I currently have 2 retail stores, opening a third in a couple months. do i leave square?

[BelloBellows]

I currently have 2 of the same retail stores, opening a third in a couple months. do i leave square?

Our retail stores are currently in florida, illinois, and soon georgia. we utilize almost everything square has to offer. POS, marketing, website, payroll, time cards, etc. 

the main issues we have is not being able to sync our inventory from all of our stores into one website (even if provided by square.) this is a huge blow now that we open store number 3, and store 2-3 will have no online presence. 

another MAJOR issue is payroll reporting. since both stores have different EINs and are in different cities, square has no support for reporting automatically for both locations. it also means all my team members are being “paid” via W2 by store number one.. which is incorrect. 

I cannot have 3 different square accounts as it makes linking website contents even worse, especially since i can’t use the same login for the 3 retail stores (which are all the same business and offer the same items / services) 

help?

[Donnie-M]

@BelloBellows I am a little curious as why you have separate EIN's for the locations?  EIN is federal and should be the same unless each one is a separate entity.  As far as a w-2, it should be one w-2 for all locations as the company is one singular company or entity so to speak regardless of location.  If you are trying to operate each location as it's own individual cost center, that would be more internal accounting and less to do with the tax reporting for IRS purposes.

Inventory is a trickier subject, do you want one global website and then send orders to the location that has the inventory?  or does each location keep their own inventory?  There may be a work around to alleviate some of the problems, but need more info on how you are wanting to run your business before I can give you any kind of direction.

[BelloBellows]

great questions here Donnie, we have every business has different EIN for the sake of keeping the businesses separate but will be together in a trust. so for us, we would want 3 separate accounts. 

For inventory tracking, one website with everything linked.  (for example) if we have the same yellow t shirt in every store, but location 1 has 3 in stock and location 2 has 0, it would still appear on the website, but it would ship from the location that has the inventory. 

a bit tricky… i’m almost thinking to just switch to a different platform entirely that can handle what we need. no point in having 3 entirely different square accounts you know?

[DLRosenberg]

We have one location but are high volume and have 1000s of products. We're sorta feeling growing pains with square right now and totally feel your pain... it doesn't seem as if square can fully provide what we need- lots of work arounds.

[BofBArtStudio]

We have multiple locations with one website and use Shopventory which you can find in the Square App Store.  

It works perfectly and syncs inventory between our physical locations and our website.  We set up the multiple locations in Square under one main Square account in our dashboard under

Settings->Account & Settings->Business Information->Locations

Then in Shopventory, we configured our Square Locations as well as our website.  We receive and manager our inventory in Shopventory and everything syncs up perfectly.  When items sell on the website, it is automatically reflected in our Square inventory for each location and when we sell items in our physical store, it is automatically reflected in our website.  When an item is sold out completely in our physical location, it instantly shows out of stock on our website and vice versa.

Visit https://squareup.com/us/en/app-marketplace and search for Shopventory for more info.

[Richmenlooks]

Which website platform are you using? Is it Square Online? That is what we are using and trying to find a workaround. We also have 2 store fronts and 1 website and it’s really taking a huge toll on our business not being able to sell online from both locations. 

Additionally, I didn’t find a Shopventory in the App but I found Thrive Inventory by Shopventory, Inc. Is that the same one?

[BofBArtStudio]

We use woocommerce on WordPress.

However Shopventory can sync to square websites as well.

Yes.  Thrive by Shopventory.  They added the thrive feature a few months ago.

[Richmenlooks]

Thanks! Just spoke with Thrive/Shopventory and, unfortunately, it looks like Square Online is just too restricted and limited that they have not had any success with Shopventory and Square Online integration but recommended Shopify, WooCommerce and a few others. We might just have to look for another platform for our online store.

This just keeps adding on work. We have such a huge online presence and missing out on sales due to this lack of multiple location fulfillment feature is causing our sales to sink. We're a retail store so we have tons of inventory at both locations but can only sell from one. We also have tons outstanding gift cards on square online. We also use Google Suites for our customer service which is linked to our Square Domain. So not sure how complex this switch might be and certainly don't want to cause a ripple affect on our business because of this online issue. 

[BofBArtStudio]

That is understandable.  We are in the same boat with the multiple locations and therefore have always found the Wordpress/WooCommerce is the better and more flexible option.  Shopventory is a perfect add on since it keeps all of our locations in sync on our various websites and our Square POS for in-store sales.  We also have a large online presence and four websites and four locations in Square as well.

I absolutely LOVE Square and use pretty much every feature for the past nine years.  Shopventory is one of the Apps/Vendors in the Square 3rd party apps and absolutely LOVE it as well.  Wordpress/WooCommerce has been what we used long before we used Square or Shopventory, but now LOVE that it is so easy to sync all of our Square stores and websites via Shopventory.

[Donnie-M]

This is excellent to know, I don't use a lot of inventory management in restaurants this way, but I agree whole heartedly there are some apps in the marketplace are well worth the extra cost as they fit a niche market.  I recommend sellers go through the app marketplace from time to time and just see what is available.