How to track complicated inventory

[mpryde]

I am opening an ice cream shop and wondering how to track inventory.  For example, if I buy a tub of vanilla ice cream it is good for 55 scoops of ice cream.  If I enter inventory as 55 scoops, is there a way to differentiate between the number of scoops being served so that I'm accurately tracking the inventory.  If a single scoop is $1.50 and a double school is $2.50 and  triple scoop $3.50 is there a way to be able to enter a triple scoop, for example, as equalling 3 scoops subtracted from the vanilla inventory?  I hope that makes sense!

[Tom]

Hey @mpryde, thanks for surfacing!

I went to check for a built-in solution for this, although—to track inventory—you'll need to assign a scoop to an inventory value. The ability to account for inventory and conditional pricing as you've described isn't available with Point of Sale at this time. I will surface your post with our Point of Sale team and point out how these additional features would be helpful for a variety of businesses.

For now, you may want to take a closer look at our inventory partners who may be able to offer a suitable solution: App Marketplace > Items & Inventory.

[weloveart]

This type of inventory tracking is so important for so many businesses. I've used Square for several different businesses. Here's some examples. 

Performing Arts Events/Workshops: There are set number of seats available in a theatre or a workshop space. But organizations will give different price structures. E.G. 100 fixed seats in a theatre or 12 spots in a workshop, but different prices for members, students, seniors, etc. There's no way to judge how many of each ticket will be sold each event.

Retail: Discounts for Multiple purchases. e.g. Selling an item 1 for $10 or 3 for $20.

Inventory has to be adjusted manually in these situations.

[Tom]

Thanks for weighing in, @weloveart.

We don't yet have a setting for automated discounts based on multiple purchases, though some other sellers discussed some possible workarounds in this thread: Can you bundle items together as a single item or special?

Regarding the inventory question for the available tickets/seats—you might consider creating a discount for each ticket type (e.g. for members, students, and seniors). This would allow you to apply the correct price to the sale while maintaining the appropriate inventory count.

I hope that there is a workable solution for your needs within these workarounds and our inventory partners. Either way, rest assured that I'm surfacing your experience with our Point of Sale Team. Keep in touch for updates!

[ylmalibuclub]

The ticket example of a need for an over-arching way to have a "parent" item with total inventory, and then price variations that come off that "parent" inventory number instead of each price variation having a set inventory. HUGE! Exactly the issue we're dealing with. We can't take more than 48 bodies, but those bodies could be Adult, Child 1-4, Child 5-10, Infant - all with different prices but can't total more than 48 all together.
Could figure out some discount scheme, but when trying to make it quick and easy for online orders, it's not conducive to have people be applying their own discount codes. It just doesn't look professional. It looks janky and a weird work-around....because it is.

[ylmalibuclub]

For the record, we also have the same issue as the original poster of inventory for ice cream from tubs, and drinks off the gun.
So up-vote feature request for something like a "parent" inventory item based on both examples given above as we're having both those same issues.