How do I delete duplicate categories and integrate categories?

[medicinebuddha]

Square was previously set up and there are separate categories for online items and other items.  Some of those categories are duplicated and it makes tracking stock difficult.  How do I delete and integrate duplicate categories?

[ryanwanner]

Hello !

When I first launched my online store, I set my system up just like your system currently is: online items versus instore items. So yeah, I feel your pain here. Inventory was darn near impossible with that setup.

Category manipulation is relatively easy: Web Dashboard -> Items . Where the button says All Categories, switch that to the category you want to remove. Then for each item listed you can open the item and switch it to the category you want to keep. Once that category is empty, click on the Categories link on the left side of the page and remove the category.

However, depending on how your system is set up, you may end up with a mess on your hands doing it this way. Since Square doesn't allow items to be in multiple categories, there is a really good chance that you will have duplicate items. This can get messy very, very quickly.

If this is the problem for you, I actually recommend going about this a different way.

Export your item library (web dashboard -> Items -> Actions -> Export to Excel).

Save a copy of your original library (good if the import goes wrong: you'll have a backup to restore)

For every item that has multiple entries, delete all but one row.

With the remaining row, look for the Category column and change it to the right category name.

Once you're done, save the spreadsheet and import it into your square account.

Now you can go into the Categories section and delete any unused categories.

You may have to reset your Point of Sale favorites tiles, and you'll definitely have to re-categorize items on your online store dashboard, but at least you're only working with one entry per item again!

Hope this helps!