Do I need to set up Items to use Square Point of Sale?

[Bob22]

Hey members, I am so new here, I just received my square a couple of hours ago. on the square dashboard it says I need o list items. Do I have to do that? If not, what do I do? If so, I will do it. 

Thank you.

[The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Item setup]

[BofBArtStudio]

Hi @Bob22 ,

First of all, welcome to the community!

Since you just got your equipment and you're just setting it up, there will be a lot of things that will show up that are suggestions or recommendations from square to kind of help you along as you get everything in place to fit your business. 

If you will be selling actual items/products, you can set those up in your system to be able to start selling them. 

There is a great community here that will help you along your journey. And many resources that you can read through to give you information and best practices to help you along the way. 

Happy selling! 🦋

[Bob22]

Hey Cheryl, Thanks so much for much needed info. You are so right. I received an overwhelming amount of suggestions, recommendations, etc. So I new I needed some experienced help, so as not to make a mistake that could take awhile to undo. And again you are also right in that there is a wealth of info to sort from. So again, thanks so much. 

[Candlestore · Accepted solution]

@Bob22 ;

Welcome to the Square Forum;

Listing items is more like Settimhg up your items you would like to sell.  This is if you would like to track sales for different items and how many you have in inventory.  The other benefit of doing this you could select the items Tile to add it to a checkout cart on your cell phone.  Then local Taxes can also be automatically calculated by Square to give the customer a total they owe and then sent this all through your Card reader for charging your customers card.  Now do you need to setup items in Square to charge a persons card, That answer is No.  You can add items at anytime.  When I first started using Square we had an older Cash register.  We entered the items there and the register would tally up all the items, and automatically add the Tax for the total amount the customer owed us.  Square on the Checkout Screen has a Keypad Screen, where you can enter the total amount to charge to a customer.  Square will run that amount on their credit card and then send you the amount you are owed minus Squares Processing Fee.  Now on these types of charges Square just shows for the item sold, Custom Amount.  Which is squares way of saying a sale that they do not have an item for in your catalog and just were given a Dollar amount to process.   This could be from using the Square app with the Keypad Dollar amount or from using an Online website and connecting Square to be your preferred Credit Card Processor.

Any other questions this forum is full of people and businesses that will point you in the correct direction.

[Breffni]

Welcome @Bob22, we're happy to have you 😊

Exactly as our Square Champions mentioned below, setting up items is optional but may be useful if you intend to sell specific items. If not, you can use the Custom Amount option at checkout and just process unattributed sales as you go. 

Here's a helpful guide to take you through the set up process. 

If you have any questions at all, we're here to help! 

[Bob22]

Thank you for your prompt response Breffni. And thank you for the link in comment. And I will no doubt have lots of questions. Thank you again.