps, though this information will be helpful as we continue to make improvements.

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

HbMegs — Mon, 02 May 2022 17:10:51 GMT

I'd love if Square could accommodate bakers by allowing customers to add specific/personal customization to the orders the place. For example, they order a "Happy Birthday" Cookie, and they could then have option of supplying the name to be written on the cookie so that the Cookie would say Happy Birthday NAME HERE. (Or if this feature is already available, how does one set it up when creating the item?) Much obliged!

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

ryanwanner — Mon, 02 May 2022 17:57:53 GMT

Hi @Tom and @Inventory !

I have a couple of wishes for Inventory to be more robust overall...

-The ability to have common ingredients drive inventory counts on multiple items. Example, if I have Pulled Pork used in multiple entrees, I'd like to be able to have an inventory count on the Pork. When its inventory is zero, every item that has the pork in it gets inventory counts set to zero automatically.

-The ability to have inventory counts on modifiers. Keeping with the pulled pork example from above, my workaround is currently to have the pork show as a modifier to the item instead of a variation of the item. When we zero out the counts on the pork, I manually go into the modifier group and remove it. Having sold out options here would eliminate the manual work.

Thanks for considering these and all the other ideas and thoughts in this Q&A!

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

TCSlaguna — Mon, 02 May 2022 20:57:47 GMT

Hey @Tom and @Inventory

Inventory Counting feature on iPhone:

It would be great to have a cloud backup of each person's scanning progress. We had one employee who lost two hours of progress because the app crashed. We immediately told everyone to click submit every fifteen minutes to not lose progress.

Thanks!

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

TCSlaguna — Mon, 02 May 2022 20:59:33 GMT

Hey @Tom and @Inventory

Inventory Counting feature on iPhone:

When you scan an item, the text input pointer is on the previous item. (Picture attached). You have click on the item you just scanned and then input quantity. This adds one more step.

Thanks!

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

TCSlaguna — Mon, 02 May 2022 21:57:29 GMT

Hey @Tom and @Inventory

Inventory Counting feature on iPhone:

If you manually input the SKU of a product you have already scanned, it does not add a quantity of one to the current count. Instead, it adds it as another line item.

Thanks!

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

TCSlaguna — Mon, 02 May 2022 21:56:45 GMT

Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory

Hey @Tom and @Inventory

Feature Request: Vendor Item Library: Quantity On Hand

Thanks!

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

LaurenM — Mon, 02 May 2022 21:41:05 GMT

Hello @Tom and @Inventory ,

Our stores have been using Square for Retail Plus for the last several years. We are enjoying many features and a lot of the quality of life improvements. However, we have tens of thousands of products in our system. We have recently started to go through and delete the products that we will never have in stock again. This has been a very difficult process as there is no way to bulk delete items. We would appreciate even a check box to click and then a button to delete multiple items at a time.

A second suggestion is to be able to add items to the system when uploading an excel spreadsheet for a purchase order. We often have large orders and it is easier to manage those with an excel spreadsheet. It is tedious to add more than 100 items who each have their own variations. To be able to upload a spreadsheet to create items and a purchase order at the same time would be amazing.

Thank you for allowing us to ask questions and provide input!

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

4pawsfashions — Mon, 02 May 2022 23:27:07 GMT

I would love to use Square retail, however you don't support Android devices for this. I guess I will just have to continue to use the old way until I find an alternate pay option for my little business. I was really excited that with this you could have upc codes, but the app is for Iphone or ipad only.

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

Fiddleheads — Tue, 03 May 2022 12:31:01 GMT

When inputting the new unit cost for a restocked item, does the system take into account the previous unit cost if items from a previous shipment are still in stock? THANKS!

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

soccersedge — Tue, 03 May 2022 13:44:15 GMT

Hello,

Is there a way to bulk create new items? We have futures orders on thousands of new items and was wondering if we can upload a template with all of the information so that when they arrive 6-9 months from now, all we have to do is scan them in. Being as we are going to be opening up another store, this will greatly increase efficiency and reduce errors.

Any tips on multi store inventory management?

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

fiftylicks — Tue, 03 May 2022 16:36:06 GMT

Hi!

Is there a way to take an item that is counted as inventory and remove inventory tracking?

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

zeroorlando — Tue, 03 May 2022 18:02:52 GMT

I would love to see ONE INVENTORY for multiple pick up locations be available. I just want to manage one single inventory and allow customers to select shipping, or pick up at various locations, or sell in person. All.from.ONE.inventory. Please.

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

BillyPtown — Tue, 03 May 2022 18:07:58 GMT

Hello,

we would love if you could look at a vendor and see all the items and inventory but could then add what you wanted to order into a PO without having to leave that screen and coming back.

the functionality kind of exists with the low stock auto PO. However, there is no way of doing this with all the items a vendor has…

thanks!

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

rocastone — Tue, 03 May 2022 18:20:39 GMT

When making an invoice for our clients, we attach inventory to sell. Some of those clients are on “Net Terms”. Inventory does not get removed until the invoice is paid. This most often than not gets us into trouble. We sometimes sell over each other due to the inventory count not being updated. There might be a way to add a “rule” to this but we haven’t been able to figure one out.

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

Honeybeard — Tue, 03 May 2022 18:24:09 GMT

Hey hey @Tom and @Inventory !

Anyway to bulk edit without having to import and export inventory?
We have over a few thousand products (A lot inactive)
But it's impossible for us to go on apps like doordash because we have individually edit each product if we want to hide it on doordash or not. We are loosing a lot of money because of this missed opportunity.
It would be extremely beneficial if we could do a mass "Hide" / "Unhide".

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

helderherdwyck — Tue, 03 May 2022 18:26:45 GMT

We operate a farm, and offer guinea keets in spring for ticks. We order 100 to 150 per batch, and resell by options of different increments of number. Exmample: 6 keets, 15 keets, 20 keets, etc. Regardless of which option someone chooses, we start with 100 total. Is there a way to set the inventory to account for the total overall, and deduct accordingly for each option sold? For now I have been juggling inventory by option, so if there are 12 keets left, I set everyting over 10 as sold out and set 6 keets to an inventory of 2. Its a pain!

Thank you,

Erin

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

ivyshomemade — Tue, 03 May 2022 18:27:12 GMT

Hi, if someone reserves an item but does not pay for it can it come out of inventory automatically? Right now we are manically removing it and adding it back in before the sale

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

FiveFelineFarm — Tue, 03 May 2022 18:32:43 GMT

Inventory count needs to be reduced when an item is added to a saved ticket. Similar to Rocastone issue above—too easy to oversell if inventory is not correct. The work around I was given previously was to reduce inventory manually. That defeats the purpose of entering inventory.

Example: I sell baked items. I can make 30 boxes of scones for a Saturday. Customer A sends a message through text to reserve 5 boxes. They want to pay at pickup because they may add other items to their order when they arrive at the store. Customer B will still see all 30 boxes available and could buy all through online check out. I am now oversold by 5.

This will affect any business with multiple sales channels.

Re: Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

cleanrefillery — Tue, 03 May 2022 18:38:47 GMT

I would love it if Square would add a tare portion in the checkout for vendors who sell by weight, and allow us to sell by the pound online in increments less than a pound, example 1/4 lb.