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Square for Restaurants: Recipe/Ingredient Management

Square for Restaurants: Recipe/Ingredient Management

How has square inventory worked for you? I’m thinking about using it but I worry how it will work with items that use the same ingredients. Ex. Multiple dishes that use chicken. Would this work well with inventory management. If not what have you used that works? Thanks!

1 Verified Answer
Verified Answer

Re: Feature Request: Bundle items together as a single item, and pull from inventory individually

+1 on this request.

Currently running a retail basic blank apparel store.

I'd like to start selling custom printed T-shirts(both on/offline), while keeping inventory of my blanks.

86 Comments

I am moving from Lightspeed Retail POS to Square for Retail POS. In Lightspeed they have box and single item types. Box items can have a single item attached to them so that the box item can be "broken" into singles for customers so they can purchase an assortment of single items. I have a pet store so I sell a lot of canned foods. When I order canned goods from my supplier I have to purchase the cans in case quantities, but when we receive the cases we break them into singles. We don't sell cases unless a customer requests a case of something. So I need the flexibility of ordering cases from my supplier, but then I'd like that case to be sold as a case or as singles from the shelf. Does anyone have a solution for this? I am new to Square inventory so I am not sure if there is already a way to do this. I could not find anything in the help section other than units referring to food measures. Maybe I need to create custom units for the cases of cans? Thanks in advance!

Admin

Hello @PaleoPet

 

Square Inventory is a bit different and can be tricky to set up items that you sell in bulk and individually. As you mentioned, you could units and create a custom 'can' unit; that way when you select the can item at checkout you'll be prompted to enter how many cans you're selling. You could also create a separate 'case' item (with a discounted price for example) — but you'd have to keep in mind that to track inventory you'd need to the number of cans per case when you receive stock (e.g. 20 cans). 

 

I hope this helps you get started! If you'd like to give us a call we have a Retail team who can answer your questions and learn more about your inventory needs! 

Hi Helen, thank you for confirming that the item unit feature can help with tracking cases and related single items. What is the best way to import my existing items from the other POS I am switching over from? I’ve been using Lightspeed so I have box and single item types. Is there a way to assign item units in bulk for importing? Or will I need to import the entire list of items and then assign the item units one by one (I hope not!)? I have a lot of canned foods! 😅

Admin

@PaleoPet There isn't a way to move items directly from Lightspeed to Square but you can download Square's item template, enter all the information you need (hopefully you can copy/paste a lot of the information) and then upload everything at the same time. It's definitely not perfect but it should save you some time.

Hi all! I have been using Square basic for processing payments and sending invoices to customers. Last year I thought Square retail was going to be a good solution, but then found there were some features missing that I was currently utilizing in the POS called Lightspeed. I had already imported my entire item list from Lightspeed into Square. I have processed some sales based off that list via the Invoicing feature to bill customers who had special orders and no saved card on file. Since then I have found a software that will help fill the void in features needed that Square does not offer, and I am now finally switching over to Square for Retail. So, my question is pertaining to inventory. Is it possible to update the current list of items with the most updated information including the addition of new items that were added in Lightspeed over the past year? Or, should I delete the items from Square and upload a new list? How do I do which ever is best? Thanks in advance!!!

Hi Helen, I was on vacation so I am just getting back to working on this task. I could not find a template file to download at the link you provided. It just opened up a help page that gives details about exporting the library. I think I may just give y'all a call.

Admin

@PaleoPet Hope you had a nice vacation! I intentionally shared the Support Center article in my reply so you could review all the steps including important information about making changes to the template and then uploading the file. To export your current library:

  1. Sign in to your online Square Dashboard. 
  2. Go to the Items > Item Library section.
  3. Click Actions > Export > Export to Excel or Export to CSV.

Our CS team is here to help if you'd like to call! Here are the steps to find your customer code (which is a unique code required to call in). 

We are small bar which also has off-sale so we can sell our items in different bulk quantities also (6 Pack, 12 Pack, Case).  I have all our items setup with different types of sale variations but struggling on how to tie them all together to provide an easier/better inventory management.  I realized I needed to subscribe to Square for Retail to do this so I'm currently running a trial of it. Does anyone currently have a similar setup or have good ideas how to manage the inventory so it can be entered once and deducted from inventory properly?  Been playing around with adding Unit types of Cans and Bottles but keep hitting a brick wall as it doesn't seem to work the way I want.

I'm wondering how to create a parent and child item set up for purposes of inventory management?

I produce a bottled beverage that I sell as singles, case(s) and pallet(s) sized qty - each with their respective pricing for both retail and wholesale (except pallet which is WHSL only...). 

Ideally I'd like to set a parent item, which holds all inventory and have the units debited from inventory as they're sold in any of the above quantities. 

Having used other POS systems (LiteSpeed) in the past I know this is the normal way of doing it, but it doesn't seem possible on Square.

Any help?

Alumni

Thanks for posting @TiosWaterKefir! I've merged your post to a similar thread. 

 

At this time, Square's system doesn't allow sharing inventory between parent and child items. You'll need to set up item variations for each quantity and add stock to each one. 

 

But I can see how your ideal set up helps streamline inventory management. I'll be sure to tag your post so our Product Team can see your ideas. 

 

We'll keep you in the loop!