Item counts for service - Square for restuarants plus

[BlasphemyBBQ]

Is there an easy way to update/add item counts that isn't through the inventory system? I have dug through the forums and have not found an answer to this. The inventory system is not a great way for food service users to make sure that we don't oversell an item. I don't need to add inventory, I need to have real time counts that resets everyday (because we either make more or buy more so we can sell it). This is a huge issue for my business because we are a BBQ place and we have a finite amount of things we can sell per day but sometimes we won't know exactly how much until mid service.

This is a basic function of all restaurant POS systems, and I am actually considering finding a new one because the way it functions on square is abysmal (and we just opened so I would be throwing away my square startup costs, but this is a huge issue). I specifically upgraded to Square for Restaurants plus because I was told that it had what I needed (it does not). I am unable to open up my online ordering until I can get a way to do this properly and efficiently.

I'm not sure if you need to hire a restaurant manager/owner to explain to your programmers how this is a very important function THAT EVERY OTHER POS SYSTEM IN MY 30 YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY HAS BEEN ABLE TO DO!!! Or if you need to steal a senior programmer from aloha or micros to explain how to do it but this is ridiculous.

Please please please tell me I've just missed something and there is an easy way to do this, that doesn't involve the retail inventory system.

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

You’re welcome, of course.  I think we can get you there.  For the rest of this post I’m going with the obvious assumption that you are using the Restaurants POS.

When you “press and hold” an item you’ll see “Update availability.”  If you select that, the edit item screen will come up at the Variations section.  Here you can click Manage Stock beside each variation and then either mark as sold or use a stock adjustment reason (stock received or inventory re-count).  Note that you can also do this from your POS > More > Items to edit from an item list rather than the grid.

For your online store, you will need to edit it.  Then, in Shared Settings you’ll see “Item Preferences.”  Here you will be able to toggle on “low inventory” and “out of stock” indicators.  You’ll also be able to decide if you want out-of-stock items to show or be hidden from your online store.

Note that out of stock items on your POS will be marked as such.  But, in cases where you have just a little more than you thought, it will warn you an item is out and you can decide right then whether to add it or not.

Obviously, this is not perfect but I believe it will do what you want.  However, please keep coming back here and asking questions if you run into issues as you are trying this out for yourself.

Also, lastly, I’d strongly recommend that you go to the Ingredient Cost Tracking beta, which also includes item inventory tracking, and ask to join.  You might not be able to use it right away as, like I said earlier, it is in its infancy.  But it sounds like you are very close to being able to use this and help guide its development.  From what I can tell, this is the first baby steps toward Square having its own in-house restaurant/bar costing/inventory functions rather than relying on third-party apps.  I’ve been involved in tons of betas over the years and the ability to influence and give real-world perspectives on new functionality is definitely a plus, in my book.

Anyway, try over my suggestions above and come back here if we need to refine them more.

[TheRealChipA]

Thanks for the tag @JTPets.  Hi @BlasphemyBBQ.  I’m going to add some more to what @SVLFever has already said.

To confirm what John said, there is no automatic reset for inventory quantities.  If they need to be reset, it needs to be done manually — either on the dashboard manually, or with an item catalog upload that changes item quantities.  

I don’t know who the Square reseller was that assured you that Square had full restaurant/bar inventory management.  But, basically, they lied to you or they don’t understand Square.  I’d hope that you can recoup your costs from them for misrepresentation if you decide to go elsewhere.  But before you do….

There are third-party apps that integrate with Square that should do this very thing.  But, of course, they are subscription based — ie - monthly charges apply.  Also, there is a beta that recently started that will eventually address this issue.  You might find that it works for you, but I can tell you that it is in its infancy.  It currently doesn’t support shared recipes, or variations or modifier-based inventory tracking.  It will, eventually, but that is going to take time.

I might be able to help you if I understood your inventory needs better.  For example, it there a 1-1 connection between inventory items (pulled pork, green beans, etc) and items in your Square item catalog and modifier sets?  Or do you share inventory items between multiple items and/or modifiers?  If your inventory needs are relatively simply and straightforward, then OTHER THAN THE DAILY RESET, you can use inventory count tracking.  But, as @SVLFever already mentioned, there will be manual resetting every day, until Square has fully developed its restaurant/bar inventory management system.

I’m sorry you were misled by whoever sold you your Square system.  That’s never fun.

[BlasphemyBBQ]

Basically I need a function that can just quickly put a count on menu items if we are running low, similar to how square has the press and hold function to make an item unavailable, but instead of unavailable I would input the number I have left to sell those and then it would count down and 86 each item once we've sold the number of items I put on the item, then the next day it would just reset (ideally although this is a lot less necessary than an easier way to do on the fly inventory management). I would love to have it do shared modifiers and other things but at this point I just want to be able to do the main plate item. It's frustrating because this isn't something new in restaurant POS systems I am asking for, pretty much every other system has the ability to do this, and the systems that have been around for a longer time have had it available for literally decades, so I am not sure why square won't do it (when it's been asked for for years by square restaurant users). Thanks for your time and help.

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

You’re welcome, of course.  I think we can get you there.  For the rest of this post I’m going with the obvious assumption that you are using the Restaurants POS.

When you “press and hold” an item you’ll see “Update availability.”  If you select that, the edit item screen will come up at the Variations section.  Here you can click Manage Stock beside each variation and then either mark as sold or use a stock adjustment reason (stock received or inventory re-count).  Note that you can also do this from your POS > More > Items to edit from an item list rather than the grid.

For your online store, you will need to edit it.  Then, in Shared Settings you’ll see “Item Preferences.”  Here you will be able to toggle on “low inventory” and “out of stock” indicators.  You’ll also be able to decide if you want out-of-stock items to show or be hidden from your online store.

Note that out of stock items on your POS will be marked as such.  But, in cases where you have just a little more than you thought, it will warn you an item is out and you can decide right then whether to add it or not.

Obviously, this is not perfect but I believe it will do what you want.  However, please keep coming back here and asking questions if you run into issues as you are trying this out for yourself.

Also, lastly, I’d strongly recommend that you go to the Ingredient Cost Tracking beta, which also includes item inventory tracking, and ask to join.  You might not be able to use it right away as, like I said earlier, it is in its infancy.  But it sounds like you are very close to being able to use this and help guide its development.  From what I can tell, this is the first baby steps toward Square having its own in-house restaurant/bar costing/inventory functions rather than relying on third-party apps.  I’ve been involved in tons of betas over the years and the ability to influence and give real-world perspectives on new functionality is definitely a plus, in my book.

Anyway, try over my suggestions above and come back here if we need to refine them more.

[TheRealChipA]

@BlasphemyBBQ a follow up to my suggestions above.  I just submitted a feature request to the Restaurants team, asking for counts at the modifier level so that we can setup and do automated count-downs to using.  Please follow this link and upvote that, if you would.

[BlasphemyBBQ]

Done! Thanks!

[SVLFever]

I did as well guys!  Makes sense to me too.

[mksavage]

I did too! Thanks for submitting this @TheRealChipA! We've used Square since Day 1 and have gotten pretty used to the cumbersome way this functions, but this feature would be nice! We end up tracking a lot of it on a piece of paper at the register during busy shifts as well!

[BlasphemyBBQ]

Thanks, I already do it this way. It is very cumbersome to do during a busy service.