Setting storage unit "slots" in Square?

[MinderStorage]

Hello all.

I am currently trying to get things set up for a small Boat and RV storage facility.

We have 5 covered units and 20 uncovered spots.
One of the covered units has power.

I'd LIKE to set a limit for those spots to the numbers I stated above. So nobody could sign up for 21st outdoor spot.  My first inclination was to just set those as Item limits. But I don't want the monthly unit invoices to decrease the number of units available.

I just want the unit "spot" to be filled.  (I hope that made sense!)

Any ideas on how I might be able to accomplish this would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[Candlestore]

@MinderStorage ;

As I see this is your first post welcome to the Sellers community.  I will try to help you with this but I do not deal with this type of situation. I sell actual products, but I think your on the right track with having each spot as an Item.  You might want even 2 categories.  

Category 1    Uncovered Spots

Category 2    Covered spots

Then have Spots 1-20 in which ever category they belong to.

Have each with a Stock of 1.  That way when the Spot is Full it will show as 0 in Stock.   Then when the Person leaves and the Spot is open again, mark the Item (Spot) as received 1 in Stock Or Recount as 1 so your in Stock will be 1.  While the Spot is Rented your In stock number will then go negative.  This Negative can then show how many months it was rented to that Person.

the other thing is as you Invoice for said Spot, at the end of the year you can see how much each spot was rented.  Each time the Spot goes another negative, say from -2 to -3 this will show as it being rented (sold) 1 time on the report if you understand what I am saying.  

The other option is to turn tracking off but if you do that you may accidently double book a spot.  When my stock is 0 I get a warning on the POS asking if I want to sell the item.  For me since I make my Candles I usually have tracking off or say yes to over sell in my store for my items. Now someone else asked me how I have that warning since they do not, and I can not answer how I have it, since I thought it was a standard feature.

I believe on your POS app screen if you look at your items categories it will list How many are in Stock.  So if someone walks in, you can ask Covered or Un covered.... Look in that category and say spot X is open and ring it up.   Then the next customer comes in at spot X will have a 0 value or a -1 if its the next month. 

I would check my logic but I think this should work for you. 

[MinderStorage]

Thanks for replying!

Yeah, I currently have one item as "Covered Spot" and another as "Uncovered Spot".
Covered with a stock of 20. Uncovered with a stock of 5.

I'm fine with selling them in categories like this. But I don't want to have a sale button for each spot.

We currently have one person in a covered spot. Taking the stock down to 4.
But with each monthly payment, won't that take the item total down further?

I may just have to turn tracking off, and just deactivate manually when stock is full.
We won't be very busy, so I don't think double booking is really a concern.
Still not how I'd like it.  Wish Square would add controls for this sort of thing.

If you think of anything else, please let me know. And thanks again!

[Candlestore]

You say you have an Item for Covered Spot and then for Uncovered Spot.  Then later you say you have them as Categories.

Just trying to understand how you have your items setup.

My suggestion is have the

Category Uncovered.....

             Item Spot 1 

             Item Spot 2

             Item Spot 3

             Item Spot 4

             Item Spot 5

Category Covered...

              Items spot 1 - spot 20 (like above)

Another way would be to have 

No categories like you have:

Item Uncovered

          Variation 1

          Variation 2

          Variation 3

          Variation 4

          Variation 5

Item Covered 

          Variation 1

          Variation 2

          Variation 3

          Variation 4

          Variation 5 

          Variation 6

          Variation 7

          Variation 8

          Variation 9

          etc

          Variation 20

The way you have it now Yes each month the spot will decrease  Since currently you have 2 Items

Covered Stock of 20 and Uncovered Stock of 5

  The way You have it you cannot separate which Spot is which and yes after 3 months of renting 1 spot, you would have a quantity of 17.

My 2 Ways you would have either 2 categories and 25 Items with Stock of 1 or 2 Items with Variations of 1 unit per variation.  Then when the Stock hits 0 for Spot 3 Covered you would be selling negative units which would still be counted as sold and not have to worry about toggling on/off tracking.  Then you also see that Spot 3 for example has been rented X amount of months at the end of the year.   Without toggling on/off..... all you need to do is when the person decides not to rent spot 3 is go to Spot 3 in your items catalog and do a recount of 1 to spot 3.

Here is more about Creating Categories or Variations in Square.

5328-item-variants-or-price-points