Items & Inventory: How should I create the items for my ice cream shop?

[thefew78]

The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Ice Cream Shop, creating items.

Hi,

I'm looking to use square register for my ice cream shop, however I'm a bit stuck on how I should create the items. For example, if we sell ice cream scoops from 1-3 scoops, and if the customer choses 3 different ice cream flavors. How can I create the item, so I can account for the different ice cream flavors for this transition I want to be able to see which ice cream is selling more than the rest, also for inventory so I know which ice cream is running out. Is there a way to do this?

[VanKalkerFarms]

I believe @pessosices is going to be able to best help you as he has a very similar store and would be able to share tips and tricks with you.

[pessosices]

Thanks @VanKalkerFarms!

Hey @thefew78 - Great question!

It is super tricky, and something we've struggled with.

Unfortunately I haven't found a perfect way to set it all up for it to work for inventory purposes by scoop by flavor - But there are easy ways to set up by the scoop and by flavor to at least see which flavors are selling more than others and ring up easily and effectively.

What we do is set up a separate item for Ice Cream 1 Scoop, Ice Cream 2 Scoop, Ice Cream 3 Scoop. And a separate item for Toppings and a separate item for Cone.

For flavors tracking, you can then have a Modifier Group set up called Ice Cream Flavors and in it we put all of the flavors you have - and set it up so that you can choose multiple flavors, so if they want a 3 scoop of 3 different flavors you can hit all 3. 

It breaks down a little bit if they want 2 chocolate and 1 vanilla, you would only hit Chocolate once and Vanilla once - but it's better than not seeing them at all!

Personally, we don't track our flavors by item - we're a very fast paced store and we found that it slowed us down too much, and because we have about 100 flavors alltogether and we're constantly rotating some in and out, it got a little crazy to keep track of it.

Instead we track our flavors by the tub, and set up a separate Location to track our inventory that way, making an item for Tubs of Each Flavor, and Ringing Up a Sale of them when we put them up front, and Adding tubs to inventory when we make more tubs.

Hope this helps and makes sense!
Let me know if you need me to clarify anything or go into more detail, or if I can help in any other way to set up your registers

[Obaid]

Hi,

 I have a gelato shop as well and i've been trying to keep track of cups and flavours. I read the answer by @pessosices if the Tubs parts could be explained a bit more.

Thanks alot !

[pessosices]

Totally, @Obaid !

I use the tub tracking not related to the number of scoops - just for inventory of tubs.

I created a Second Location called X-Inventory, and in there I created items for each one of my flavors. I also set up a dedicated iPad POS logged into that secondary location. Any time I make Ice Cream, I enter the number of tubs I make into the Inventory. When my employees bring up a tub and put it in the freezer up front, they ring up a sale of that Flavor. This way I always know how many tubs of each flavor I have, and have used each month/year.

Here's a screenshot of my Item list for the tubs on web Dashboard:

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any more questions!

[Obaid]

@pessosices  Thank you so much, that was very clear. 

One other question please, if for example you serve 100 grams in a cup, another 100 grams a cup with topping and 50 grams for a shake. I have read previously that you checkout customers faster by saving the cup with the topping as a separate item even though its the same size. At the end of the day how do you keep track of cups inventory if its saved twice for the same size, toppings count and the  gelato stock at closing.

hope am not disturbing

thanks 

[pessosices]

@Obaid 

Happy to help!

Yea, there's no real easy way to do that and track cups across different sizes and types of products.

To clarify, I track Toppings as a separate item, so in theory it is possible to do that. If someone gets a small ice cream with a topping, I ring up the item "Small Ice Cream" and then the separate item "Topping". If it's a small ice cream with 2 toppings, I ring up "Small Ice Cream" and the item "Topping" and the item "Topping" again.

So doing it that way might actually work for you.

[Obaid]

Ok got the idea, Thanks 😊

[billmotley21]

I am just opening an ice cream outlet and very interested in this thread, have you made any new progress with the inventory tracking of ice cream since this was written in 2018?

Thanks

[pessosices]

Hey @billmotley21 

There's still no real good way to track scoops for inventory purposes, but since Covid changed the way we take orders, I do use Modifiers for the Flavors, which is nice to see.

[micsmainscoop]

would you possibly be willing to share a screenshot of your setup?! 

[pessosices]

Hey @micsmainscoop 

It's a little hard to show, but I'll try to explain it too:

Item: Ice Cream

Variations: 1 Scoop, 2 Scoop, 3 Scoop, Pint

Modifier Group 1: Ice Cream Flavors, Flavors are Modifiers

Modifier Group 2: Toppings, Toppings are Modifiers

Here's a screenshot:

[Kellibain]

Hello.  My name is Kelli and I own a liquid nitrogen ice cream shop.  We set each item (ice cream scoop and pints-to-go). We have mix-ins, different flavors, sizes etc.  We corrently rack by cup size.  Its hard using the Square For Resturants.  We did not have these issues with the old system

1. We set a button for each product

2.  Under the product for example we add numbered modifiers-

  A. size

  B. Dairy or non dairy 

  C. Signature Flavor

  D. Build your own

and so on.  Our reports record the number of cups and size

We also had an issue of keeping track of flavors.  Using the old square system not Resturants as we use now, it was much easier to track flavor choices.  

[Arie]

Hi @Kellibain,

Thanks for writing in to the community! Sorry to hear you're having trouble with Square for Restaurants, compared to the standard point of Sale. It would be great if you could let us know how you'd like to ideally set up, and if you'd consider switching back to the Point of Sale app? How are you currently keeping track of your flavours? Looking forward to hearing back from you 🙂

[Kellibain]

So I haven’t figured out how to track flavors. I can’t figure out how to use the modifiers to track because everything is under ice cream button. I had more success understanding modifiers in the old platform. I use the square for restaurants app on my square stand. 
Personally I prefer the modifiers layout structure in the point of sale vs square restaurants. However I am happy with Square as a product. 

[pessosices]

Hey @Kellibain 

I don't use Square Restaurants so I'm not sure about on there.

But on Square POS if you set up a Modifier Group called Flavors, and each Modifier is the Flavor for $0.00, and apply it to your Ice Cream Item, then that should work to track things.

To see the Data, go into Reports, then Modifier Sales, and you should see the number of each flavor sold!

I hope this helps,

Pesso