Feature Request: Track inventory on modifiers

[StickbowArchery]

The title of this post has been edited from the original: Tracking Modifiers in Inventory

One of the things I sell are archery bows.  When I sell a bow, it comes with a bowstring.  I also sell individual bowstrings.  I track inventory for bows AND bowstrings.  At the end of the day, I would like to see the TOTAL number of bowstrings out of my inventory (strings that went out wilh each bow + the strings sold individually).

The only way I've seen to do this are 1) "sell" a string with each bow, reducing the price to $0.00, or 2) attach a modifier to each bow that has the proper size bowstring automatically attached.  Option 2 would work best for me because I would eliminate employees forgetting to perform the steps in option 1, however I cannot find a way to accurately track my bowstring inventory while employing option 2.

Any suggestions?

[superchunk]

Adding an inventory count to modifiers would be incredibly helpful. Here's why...

I own a restaurant. On the weekends we offer brunch. We make bagels in three flavors and we offer these on four different sandwiches or for sale individually. We have two sandwiches that come on everything bagels, one sandwich on a sesame bagel, and one sandwich on a salt bagel. Our customers can buy a sandwich and a bagel on it's own. If I could control the number of bagels we have in the modifier, I wouldn't have to adjust it manually all day long, like I'm doing now. I could add, let's say, 12 everything bagels to the modifier and add that modifier to three different items. Then as the item is selected, a sandwich or individual bagel, the customer can choose the bagel flavor and the modifier is slowly depleted throughout the day. Variations does not work for this. I don't have one item (like a t-shirt) with several variations (small, medium, large). I have several items that all use the same inventory. Is there a work around I'm not seeing? 

[JustinC]

@superchunk

Thanks for taking time to spell out what you're looking to accomplish. I understand that variations aren't the most ideal route to take for you biz but it's the best option for now.

However, your detailed feedback helps tremendously in bringing value to this feature request. Making a note so our Product Team can see and understand the needs of your biz! 

Thanks for posting. 

[HFFF]

I also need modifiers to be counted along with the item. I have items that are taken by different departments. For example gallons of cider. The modifier allows me to know who is using it. The modifier report tells me how many items a department took, but I have no way of connecting it to which items. So maybe 100 gallons of cider were used in the item report. The modifier says the cafe used 50 items. But the cafe also used honey, apples, apple sauce, ect. so how many of the 50 things they used were cider? I have no idea!

[lildovecafejc]

This is exactly what I need inventory on modifiers for as well -- tracking bread type. It is very difficult on busy weekends to keep track of bagel types when they are selling out quickly and I am currently manually deleting the modifier but it is not perfect (i.e. someone can buy one before I get it offline or I take it off too early and have some leftover). With the pandemic almost all orders are coming through online so it is not as easy as previously when we ran out and could let me know at the counter that we are out of a bagel type. 

[Joe]

Thanks for adding your voice here in support of these changes to modifiers, @lildovecafejc - we appreciate you sharing your specific business details on how these potential changes would affect your business.

We are continuing to pass all feedback along to our Product Teams. As soon as we have some updates to share in regards to new features being introduced, we will bounce back here and update everyone accordingly. Thanks, again!

[mathewpdc]

I've only recently started using Square but I'm already seeing how beneficial a feature like tracking inventory through modifiers would be for my business, especially when it comes to online orders. I own a cookie shop and sell half dozen and dozen boxes. It'd be great if the modifiers I use could automatically reduce from my inventory so I don't run the risk of selling something I'm out of in error.

[AshleyK]

@matthewpdc thanks so much for adding your feedback!!

[Sharifharb]

I would also like for the customer to be able to add more than one of the same modifier. 

[kff]

It's 2021 and most of these replies are from 2018.... CAN WE PRETTY PLEASE GET THE MODIFIERS TO TRACK INVENTORY NOW?

My business also runs on this POS system. My business partner and I are smashing our heads into a wall trying to track inventory properly. Variations do not work for us, but instead makes our reports a gigantic hot mess and we end up spending precious time (time is money) tediously hand recounting (again), comparing reports ,etc. trying to figure out what happened from the night before. Is there anyone from the Product Team that could give us some insight to whether or not this is going to happen?

SOS PLEASE SEND HELP 😞

[lgmbts]

We have items that are used in several modifier sets, and that we also need to track inventory with (bagels, which are sold stand alone and also as a modifier on a sandwich).  Currently there is no "master inventory" that tracks when we are out of a bagel variety - and it requires us to manually track inventory (a real pain!) so we don't oversell.  It also causes us to not be able to list our full menu for sale online (a real problem).  I've asked Square for help but they currently don't have a solution that makes sense on the customer facing side.  If you have this same problem, please let Square know.

