Can I upload UPC codes directly from Register?

[Violet]

After about 5 years and growth we are finally adding a scanner to facilitate faster checkout. The support articles I’ve seen say to upload these to dashboard, but can I upload them directly from Register in the Items section?

Question 2: for items such as bulk items that do not have a upc code, is there a way to generate these for free without enrolling in Square for Retail or similar subscription?  I

don't need the codes to be recognized outside my store so they don’t have to be truly unique. 

[Candlestore]

@Violet ;

You should be able to upload the UPC scan right from the register.  If it works like my Square Stand.

Different ways to do this:

   1 )  From Checkout Screen san the item that is not in your system.  A pop up will appear asking if you want to add this SKU or GTIN since it does not appear in your Square Catalog.   Wording may be different but you get the idea.

    2) Bottom right press More > Items then you can Select Create Item and scan the Barcode into the SKU or GTIN field.

    3) If you already have items without a SKU field assign or GTIN assigned you can search for the Item and add the Barcode scan to the coresponding field.  Just remember that the GTIN field has specific rules that need to be followed, if not square gives a warning not a leagal GTIN value.

Question 2)

Yes you can either make up your own SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) value up to 30 characters in length of numbers and letters.  

If you want to random numbers and letters you can use Google Sheets or Excel and the Unique and Random features combined.

Here is a Video on how to generate random numbers in Google Sheets.   So if you have say 1000 items coming in with No SKU on them you can use for example   Type this in a Google cell               =randbetween(1000000,9999999)

this is actually saying generate a Random number between 1000000 and 9999999 for a 7 digit SKU you can adjust this to make higher skus too.  Or you can adjust it to have SKUs for T-shirts between 1001000 and 1002000 to keep your catagories ending or starting with a certain sequence.

This will give you 1 Random number between 1000000 and 9999999..... so a 9 digit random SKU all numbers

Now if you want Random numbers for the 1000 items you have coming in you would enter this in a google cell:

=randarray(1000)  

this will give you 1000 rows of unique numbers   catch is if you use this multiple times you may get matching SKU's

Then in a cell next to that row, you can put this in and copy it down the row     =round(B1*1000000000,0)

This will then round the decimal places to a whole number with 9 digits .... only issue is if it generates .0000567656 you would get a sku of  567656 for example.

The other alternative since a SKU can have a mix of numbers and letters is create a simple SKU for your items.

Like for me since a SKU can be upto 30 charachters long.... but then the barcode is also VERY long which is why most barcodes are 7 to 14 digits characters long.  Squares SKU Generator I have found makes them a mix of letters and numbers between 7 and 8 characters in length. 

I went with 8 Black Cherry    for my 8oz Black cherry candle  or 64 Black cherry for my half gallon Black Cherry candles..... my single line Barcodes would not fit a label tho and I started using 2D barcodes similar to a QR code.  now to get this simplified to between 7 and 14 characters  I could do the 8 Black Cherry which is 14 characters and 64 Black Cherr for my SKU   I could also make it 8blkcher

and 64blkche to keep them at 8 characters.

There are also YouTube videos for some easy ways to create your own SKU using codes you create.

here is one for example : Create SKUs for your Small Business 

I do not know if you can use the - or / etc to be a sepperator between Size Color Style etc.  I recommend staying with just Numbers and Letters.   Another reason to use your own code is if your barcode gets damaged it is easier to type in a Barcode you created rather than some random number to find the item.  Since I use BF for my back flow cones and then the Scent, if a barcode is damaged I type in BFDrago...... and the list of items I have with a sku or item name starting that way starts showing up before I fully type in "BFDragonsBlood", for example. This is easier for me to remember that items SKU over 7657HG58 for example from a Square Generated one or other program you can get for Google Sheets or Excel to create your SKU's.