Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Items and Inventory!

[Tom]

On Friday September, 25th we hosted a Square Items and Inventory Live Q&A!

With lots of adjustments in how things are sold during COVID-19, we heard some great questions and feature requests relating to managing items and inventory.

Thank you to @elaine_p from Square’s Catalog team, who answered questions about items and inventory. While we're not able share release timelines, we can give a sense of what’s coming soon in our roadmap and discuss what you need for your business.

[DiHaine0519]

How can I update my stock numbers? I am still figuring out how to maneuver the site.

[elaine_p]

Hi @DiHaine0519 

You can update your stock using your Dashboard or your Square Point of Sale. We have a quick ~3 minute video overview here. 

Dashboard

1. From the dashboard home page, click on the Items tile
2. Click Create an Item (or edit an existing item)
3. In the row labeled “Stock,” click “none.” 
4. Click the toggle for “Tracking” at the applicable location. This means you want to track inventory at this location, and your inventory count will decrease with every sale. 
5. Now you’ll see a row labeled “Stock action” where you can choose the reason for the inventory adjustment. For setting up a new store and adding stock, I would choose “Stock Received.”
6. Enter the amount of stock you have on hand, and save. 

Square Point of Sale 

1. Tap the three horizontal lines and select “Items”
2. Tap “Create Item”, or open an existing item. 
3. In the “Stock” row, tap “Receive Stock”
4. Enter the amount of stock you have on hand and save. 

Basic stock tracking helps you to manage a count that decrements when sales are completed. If you need to track costs and see reporting for cost of goods sold, manage vendors, use purchase orders, or transfer you can do that with Square for Retail. 

The full support article has some helpful screenshots and more details, as well as a step by step guide for making updates in bulk using our file import.

[SIxthRIng]

How do i find contact information on my customers?  Is there data routinely collected thru a Square transaction that i can use for future contact?  Is there a list in my data of these? And where do i find it?

[elaine_p]

Hi @SIxthRIng, 

From the dashboard home page, click “Customers.” This help article and 2.5 minute video gives you an overview about how to get started with your Customer Directory. 

[SIxthRIng]

Thanx Elaine,

This is useful information on Customer Directory.

I appreciate the response.

THe video indicated iPad and iPhone.  Am i to assume that the same utility will be possible on an Android phone?

And to be clear; emails can be entered at the POS (or i assume later) only when the customer provides them.  I have an email from one customer that wasn't requested back in December. But none from other customers since then.

thanx again 

Sixth Ring Ceramics

peter

[specialtiesgame]

How can I get a receiving report for specific time periods (yesterday, last week, month to date) and is there a way to see items sold on the square register so employees know what needs to be restocked? 

[elaine_p]

Hi @specialtiesgame, 

In the free version of our point of sale, you can see stock history for individual items, but we don’t have a filter that will allow you to select a specific time period. The date and time of adjustments are listed, so a work around would be to copy and paste to a spreadsheet to filter.  

Here’s how to see the stock history for individual items: 

1. From the dashboard home page, click on the Items tile
2. Click on an item in your Library where you are tracking inventory. 
3. Click “View stock history” 
4. To filter just to receives, click “All Adjustment Types” 
5. Uncheck “All Adjustment Types,” check “Received”

In our Square for Retail Plus product, you can view stock history across all items, filter by date, adjustment type, and the employee who made the adjustment. More on how to do that with screenshots here.   

For the second part of your question and how employees can see sales, there is a Sales report in the app.

1. Tap on the three horizontal lines and select “Reports”
2. Tap “Sales”
3. Set the time frame (sounds like it would be best to set it since the last restock day)
4. Scroll down, and you will be able to see the top 10 items sold in that timeframe
5. If you need to see the specific variations, tap the three dots and choose “Expand Item Details”
6. If you need more than the top 10, there is also an option under the three dots called “View in Dashboard” that will take you to the full item sales report via a web view.

[DramZach]

Can you make a item template with preset variations and prices? Most of our items have 7 variations with separate prices and we have to re-enter them every time we add a new item which is multiple times daily.

