Categorized Items Showing Up Uncategorized in Sales Reports

[techtechtekkie]

I've reviewed other threads covering this issue and am still stuck.  Last week items that are categorized in the Dashboard and Square Online started showing up as uncategorized.  I did some digging and the transactions that fall under the uncategorized items are from our POS, Square Online, and delivery portals.  

I downloaded our item library and reviewed it for uncategorized items, but all of the reported "uncategorized" items in the sales report have categories in column F of the spreadsheet.

Our category structure has been in place for quite awhile.  We are using Chowly as an order aggregator.  After spending 3 hours with Square support, all they could tell me was that the items were created at the time of sale causing them to have no categories.  These are all well established items.  I asked about Chowly as a possible source of the problem and they said no, the problem happens at the time of sale on the POS.

Can anyone help? I'm flummoxed and would love to get a solution to this.  Thank you!

[Candlestore]

@techtechtekkie ;

I see this " I did some digging and the transactions that fall under the uncategorized items are from our POS, Square Online, and delivery portals.  " and will try to help.

POS - issue could be how are you entering the Items or the Sale on your POS?  I use a Barcode Scanner now and have not had this issue since it identifies each item at the POS.  Before I had an older Cash Register which had the items on it and then on Squares POS I ran Credit Card sales on it for the total amount shown on the older register.  When I did this all my Credit Card sales showed as Uncategorized.  So at the POS make sure people are having each item rang up and not just entering a $ for each item.  Look at your receipts for these transactions and see if they list an item for the sale or just the total amount.

Pictured below are the old Cash Register receipt and the Newer Square itemized receipt.

This was entered to a cell or tablet for the total amount of the transaction in 2019.  Meaning we used the Keypad to just enter the $ amount in an android device in Keypad and not using the Library to select or Scan an Item.

Using Square as a Manual entry

This receipt was entered by selecting the item 1/4 lb Fudge and scanning the candle in late 2019 on the Checkout screen in a Square Stand.  I just check a receipt from today and they look like this by Scanning items or selecting them in the checkout screen.  How do you add items to you POS sales?

 itemized receipt.

Online - Delivery portals would have to be configured to work with your current Square Dashboard and not just sending the Total to Square to approve the Credit Card charge.  I have a non Square online store, all my sales online are shown as uncategorized in my Square reports.  My reports from my store show each item that was sold and I export the sales to my QuickBooks file to keep inventory up to date.  So depending on your integrations settings with your online store and your delivery portals or lack of integrations to export Items per sale this could be the reason here.  

[techtechtekkie]

Thanks for the help!  I suspect the order aggregator is the culprit here as this started happening when we switched platforms.  

[semvaart]

I have the same problem with showing items with categories in my dashboard and also showing them in the Uncategorized folder that is at the top of the categories list in the reports. I added these items in batch using the Excel import function for new items. All of my new items since a particular time have this characteristic. I haven't seen problems with it yet, but it certainly makes me nervous! I don't add any items via the POS.

[MayaP]

Hey @semvaart, I appreciate you flagging this. 

To clarify the items that are showing uncategorized were ones that were imported into the Dashboard with the import feature? When you uploaded the items categories were assigned on the Excel sheet, right?

Could you provide the Excel sheet? Also, what are some of the uncategorized items? 

I will keep an eye out for your reply! 

[semvaart]

Yes, I was using the import feature under Items in my dashboard (not the POS). They are listed when I list the "Uncategorized" folder and also show up with a Category that is correct in my item listing. I don't know what a "folder" "means" in the category listing. They seem to show up in both the folder and in their category.

Yes, categories were assigned to everything in the Excel sheet. That is how we track our artists for sales so they HAVE to be correct and used. Yes, I can provide an Excel sheet. I need to know who I am sharing it with and where. I checked upload dates, and it appears that all of these have occurred during the month of April.

Items that display this behavior are "11020106 leopard MoP black chevs gold fill by Kay Tate" and "11020277 Orange quartz gold fill by Kay Tate." Please let me know if you need more information on these items. Also, please note that we do not have any online presence.

[MayaP]

Thanks for providing some of that information. Would you be comfortable uploading here? Or I can send you a message, and you can upload the doc via message @semvaart? 

[MayaP]

Hey @semvaart, I got your direct message, and sorry you are having issues uploading the Excel sheet. @Candlestore any advice you can provide? He is saying the category row is too wide.