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Suggestions for Square POS

Hi Team Square

 

Just chucking out a suggested list of things (which I’ll probably add to continually haha) for usability.  

 

Firstly Square is an awesome app, and I rate it as on if the best POS’s I’ve come across, especially at its free price point. I’ve used systems extensively in hotels, and from the food side especially, love how it works.

 

The addition of happy hour is awesome.

 

So here are some of my suggestions

 

BETTER STOCKTAKEING

It would be awesome for Square to be able to stocktake items, when they have different ways of selling the one item.  For example, I sell XXXX Gold cans, as a carton of 30, as a single over bar, as a single takeaway, and as a six pack.  It would be great if these could all be sold individually, quickly and easily, but link back to the “parent” product for stocktakeing and ordering purposes.

 

HAVING SUB CATEGORIES 

It would be great from a reporting and till layout point of view, to have categories and then sub categories.  For example I like to do reports that sum up what I do in Takeaway sales, what I do in Bar Sales, what I do in accommodation, what I do in food.  But I can’t put them in a category like this only, as I have way too many products and need to be able to do category buttons on the POS interface. So more options with categories and sub categories would be great.

 

MORE USABILITY ON CATEGORY BUTTONS ON POS INTERFACE

I May find it hard to articulate this, but the Category buttons are limited with how many words you can put on there, and in my opinion you could make these texts a little smaller.  Or make it where you can put a photo, or a colour, make it so you can put text there.  I currently take a photo of text written on a computer, and then email it to my iPad, then use it, which is tiresome. Also, to be able to make the name of the button, different to the category would be awesome.

 

CHANGE THE “CHARGE” SCREEN TO MAKE EASIER TO USE

I believe that the other options like invoicing, can be smaller on screen, so a manual input of cash rendered can be on that screen, as well as the fast cash options.

 

LOYALTY PROGRAM

Wont say much about this, as I understand it’s in the works.

 

ABILITY TO NAME THE DIFFERENT SCREENS 

Where it has the tabs for different product screens, the 1-5, ability to name these would be awesome.

 

i think that’s it, well for now!

 

 

 

 

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Admin

Hey @theroyalctambo,

 

Thanks for getting in touch and providing us with such well thought out feedback!

 

While I can't guarantee if and when these sorts of features will be available with Square, I've passed your feedback on to our Product Manager here in our Melbourne office. Most of the new features we introduce are driven by merchant feedback, and we track demand for all sorts of different feature requests - so it's definitely worth letting us know what you'd like to see in the future!

 

With that said - you actually can already name your different item tabs instead of having the default numbers! To do this, you want to enter the grid display edit mode, then hold your finger down on one of the numbers for a few seconds - a name entry screen will appear to customise the name of the tab 👍

 

Let me know if you have any questions 🙂

 

 

 

Seamus
Square, Australia
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@Seamus 

A major additon that the Square POS software on iPad needs is an ADMIN mode.

 

This would require a simple PIN or password to access some features including;

 

  • Adding/Changing Item Buttons
  • Accessing Reports, Deposits, 
  • Seeing the full customer list 
  • Settings
  • Issuing a Refund 
  • Opening and Closing a "Drawer"

OR need the PIN to exit the Checkout or access the menus

 

 

 

Smart Combo/Bundle Deals are a much needed feature for my use...

eg If someone buys a Soft Drink ($3), Popcorn ($4) and Icecream ($4) and if they get entered in individually, I'd love for the system to know that this equals a deal for $10 (saving $1). I know I can create a Combos Button, but there could be two dozen different combos.

 

Also allowing Images to be added Category Buttons is ESSENTIAL... I see many others have been requesting this feature since at least 2016 yet nothing appears to have been done to include this 😞 😞 

 

 

When you have a customer added to the Sale in the Checkout, the Clear Items option should have a Confirmation screen, so you don't accidently lose the sale contents.

 

 

I'd like to add another vote for the loyality program to be rolled out in Australia. (as an aside, it would be great if the Square Stand was modified to allow the rear iPad camera to be accessible and used for scanning Loyality Cards)

 

I'd also like to be able to layout the Checkout buttons via the Dashboard web interface, rather than having to do it on the iPad (this way all three terminals we plan on having can be updated remotely)

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@NicholasP 

The "admin mode" already exists. You have to setup permissions and employee roles but (i'm pretty sure) it requires a paid subscription for each employee. 

 

We have this setup in our business and it works well. The employees can only sell, do basic functions but the system requires a manager's pin to change buttons/items, access reports, etc...

 

Regarding the combos, we have similar work arounds:

1. You add those three items then hit a "Combo $1 discount" button

2. Have the 2nd/3rd items as a modifier with discounted pricing. Eg buy a soft drink ($3) + modifiers of discounted popcorn ($3) & icecream ($3). 

3. Create a combo button and have modifiers to adjust for different prices for different variations

 

@Seamus 

For what it offers, the Square Pos is pretty amazing. But i'll add one feature that would put the cherry on top for us and our customers... A CUSTOMER FACING DISPLAY please! 

 

I know there's a beta but it doesn't appear in the Australian app. It must be USA only. Can you confirm or request for this to be implemented locally? 

TIA. 