[AdamB]

Thanks for your post, @lgmbts.

That's an interesting way to use item modifiers - essentially using a different item as a modifier for another. Hopefully other sellers will comment on your post If they would like to see us add this in a more succinct way so that it tracks inventory.

[JoyfulCup]

Thanks for the information, Isabelle!  I was hoping to offer a four pack of cocoa bombs, but some flavor choices have an up-charge.  Am I understanding correctly that using the modifiers would be the best choice in this case....however then the modifiers won't be tied to my inventory?  I'm concerned that if I'm out of stock of a flavor, the modifiers wouldn't pick that up.  Am I correct in my understanding?  

[JustinC]

Hi @JoyfulCup - Justin here 🙂

Yes, you are correct - your flavor modifiers will not be tied to inventory. In other words, Square's system won't recognize if you run out of a flavor. 

If you're looking to track each flavor, add them as variations to add stock amounts:

ex. Vanilla cocoa bomb

      Cinnamon cocoa bomb 

      etc...

[jeki]

Looking to build something like a "You Pick Two" or "Build a Basket" where you can multi-select a specified # of variations (I would even settle for unspecified #). I do need to track inventory, which would make tracking inventory for variations across multiple items an additional tricky part.

Alternatively multi-select is solved with modifiers, but there's no inventory mgmt option there.

Anyone have any workarounds??

[Donnie-M]

@jeki The inventory part is tricky.  If you just need to track the sales there is a modifier sales report.

I do this with a breakfast platter and have set up a pick 2 pick 3 pick 4 etc.  I then use a modifier set of all the options (I even have duplicates for those people that want extra bacon etc.).  I then restricted the number of choices by customizing the modifier from the item screen.

If you need a true inventory then it could be done using the options feature, but that will give you a lot of variations, but for online sales works quite well as each option is a drop down box.  What type of items are you bundling?

[jeki]

Yea it's the inventory that's the necessity. I'm a bakery and we have pastry baskets. One flat cost for a 4pk, 6pk and 12pk. So the item would be the pack size, and the selections are the variations. I've seen the modifiers, but no inventory tracker is a huge bummer. 

The workaround I've done is to create auto discounts when you select a certain quantity of items. But looking at it from a customer standpoint, the behavioral economics are not very motivating when you see $0.25 off per piece vs the concept of buying a 6pk for a known price. 

Any other options out there?

[rchard]

Square please make this a thing!  People have been asking for 5 years now.  This is something that will make me consider switching to a different platform.  I also would like to offer bundle options for people to pick multiple scents of my candles and get that bundle at a cheaper price.  Best way for customers to pick their options are modifiers.  I also have those same candles as individual items.  If I only have a couple left of a scent I need that inventory to pull from the individual listing as well so I don't have a customer buy that as well and then be mad when I don't have it in stock because someone bought it in the bundle right before them.  This  appears to be a crucial issue for a lot of different businesses!  With the holidays approaching (yes they are more than 6 months away but as business owners we have to be planning far ahead), I need to be able to offer gift bundles to my customers and will be looking if I need to move my website elsewhere for this to be a possibility so I don't have upset customers or lose sales over this.

[JC1776]

So I’m having some issues. I’ve been using Square for 8+ years and now wanting to I still see more of the inventory features with a barcode scanner as I’ve just purchased the square register. Here’s my issues and how I have them categorized.  I have particular questions on bottles I sell with different flavors strengths etc… one flavor in a particular brand can have 5 different strength variations. 

Category: type of products

Items: Brand name of item

Variations: different flavors in said brand

modifiers: strength of product

my problem is I’m trying utilize inventory on each item including modifiers etc. what’s a easy good way of achieving this. 

[_Violet]

Hi @JC1776 - Thanks for reaching out! Additionally, welcome to the Square Seller Community 🎉

I merged your post with a thread where other sellers have discussed this topic.

When tracking item stock, modifiers will not be tied to inventory. In other words, Square's system won't recognize if you run out of a specific modifier (or strength of your product). This is currently a feature request. 

However, you can add stock amounts to each variation to track each flavor of the brand.

I hope this information is helpful but please let us know if you have any additional questions. Always happy to assist you! 😊

[GACoffee]

I'm surprised including modifiers in inventory count (or much of anything with non-cost modifiers) is still a "feature request" after 5 years! That's a good argument for competitors geared more specifically toward the hospitality industry. 

[BernadetteA]

Thank you for your feedback, @GACoffee We will make sure to share this with the teams.