Sync Woocommerce to Square First Time

[kcbenson]

I've used Woocommerce, but I've never used Square before. My client has used Square, but she's never used Woocommerce before. She has about 80 items in her store. We're putting a subset of about 30 of those 80 items as products in Woocommerce. We have the Woocommerce Square plugin set up. We're putting SKUs on the products/items that are common to both Woo and Square, but the items that are only in Square never had SKUs and are not going to get them at this time. If we manually sync from Woo to Square:

1) Will the 50 non-SKU items in Square remain unaffected?

2) Will the sync adjust name, price, etc. in items that have a matching SKU but a different name or price?

3) Will any bad things happen? Is this something we should do on a Saturday night so we have all day Sunday to fix it?

4) Is there a way to un-sync?

5) The big fear is that the sync will duplicate Woo products into Square items instead of syncing Woo products into Square items. Logic tells me that as long as the Square items have SKUs that match Woo products, there should be no duplication. Is logic right? Is it possible to have two items in Square with the same SKU?

At what point does passive sync begin? I keep reading that the sync "just happens" but so far items/products that have the same SKU don't appear to be syncing.

[ryanwanner · Accepted solution]

I am using WooCommerce and the Square sync so I think I can help you out a bit here. I'll answer your questions first then go into detail below... (this is gonna be a long post!!)

1) Will the 50 non-SKU items in Square remain unaffected?
Yes. Any non-SKU items will not be imported over

2) Will the sync adjust name, price, etc. in items that have a matching SKU but a different name or price?

It can. I had an item that was shared between two locations. I changed the category in WooCommerce and it ended up changing the category in both locations. Be careful with this one! (I'll go into detail more below)

3) Will any bad things happen? Is this something we should do on a Saturday night so we have all day Sunday to fix it?

Safe rule of thumb whenever launching a new thing with a live database is to give yourself time to fix all the randomness. This definitely rings true with the WooCommerce sync

4) Is there a way to un-sync?

Yes. In the WooCommerce section on your WordPress site, go to Integrations. Don't choose the Disconnect From Square option or you'll not be able to run credit cards. Scroll down a little further and you'll see the options for what to and what not to sync

5) The big fear is that the sync will duplicate Woo products into Square items ... Is it possible to have two items in Square with the same SKU?

This can and does happen. You have to be careful here. Again, more detail below...

At what point does passive sync begin? I keep reading that the sync "just happens" but so far items/products that have the same SKU don't appear to be syncing.

Officially everyone involved says that the sync happens as soon as you change something. It doesn't. The safe bet is that you should plan on 12-24 hours for everything to be happy.

Okay, now for my story. I've had a few random issues with the Square sync. With items changing categories, I've found that it imported the item correctly as related to the category assigned to it in square, but when I changed the category in Woo it ended up changing the category in Square on both locations, not just the one that's selling online. This makes sense in retrospect, but at the time it confused the snot out of me.

I've reached out to Woo in the past, and they recommend setting up the items in Woo and letting it sync to Square instead of the other way around. Their reasoning is valid: Woo allows for a lot more in-depth item creation (sub-modifiers for example), and it's easier to parse the data into what Square allows than to have Woo try to figure out what Square means when it comes to modifiers, etc. It definitely seems counterintuitive, but I've finally wrapped my head around it.

So whenever I create an item for online sale, I set it up in Woo with a category specific to the online environment (all my online categories start with OL) and let it send the data to Square. At the same time, I'll set up a similar item in Square for use internally. This means I end up having two identical items, but it allows me to first not have to worry about Woo borking something in my retail environment, and allows me to differentiate my sales streams so I know where all my sales are coming from.

Which brings me to reporting. There is a BIG limitation with the Woo integration (and I'm pretty sure all API integrations) that will drive you mad. (At least it did for me). Any online order you get will show as "WooCommerce Order #xxx" in the transactions report in Square with only the total dollar amount of the sale. The items are not broken out in the transactions nor is any shipping you may charge. Obviously there is an itemized order report in the Woo plugin in WordPress, but not in Square. Every time we get an order, my bookkeeper has to log into our website, find the corresponding order, and manually update the books to separate the items and shipping.

