How can I keep track of retail and backbar (use) inventory at my salon with Square?

[whitmorrow]

Hello! I see that there is inventory management when it comes to items to sell via retail. But is there a way to track inventory of supplies used? For instance, I am a hairstylist and I need help keeping up with tracking hair color inventory that I use.

The title of this post has been edited from the original: Track Inventory for Supplies for Hair Salon

[Ria · Accepted solution]

Hi @SadieHayes1 - Welcome to The Seller Community!

Our engineers are currently working to improve inventory tracking for supplies used. 

In the meantime, a good workaround for this would be to make your supplies items in your Item Library, be sure to make them unavailable online (if you utilize a Square Online website) - and add stock to those items so that you are able to track inventory. 

I hope this helps 😊👍

[dalyskinandbody]

I am a spa and retail products, but also use products in my treatment room.

How do spa and salons keep track of both of these through square? My accountant wants one clean inventory list and I don't know how to do it through Square. I have always kept track of my retail inventory through square but not the products I use in the treatment room. Please tell me there is a way to do this. 

[Valentina]

I've moved your post to this thread where @Ria suggested creating items for your supplies in your Item Library!

Could you see this working for your business, @dalyskinandbody?

Let us know if you have questions! ✨

[Kico]

hows that engineering practice coming along for transfer of inventory to the salon backbar?   

[annelies]

Would love to know what the timeline is to have these features added.  although this product is marketed for salons it does not seem that these upgrades are a priority.  Seriously contemplating looking to move to another program but a shame since the booking part works the best for us.

[Kassi_]

Welcome back to the Community, @annelies -

I don't have an ETA for these features on when they will be added to the platform. It really is up to our Product Team and the road map they have designed for the future. 

Once more information becomes available, one of the Community Moderators will post a Product Update with all of the information. 

Thank you for checking in on this one! 

[SeminolePool]

This would also be a useful feature for any cleaning or maintenance services that use supplies as part of their service.

Has there been any progress on this type of functionality?

[artisansalon]

We desperately need to track our backbar inventory by weight. I personally would love to have the option to scan (via barcode) what color I am mixing before placing it into a bowl that's on a scale, tracking my product. This would enable us to keep up with the fast pace a hairstylist works. This along with an accurate reorder template to record/compare what we've ordered with what arrived would be great. As currently my old system isn't fail proof, especially with the shipping issues the world is still handling. I look forward to your release of an update that will help.

[scissor529]

Stylist here. While I would love to figure this out, at the moment I am using salon scale. It tracked down to the ml/oz on color etc. 

May goal is how to show the inventory bought and used for backbar like sprays and lotions. I have listed them as items and just haven’t figured out how to “discount” them as backbar. Maybe make this discount titled backbar but not sure how it shows up for my “cost of doing business”

[WallaceWaxing]

This would be one of my top needed features for my waxing studio! Having a whole separate account to tracking backbar inventory is such a task. Would love a feature like this! Any updated news?

[CUREDgelnails]

Nail salon owner and tech here — have been manually using a spreadsheet for years to track the hundreds of bottles and pots of gel colors and glitters, and would LOVE and option that syncs with Square to calculate the weights used per service, as well as the additional disposable supplies used from inventory per service.  It seems like such a simple addition, seeing as it isn’t much different functionally than the other kind of inventory??  Adding my vote here to develop this option!  I am available to help with any development for the nail salon side!

[BrettA]

Hi @scissor529  @WallaceWaxing and @CUREDgelnails ,
My name is Brett, and I'm a product manager here on Square Appointments. My team and I are hoping to do some work later this year tied to all of this. When we start doing a project like this, we usually reach out to sellers to talk to them to understand their needs and pain points to make sure we build a solution that works well for the most people. Would you be open to talking with us a little later in the year when we're ready to start this work? I'd love to hear how we can help and show you some things we've been thinking about to get your feedback. 

[WallaceWaxing]

Absolutely! Just let me know! 

[BrettA]

Great, will do and looking forward to it!

[CUREDgelnails]

Absolutely!  Thank you for including me!! 

[BrettA]

No problem! Looking forward to talking. 

[scissor529]

Absolutely beautiful 

[BrettA]

Great! Excited to talk

[Kico]

4 years of waiting for action. There should be a process already available, to transfer stock inventory into the "Supplies for Office use only" and remove it from inventory.

If anyone has a workaround or similar, would appreciate learning of it. 

Thank you! 

[BrettA]

If you go to the item on the website here

you can:

1) Click the item you want to adjust

2) scroll to where it says "Stock"

3) click where it says "## on hand" (Where ## is the number you have)

4) click "Select Reason" under stock action

5) Choose a reason (we don't have exactly a use for backbar but an OK work around is just to always mark it as damage or some other category you otherwise don't use and just know that reflects back bar usage)

6) update your stock based on how many you are using for internal purposes

7) Click Done

Note all of this should be available for free. If you want more advanced work flows you can check out Square for Retail Plus which has more inventory management features. We're looking at bringing some of those advanced inventory features to Square Appointments as well, so if you're interested in taking part in our research I can add you to a list of people to reach out to. 

Thanks!

Brett