feature request regarding comps

cacaochemistry · ‎08-23-2023

My company has a rewards program, and through that, our customers earn the ability to get free merchandise. We would prefer to be able to "comp" these items out. Unfortunately, the way comps are set up right now as a feature makes it impossible for us to use it that way, which also makes it impossible to use the inventory feature. It would be nice if the comps report could be more detailed in explanation as an option. Right now, it only lists the reason WHY something was comped, not the comped item.

We currently make it work by making a variation of an item with a $0 price and then selecting that when we need to comp something. This is so we can then pull a report at the end of the month of everything we sold and sort that by price. We then match each item to a spreadsheet we made that has the ingredient cost on it. That cost is what we pay use tax on. The issue with the way we do it now is that we can't use the inventory feature without doing a bunch of paperwork on top of it. Because it's a variation on an item, it counts it as a separate thing in inventory.

For example, let's say we have 10 "Chocolate Chip Cookies at $3.00". A customer uses a coupon for a free cookie. We ring that up as "Chocolate Chip Cookie at $0.00". Inventory still says we have 10 chocolate chip cookies, but now we have -1 "Chocolate Chip Cookie - $0.00".

TheRealChipA · ‎08-23-2023

Hi @cacaochemistry. Maybe I’m missing something here, but…..

Why not create a 100% discount and call it “Comp” or “Comp Discount.” Then, apply that to the item(s) that are being comped when ringing them up. For reporting, you can go to the Discounts report on your dashboard, click on the Comp discount and that will show you a list of items comped using this method.

This would allow you to remove those pesky variations, and keep your inventory straight. If there is a reason this won’t work, let me know and I can think about that.

See screen shot below for a list of items I’m discounted tonight using my Employee Family discount, as an example. I don’t sue comps for this very reason. I have a 100% discount code that I use when I give away gift certificates, or items as a “thank you” to good customers, etc. It’s worked for me for 11 years.

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

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cacaochemistry · ‎08-23-2023

I wish that would work, but it would still leave us unable to pull a report of all items that we need to pay use tax on.

TheRealChipA · ‎08-23-2023

Can you elaborate more on what you mean by use tax? In my State, if we comp something or discount it we are not required to charge the customers tax or pay it ourselves. What, exactly, are you paying a use tax on? I can’t figure out why you couldn’t get a “report at the end of the month of everything we sold” by using discounts. Sorry if I’m being dense. Lol

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!

cacaochemistry · ‎08-23-2023

Use tax is required for anything that gets used but not sold. For example, if you bought a gallon of milk wholesale (so no tax paid yet) and then gave out a free cup to a customer, you will need to figure out what that cup of milk costs (and the cup itself, assuming no sales tax was already paid on the packaging) and then file a use tax return. It's the same rate as sales tax. That is why we need a report detailing everything we comped that month for when we need to do sales tax.

Usually, use tax is levied on the purchaser. In this example, the purchaser is the company giving away the cup of free milk rather than the end user.

TheRealChipA · ‎08-23-2023

I understand. wouldn’t the total of discounts given tell you how much you need to use as the basis for that use tax?

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!

cacaochemistry · ‎08-23-2023

Only if we sold one item. In actuality, we have hundreds of items in our store. We pay that tax on the COGS.

TheRealChipA · ‎08-23-2023

I think you missed my point earlier. The discounts report shows you a detail of every individual item the discount was applied to. So if you applied it to 100 different items, each one would be listed on that report, unlike the comp report.

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!