Inventory Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Inventory 📊

[Ani_]

Calling all sellers — especially those signed up with Square for Retail and Square for Restaurants! Our product team wants to hear your inventory questions and feedback. 

I'm thrilled to introduce you to Mukta Dhanuka (@Inventory), whose team at Square focuses on inventory accuracy across all Square products. This is an opportunity for you to ask any questions or share feedback on how it's going with Square Inventory. To learn more about Square Inventory and its features, take a look at our Support Center: Basic Inventory Management. 

Post your questions to this thread ahead of time and check back with us on Thursday, May 12, 6 a.m. AEST as she and her team respond. If you're not up that early no need to worry - answers will be available for viewing after this time!

A few example questions:

• What are the best practices that will ensure I'm getting the most out of Square Inventory?

• What are the latest feature improvements with Square Inventory?

• If Square Inventory could take care of "_______," it would save me so much time and help me run my business more efficiently.

• I can’t seem to figure out “______” or I need help with “_________”.

• An inventory issue that keeps me up at night is “____________”.

• I wish Square for Restaurants or Square for Retail would support “________”.

Note: We can't share specific details on our product roadmaps, though this information will be helpful as we continue to make improvements.

Click Reply below to post a question ahead of time, and we’ll address as many posts as we can on Thursday, May 12!👇

[danpezz]

We are having trouble with the fact that square essentially does not have inventory for multiple items of the same thing. For example a base product of "beer can x" we might be holding 500 units, but a slab takes 24 or 16, then you have a 6 or 4 pack and singles. Three seperate items but all taking from the same stock. 

[issara]

@danpezz Thank you for reaching out. It is possible to track item variation sales or other types of inventory adjustments in different units of measure through the same physical stock. This feature is currently available as part of Retail Plus package:https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5957-inventory-plus

We are planning to organize a training session on how to get started with sell-by units if you have a Retail Plus subscription. Stay tuned for the details!

[crackpot]

How can one merge Wix on-line shop with Square Inventory?

[Inventory]

Hello @crackpot - Thank you for reaching out. Square supports plug and play integration with several 3P solutions including Wix. For details, please check out our app marketplace : https://squareup.com/us/en/app-marketplace/app/wix

[helenmclean]

I wish variable products were easier to import, rather than having to set them up again within square.

[Inventory]

@helenmclean Thank you for sharing your feedback. Could you please share your use-case in detail?

[helenmclean]

Example: I use Woocommerce & set up variable products ie: black journal with choice of thread colour. This product is synced with square but only the main product is synced, and I have to set up the variable options within the square account, instead of it being there automatically.

[mhweft]

Are there plans to be able to sort the item list by columns?  Everything defaults to alpha sort of the item name but it would be great to sort by SKU, number of items etc

[Inventory]

@mhweft Thank you for sharing your feedback. This feature is currently not planned. In the coming days, our team will evaluate all product requests shared during AMA for backlog refinement.

[cosmeticartist]

I purchased square for my previous samsung phone working daily and accepting payments with square card reader device.  I've now purchased a Samsung s22, and can't find any information on relation to work around or when we will be able to use our reader with this device.  Do I just throw device out and go back to PayPal device?

[Inventory]

Hello @cosmeticartist - Can you please confirm which type of Square reader it is? In the photo from left to right, we have Square Reader for Magswipe w/ headset jack, Square Reader for Magswipe w/ lightning connector and Square Reader for Contactless & ChipSquare Reader for Magswipe w/ headset jack is only compatible with phones with an audio jack. Square Reader for Magswipe w/ lightning connector is only compatible with phones with a lightning port. Square Reader for Contactless & Chip should be compatible with most phones, especially newer Samsungs.

[cosmeticartist]

It's the square reader for contact less chip doesn't seem to be compatible with Samsung s22 whenever I try to load, I get an error message that it's not compatible? It's not that old and annoying now I have a new phone not working,  clients can't pay and are paying by cash now. 

[Arie]

Sorry to hear about the trouble with your reader, @cosmeticartist! Have you had a chance to go through our troubleshooting steps yet? 

[Ani_]

The time for receiving new questions has closed. Thank you to everyone who asked questions and shared their experiences — we received a lot of useful feedback!

Our Inventory team will continue to address posts that came in during this event. Due to the high volume of interest, it may take a couple of days to follow up on the remaining posts. We appreciate your patience and please keep watch for updates throughout the end of the week

[Inventory · Accepted solution]

Thank you for every question, feedback and product request. Every discussion thread made this a very engaging and insightful AMA for our team, especially me, as the new Inventory, Product Manager. Your experience and feedback will help us revisit priorities for the product going forward.

We wanted to share a short recap on three themes that came up during inventory AMA event:

1. Bundles/Kits: This stood out as one of the most frequently requested product features. Our team is actively working on incrementally adding this inventory functionality. We will continue to follow up with you to better understand your use-case as we build this.
2. PO <-> Items Management:  This was another key area of interest that came up often and the overall sentiment was to have a more cohesive workflow as you make purchased items available for sale; and purchase more items from your vendor based on those sales.
3. Inventory Availability: We hear this loud and clear to have more accurate ‘available for sale’ inventory count versus stock you may still have on hand but committed through online orders or invoices. Our team is also actively working on incrementally building this functionality starting with invoices. Please stay tuned for the updates.

Next Steps:

1. Trainings: Our team will set up bite size 30 min live trainings for areas where you may need some help to set up or get used to. Our first session about how to set up and use ‘sell by units’ will be particularly helpful for current and future Square for Retail Plus subscribers. If you are interested, please submit your contact information here: 
   
   

   SIGN UP FOR TRAINING

   
   You can also use this form to share if there are any other topics/areas where training might help as you start or continue your Square inventory management journey.
2. Feature Discovery/Beta: We will closely partner with sellers who have shown interest in product features like kitting/bundling, inventory availability etc. for feedback as we build these functionalities and participation in a product beta rollout.

We are inspired by your diverse businesses and how you want to continue to improve Square’s products to save you time and make better inventory business decisions that directly affect your brand and cash flow. It was also amazing to see a sense of collaboration and trust, especially experienced sellers helping out other sellers with their experience, within and outside of Square.

For the latest updates on Inventory, visit Product Updates.

Again, thank you for your participation and stay tuned for our next Q&A!