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Admin

Hey @chubbygeek,

 

You should actually be able to get the Customer Facing Display Beta running in Australia - if you give our support team a call on 1800 760 137 they might be able to help further with this.

 

Ideally we'd also like to launch Square Register in Australia, which features a customer facing display - though I don't have an ETA for this one.

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Admin

Hey @NicholasP,

 

The advice @chubbygeek has given here is spot on. You can check out more on Employee Management features here with a setup guide here

 

Their workaround for combos/bundles is also what we'd recommend for selling these items for now. We do hope to launch Square for Restaurants in Australia in the future, which is a more hospitality-focused POS app that can better handle combos, and while I'm not sure if we plan to expand these options into our free POS, I'll certainly pass this feedback forward.

 

Images for categories is something that's been requested before and is being tracked, however I don't have an ETA as to if and/or when it may be available. I'm not sure where this sits in the pipeline, but are you able to give me a bit more info about how adding an image would have a significant impact on your workflow vs a tile with different selectable colours? I'd be happy to pass the feedback on to our Product Development team for consideration  👍

 

Loyalty is pretty high on our priority list for Australia and we've been building out Customer Directory functionality over the past couple of years in preparation to support Loyalty.

 

Our POS app and card readers are only going to work on compatible mobile devices for the foreseeable future - computers/web browsers simply don't meet PCI Mobile Payment Acceptance regulations, which is what we're operating under. 

Seamus
Square, Australia
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@Seamus and @chubbygeek 

 

Thanks for the prompt responses.

 

I'm looking at using Square at a Community Theatre that will utilise volunteers to operate the "Concession Stand". Initially we may only have one event a month and will only need a couple of volunteers, so it may be 2-3 months before the volunteer gets rostered on again.

 

Anything that can make the process of using the POS simplier would be welcomed.

 

So having the POS AUTOMATICALLY calculate a Combo would be ideal... 

I may look into the Combo $1 discount button... but aren't keen on the concept of having access to a discount button.

 

As to having Images on Category Button... simply the old saying "A Picture Tells a 1,000 Words" is true.

The Letters used for the Categories aren't alway obvious... Eg Tickets is abbreviated to "Ti" - an icon with a Ticket image on it would be far more easily identifable... especially for volunteers who only 'work' once every couple of months. We'd like to have the Ticket Category Button which would bring up a list of the six ticket types we would have (with the full name displayed)

 

 

We don't need the full features of the Employee Management subscription... just a simple Admin PIN preventing access to the menus would suffice for us.

 

 

BTW: One major disadvantage I can see of the Square Register is that it only runs the POS app... the Square Stand for iPad based POS solution has the advantage of also having a Browser so we can also access a Seating Booking solution

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Admin

Hey @NicholasP,

 

I'm going to pass your feedback on to our product team. While I can't make any guarantees these particular features will make it to our POS app in the future, new features are generally driven by demand, so it helps to have your requests heard!

 

One thing you could consider that may help staff better identify where items are located is naming the different grid display screens at the bottom of your Checkout screen to correspond with your most common item categories, like this:

 

 

screenshot.jpg

 

 

All the best!

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Sheamus

 

Has the updated inventory made it possible to potentially do something with my inventory problem above.

 

Ie

 

I sell XXXX Gold Stubbies as either

- a sng at bar price

- a sng at takeaway price

- six pack

- a carton (24)

 

Thanks

 

 

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Admin

Hey @theroyaltambo,

 

I took a look into this and unfortunately there's still no way to assign item units as part of another item at this time - totally understand how this would be useful for you in terms of selling singles / 6 packs / cartons though.

 

I'll pass on your feedback to the team who built unit measurements!

 

 

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Will Square be introducing inventory management at a recipe level? This feature is already offered with your competitors as well as a loyalty program. It feels like square has been left behind in the hospitality industry. 

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Admin

Hey @Emma13,

 

Thanks for getting in touch!

 

While I'm not aware of any recipe level inventory You might be interested in a new hospitality-dedicated POS we're launching in Australia soon called Square for Restaurants. This will have a free 30 day trial period once it launches so you can see if it's a right fit for your business.

 

We also plan to launch Loyalty features in Australia - while we don't have an ETA for this yet, it's in the works!

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Thanks Sheamus, 

I’ve had a look at Square for restaurants and it looks like the major addition is creating a user friendly interface for managing orders and tables, which is great for larger venues that may not manage so easily using tickets on the existing square. 

It’s a that shame Square are so behind or not even looking into crucial features like loyalty programs and inventory management by recipe when so many square competitors seem to have figured it out already. 

There are more small cafes than large restaurants in Australia and currently the only feature Square have an advantage in is payment processing. This feature is slowly losing its relevance when compared to the awesome features other POS providers offer.

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Admin

We appreciate the feedback @Emma13 !

 

I'll submit it as a feature request - while we make any guarantees, we track feature requests and they drive many new features of the app, such as the new fractional unit measurement feature. 

 

Square's free POS app grew out of our original payments app, and is used by a lot of different business types in different ways. We take into consideration things like what features benefit the most merchants, the complexity of being able to make them happen from a technical standpoint, and the demand we see from merchants.

 

Loyalty is in the works for Australia, we'll have more to announce here in the future.

Seamus
Square, Australia
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