[elaine_p]

Hi @DramZach , 

One suggestion is to try duplicating existing items in the dashboard that have the variations you want to use. Here’s how to do it: 

1. From the dashboard home page, click on the Items tile
2. Find the item you want to duplicate, and click on the three dots on the far right side of the item table. 
3. Choose “Duplicate”
4. Update any information as needed. Note - SKU’s are copied exactly, so they typically need to be changed. Stock is not copied. 

This is only available in the online dashboard today. Where do you typically create most of your items between the online dashboard and the app? 

[2Waltersinnm]

How about detailed instructions on how to use a barcode scanner with a standard HP laptop?  It would be nice to have integration with a scanner and a virtual terminal. And loading 3k plus items in inventory would be a lot easier!!  Thanks!!

[elaine_p]

Hi @2Waltersinnm , 

We don’t support barcode scanners with Virtual Terminal just yet, but I hear you on the feature request. 

For loading a lot of items at a time, until you can scan using your laptop, I would recommend using the file import feature. Here are some steps about how to do that: 

1. From the dashboard home page, click on the Items tile
2. Click “Actions” in the upper right, and then click “Export Library”. This will allow you to see the file format, and the file will have all of your existing items. 
3. Open the file in your prefered spreadsheet program (Google Sheets, Excel, Numbers, etc.)
4. In the sheet, you will see columns for each location: “Current Quantity [location name]” and “New Quantity [location name].”
5. You can update these columns as desired and save the file. 
6. Back in the dashboard in your item library, go back to the “Actions” button and this time choose “Import Library”. Select “Modify Item Library” and follow the prompts to upload the file and add your stock updates. 

More details in the article here.

[DaisyPlus]

Why is there no way to discount or markdown items in Square inventory? It creates a mess when marking down items on the Weebly website, but there's no reflection on the Square Item Inventory. 

And if the answer is, go ahead and reduce the price on each item, how will I know what the original price I tried to sell it for, was? 

There needs to be an option to "sale price" items on the Square Inventory.

[JoeTend]

I couldn't agree more emphatically. If you use the "Price Override" option in the Square catalog, then you can't add a sale price to the Weebly catalog. Seems like an easy fix somewhere.

[reclaimedspirit]

You can currently add a sale price in your on-line store, but it's not reflected in your square POS. It has been added as a request. 

[asw]

Hi @DaisyPlus,

Discounts don’t yet fully sync between Square Online and Square’s main Item Library, but we’re working on this. We recently launched the ability to create a single use discount in Square Marketing that can be applied to Square Online orders. This is the first step we’ve taken to make discounts more cohesive with Square Online. For now, when discounting items for online selling we recommend using Square Online’s Coupons functionality, which are online-only discounts (Square Online coupons cannot be redeemed in-store). You can also assign a Sale Price to an item that is only reflected on your Square Online site by editing the item within the Square Online dashboard.

[vinvero]

I know it's been on the roadmap for a while, like 4 years, but will bundled items be available in the near future? I currently offer bundled items, but inventory of the individual items that make up the bundle must be adjusted manually after a sale. Additionally I have to manually enable or disable the bundles based on the individual items inventory status.

[TreeAmigos]

This is absolute crucial for us. Its one of the main reasons why we are about to pivot to woocommerce and get off of the Square Online by weebly. I've seen requests from over 5 years with no commitments.

Having to have individual variations for my bundles is an inventory nightmare.

[elaine_p]

Hi @vinvero , 

While I can’t give a specific release date, I can say we’ve begun work on this effort as a part of the advanced inventory features available in our Square for Retail Plus and Premium products. 

Our first release will introduce the idea of selling one item multiple ways using one pool of inventory. For wine, this would mean you can create an item variation for a specific bottle of wine and add stock to track the number of bottles available. You’ll be able to add an additional unit of sale, like a glass, and specify how to convert a glass to a bottle. Then when you sell the wine, you’ll see a way to select the unit sold at checkout (glass or bottle), and the inventory will be decremented from your bottle stock. 

After that we’ll progress to be able to define a bundle and attach items to it so that when you sell the bundle, all of the parts will be decremented.

[puravidaart]

Is there a way I can set the low stock alerts for customers to 3 rather than 5?  

[TreeAmigos]

Have you tried bulk exporting your square inventory?