Solved: Updating prices

KayakingBear · ‎08-28-2022

We are about to raise our prices and I wanted to be able to just “switch” to the new prices so I started a new menu by duplicating the original and going in and started to change the prices on the “new menu” but what I didn’t know was it changed the price on all menus so I had to undo all my work.
HELP! I’ve searched the threads but found nothing…..there has to be a way to program it all but not have it go “live” until I want it to.
thanks for any help!

TheRealChipA · ‎08-28-2022

@KayakingBear There is definitely a way. However, first change your perspective here. You’ve already learned the hard way that changing item prices changes them for all menus the item is in. That is as designed and it is how it should be. What you are wanting to do now is “stage” in a total update of your menu prices. You do that “off line” by exporting your item library to a spreadsheet, changing the prices in that spreadsheet, and then when you are ready to go live, importing your updated spreadsheet back into your Item Library. Here are the basic steps.

From your dashboard go to Items -> Item Library.
Click on the blue Actions button and select Export Library.
It’s best to Export to Excel then click the Export button. This will download your Item Library.

You can now safely use Excel to edit your prices. Then when you are ready to go live with the new prices, go back to the Item Library in your dashboard and Import Library. IMPORTANT — you should do this when you are closed, and you should be the only person making any changes to your library when you import. Otherwise you might lose something.

One final note. You can’t use this to update modifier prices. There is no import for the modifier library, yet. So after you import your updated Item Library you’ll have to make any modifier price updates manually. Hopefully you don’t have a lot of those.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I’ve done this a few times before, so I’ve been around the block. Also, I have an alternate method of doing this, but it would require creating a new test location that looks exactly like your live location. It’s a little trickier and once you’ve created a location it will ALWAYS be on your account, even when you deactivate it. That’s not always desirable, trust me.😎

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

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TheRealChipA · ‎08-28-2022

@KayakingBear There is definitely a way. However, first change your perspective here. You’ve already learned the hard way that changing item prices changes them for all menus the item is in. That is as designed and it is how it should be. What you are wanting to do now is “stage” in a total update of your menu prices. You do that “off line” by exporting your item library to a spreadsheet, changing the prices in that spreadsheet, and then when you are ready to go live, importing your updated spreadsheet back into your Item Library. Here are the basic steps.

From your dashboard go to Items -> Item Library.
Click on the blue Actions button and select Export Library.
It’s best to Export to Excel then click the Export button. This will download your Item Library.

You can now safely use Excel to edit your prices. Then when you are ready to go live with the new prices, go back to the Item Library in your dashboard and Import Library. IMPORTANT — you should do this when you are closed, and you should be the only person making any changes to your library when you import. Otherwise you might lose something.

One final note. You can’t use this to update modifier prices. There is no import for the modifier library, yet. So after you import your updated Item Library you’ll have to make any modifier price updates manually. Hopefully you don’t have a lot of those.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I’ve done this a few times before, so I’ve been around the block. Also, I have an alternate method of doing this, but it would require creating a new test location that looks exactly like your live location. It’s a little trickier and once you’ve created a location it will ALWAYS be on your account, even when you deactivate it. That’s not always desirable, trust me.😎

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!