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

[Tom]

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.

[LaurenM]

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!

[BookshopMeg]

@Tom and @Inventory I second these requests.  Bulk delete would also be helpful for managing Categories.  Thanks!

[Brightfin]

This is possible my exporting your item list, making your edits on the spreadsheet and then import that file as new.  Hope this helps.

[LaurenM]

@Brightfin Thanks so much for the suggestion. I believe that doing it this way will delete any pictures that are currently associated with the products. Also, it is kind of scary to completely overwrite our inventory when we have thousands upon thousands of items. 

[shopfybr]

I agree about bulk item deletions.

To add on to Lauren's second suggestion, it would be great if we could import vendor invoices to purchase orders. So the PO could automatically be created from the invoice. The reason for this is many of our orders are placed through reps or vendor wholesale ordering sites, however it's still most efficient for us to receive inventory through Square's PO tool.

[Inventory]

Hello @LaurenM - Thank you for sharing your feedback. These features are currently not planned. In the coming days, our team will evaluate all product requests shared during AMA for backlog refinement.

[KCfromProduct]

Hi @LaurenM, 

Have you tried using the Import PO feature that launched late last year? Based on what you wrote in your second suggestion, I think this would work perfectly for you! To learn more, check out this Square Support article. Currently, Import PO doesn't allow you to create new items, but it'd does allow you to easily receive multiple items / variations without impacting images.

Hope that helps and please let me know if you have any questions or additional feedback. Thanks for being a Square for Retail customer!

Cheers,

Katie

[4pawsfashions]

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.

[LeahfromProduct]

Thank you for the feedback. We’re always looking for ways to make our product available to more people. At the moment, Square for Retail is available on iPad, iPhone and Square Register.

[Fiddleheads]

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!

[LeahfromProduct]

When you receive inventory using Square for Retail, the cost associated with the received stock is what is used in reporting. For example, if I have a default unit cost of $2.50 and I receive 3 new units of inventory using the default unit cost, those units will be associated with a specific unit cost, and a date they were received to create what we call a “cost lot”. If the price changes for that product in the future, you can update the Default Unit Cost, but it won’t change the price of the cost lot that was recorded when the inventory was received in the past. Let’s say I update the unit cost to $3.00 on my product. Until I receive more inventory in Square, that unit cost won’t be associated with any of my inventory. If I receive new inventory, the price will be $3.00 per unit and that will create a new cost lot for that inventory adjustment.

[soccersedge]

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?

[LaurenM]

Hello, 

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for? I believe that you can add new items to the excel spreadsheet, then upload that. It should create new items if I am reading the article correctly. 

Import Items Online 

There is also this specifically for Square for Retail: Import Purchase Orders. This requires creating the item first though. 

[Inventory]

Hello @LaurenM - Thank you for helping out, really appreciate it! 🙂

[Inventory]

Hello @soccersedge - Thank you for reaching out. It is possible to bulk create items by importing from an excel and then create purchase orders for the future orders. That way, you can click “receive” on the items you receive and the stock will automatically update to the received amount. Please share your exact use-case with us so that we can address your specific scenario and guide you with multi store inventory management

[fiftylicks]

Hi!

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

[LeahfromProduct]

Yes, disabling inventory tracking needs to be done from Square Dashboard on a desktop computer. Navigate to Items and open the item. If you’re a Square for Retail user, there will be a toggle that says “Tracking” toggle it off and click “Save”.  

[zeroorlando]

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. 

[Inventory]

Hello @zeroorlando  -  Thank you for the feedback. At the moment, inventory is location specific, but we’re working on ways for you to be able to customize pools of inventory across locations and fulfillment methods (shipping, pickup, etc.).

We would love to set up a follow up call to learn more about particular use-case. Please DM me your contact information.

[BillyPtown]

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! 

[shopfybr]

Yes! Something like see item list by vendor and select multiple items at once to go onto a PO.