Feature Request: Sync inventory across multiple locations

[crystalimages]

The title of this post has been edited from the original: Multi-Location Inventory - All locations use same inventory

Is there a way to have multiple locations use the same inventory? We sell orders from several locations and need to track by location, but the inventory comes from the same stock. Aside from assigning a certain amount of inventory to each location, and likely having to shuffle the inventory around within square, and possibly thinking we are out and ordering more when there's plenty in the inventory of another location... Can certain items be assigned from a central inventory stock and other items be location specific? 

I'm not seeing this is possible now, but is it something being considered? 

I'm using Square POS, not retail. I believe retail has a more robust inventory system, but retail is just far more in general than we need.

[HappyCucumber]

I have a storefront that I keep all my inventory and then every weekend I have several farmers markets that I sell at and do not want each location that I setup to have an individual inventory.I need it setup so that when a sale is made at the remote locations it pulls that item from the master inventory at the shop. At this point I have each market setup as a mobile location and the shop as a store. But when a sell is made at the locations it takes that sale out of the locations inventory which I have not added anything so it gives a negative number and I still have it in my master inventory at the shop. help 🙂

[Tom]

Hi @HappyCucumber, thanks for flagging this.

If you have multiple locations enabled in your Square account, inventory can only be tracked on a per-location basis at this time. We are tracking this request and I'll be sure to share your experience with our product liaison team. For now, you may need to manage the inventory between your various locations manually.

Thanks for your patience as we continue to improve.

[MC1123]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Can I have multiple locations using the same inventory?

I have a shop that uses Square and I have all my inventory listed.  I am also going to be doing a craft fair and want to use my square reader but have what I sell come out of the inventory I have entered.  So there would be possibly 2 locations using the same inventory at the same time.  Is that possible?

Thanks, Melissa

[RHatch]

While you can have the items listed for more than one location the inventories are separate.  

You can add all your inventory to one location and as sales from that location are made they will deduct from that inventory.  The other location will start to show negative inventory numbers as you make sales.  You will be able to see the total inventory of an item in your dashboard.  You can export your item list as well to view where your inventory is at.   Low stock alerts will not work like they should.

[AlterEgos]

I have one inventory that is sold from 2 "stores". If I create inventory totals within one store, and then sell an item while logged in at the other store, will it be deducted from the overall inventory?

Example: shirt A is listed as stock in store "1" and is listed as available in both stores. Shirt "a" is then sold at store "2".  Will the overall stock available reflect the sale with  reduced stock? This is all done through mobile cashiers.

[alecwyn]

I'm in the same situation.  I track all my inventory in my online store.  When I go to an event I create a new location and copy the setting from the Online store.  This allows all my inventory to be available at the new location, including tracking.  When I sell something at the new location, it looks like it it deducting from my available inventory.  I checked the online store after a sale and the item was showing out of stock.  I suggest you look at the main items list after a sale to confirm it reduced the inventory

[EJ_]

Hi @AlterEgos

Unfortunately with our basic inventory management features, inventory is established, edited, and tracked on a per-location basis. 

The Square for Retail subscription includes advanced features that allows you to track across multiple locations, so it might be a good fit for your business. 

[dnapoleoni]

Hi community,

I'm starting a retail business and as a "test phase" I'm operating out of multiple market stall locations on different nights of the week. In theory, I would ideally set up multiple selling locations (with different details provided for each location's receipt) in the Square app, but they will all share the same central master inventory that gets carted around from market to market each day. 

The way Square seems to be set up currently is to have stock tied to a certain physical location, but this won't work for my situation. I need to be able to have one inventory location that the stock is sourced from, but multiple selling locations where the retail transactions will occur.

As far as I can tell, the only workaround is to either a) manually update the receipt details before each market (which will be tedious), or b) manually update the stock levels before each market (which will be even more tedious). I'd also like to be able to track the sales at each market for analysis purposes, but if I'm just updating the receipt text each time it's not going to provide any solid statistics.

Is there any way this can work in the current app without a tedious amount of extra work? Is there some part of the app that caters for this that I don't yet realise? 

Thanks,
Dan

[EJ_]

Hi @dnapoleoni

It looks like another seller had a similar questions recently. 

This isn't available with the basic inventory features since inventory is established on a per-location basis.

Check out Square for Retail, as it might be the solution you're looking for 👍🏼

[DaoDeJing]

I'm holding a convention later this year and have set up a "second location" in the Square system to list event tickets for all of the various activities available at the convention. This allows me to display the convention logo and information (instead of those things for my core business) on the online store where people can buy the event tickets in advance.

However, it would be very convenient to also sell the tickets for these events at my physical, primary business. The business is directly related to the theme of the convention, so this would be a great convenience to my customers.

But it appears that if I make the tickets available at both "locations" and enable inventory tracking (so that I don't oversell tickets to the events) the inventory at each location is tracked individually. This certainly won't work to prevent overselling for an event.

Am I missing a way to make this work how I'd like? Or can anyone suggest a work-around?

(Alternatively, if the online store page could be modified to display whatever logo and business info I wanted - or better yet, items could be embedded into my own website - then I could do away with the complication of having a separate "location" in the system altogether.)