All that said, if you stick with setting the items in Woo versus Square, you don't run into any odd SKU issues. Do watch for duplicate items, though: I haven't had the "luxury" of testing this, but I wouldn't be surprised if items duplicate just because the modifiers aren't quite the same.

Good luck! 🙂

[Hagriss]

I would like my website migrated to square. How do i get in touch with a Square affiliated partner to do the job.

**this message has been edited by a moderator to provide clarity in the question*

[ashc]

Hi @Hagriss and welcome to the Community!

I moved your post to a relevant thread on how to sync WooCommerce to Square.

Check out the posts above for more details on how to sync everything. 

[Moparfest]

Hi,

I am new to both Square and WooCommerce

I am trying to use item modifiers on one of my items. I have 3 modifiers I need it use on it. I don't see those modifiers being synced to my store in WooCommerce - this this normal? I see the modifiers when I am using the Square app on my phone to take payment, but that's it.

Can anyone let me know how to get around this? I have tried to sync my items again but that did not help

Thanks in advance

[Valentina]

I've moved your post to this thread where @ryanwanner shared a lot about their experience syncing their Square account with their WooCommerce account - this should be helpful! 🙂

[ConcertoCoffee]

Same for me, and I can't figure it out. I've tried to add variations instead of modifiers, which seems to work, but the problem is that stock is then tracked separately. I sell coffee, so I simply want "Coffee Product" => "Light, Medium, or Dark". I'm roasting the coffee from the same stock, so I just need a way to distinguish the different roasts for my customers.

[meliorbc]

We have a pretty established online shop that uses Square to process payments. We also use Square for in person sales.

I want to sync the systems (inventory, 1 system of record, etc.).

Having trouble figuring out the best path forward...input appreciated!

Some brief background:

Products - our SKU's and inventory are not aligned in each system...I am planning to fix that before syncing...meaning I can create new SKU's if needed (I know I will lose some data, but that feels unavoidable in our current situation and I'm focused on accurate data moving forward primarily)

Variations - I have products with variations (flavor A and B for example) that need to be able to be synced properly. Is it best to create entirely separate products or can variations of the same product exist within the synced set-up?

Updates - having inventory synced between the systems is important, but real-time is not a requirement if it is refreshed consistently and accurately. But we need 1 place to input new inventory that shows in the other.

In-person only - we do have some products sold only in-person (or online only) so need to be able to have them marked accordingly and some will live only in Square (at least active only in Square)

Images - accurate images are not nearly as important in Square as they are in Woo for my ecomm store...do I have to sync these?

Coupons - being ecomm, coupons and discounts are hugely important to keep and have fairly flexible...but be able to be applied in-person as well. 

This is a lot...thanks for reading and providing any insight you can. I'm anxious to get this figured out and implemented.

-Brandon

[JustinC]

Hey @ryanwanner! You sync with Woo Commerce, right? Mind chiming in to help @meliorbc 

I appreciate you! 

[ryanwanner]

Hey @meliorbc ! I think I can give you a hand with some of these questions! (Thanks for the h/t, @JustinC )

When working with WooCommerce, the best advice that I got was to use WooCommerce for all of your item building. The way Woo does their items and modifiers is a little different than Square does, and it's easier to parse down the data than it is to puzzle piece together what Square sends to woo.

Otherwise, you have a bit of control over images and data syncs when on the Woo configuration pages: you can elect not to have images sent over as an example.

Build your menu in Woo and I think you'll be set up for success.

Hope this helps!

[meliorbc]

Thanks, @ryanwanner! We're going to give it a try with Woo as our system of record building out all categories and products there. I'll update this thread within the next couple weeks with any insights I learn during this process.

[MarinGarden]

We are using WooCommerce Square, and keep having problems with variable products. We switched to having WooCommerce as the system of record because inventory wasn't getting updated from online sales in Square when Square was the system of record. Now the inventory updates properly, but the SKUs are a mess. Does anyone have advice about how to set up a variable product that actually works? Is it better to set up a new variable item in WooCommerce and let it get pulled to Square, or the other way around? WooCommerce seems to have a field for a SKU for the item generally (e.g., wool scarf), but Square only has a SKU for each variation (red, blue, green, etc.). This seems so basic but we can't figure it out!

[JustinC]

Thanks for posting @MarinGarden

@ryanwanner Can you give me a hand with this one? I appreciate your help 🙂