I operate an art gallery and we do a lot of layaway purchases. Here's my workaround:
After calculating the total and the deposit due, I ring the item/items and manually change the price to reflect the deposit amount. For each item I use the Note function to indicate it's a layaway deposit. I then make an invoice that splits the remaining balance into equal thirds or fourths depending on the customer's choice. We set a reminder for 2 days prior, and the day of each payment due date. The paper agreement says we prefer they use the online invoice function. If they do happen to come in to make an in-person payment, I create an item for the amount and use the Notes to indicate what it's for. Since we're a consignment gallery, and artists are paid as each payment comes in, having the invoice record helps our accounts to ensure commission payments are made correctly.
Re: How can I offer my customers a layaway option with Square Point of Sale?
Posted
04-01-2016
Great question, @wh! We don't have a specific layaway feature, but we have had some sellers use our open tickets feature to facilitate layaway sales. The workaround goes like this:
1) Create an open ticket for the item
2) When the customer makes a payment on the item, close out the existing open ticket with their payment
3) Then create a new open ticket with the updated balance
4) Follow this process until the item has been paid off
You could also create an Invoice for the upfront partial payment and more Invoices for the balance until the goods are picked up. Here’s how to create Invoices: http://squ.re/1SGkd8s.
We use Square for Retail and I've scoured the community boards for an answer -- either a new feature from Square (seems it's been an ongoing request for 4 years now) OR a simple workaround with current features.
I'm really wanting to offer layaways for customers (I run a resale shop) but so many of the workarounds posted are just a mess (too complicated, make a mess of inventory.)
Has anyone used Saved Carts to split payments OVER TIME (not at one transaction)? If so, could you please tell me your steps. Does it work well? Thanks in advance!
I run a retail store and we still offer Lay By to our customers. This we are having to do manually and take items off Inventory and just put in a custom amount for the deposit. Is there a better way?
Hi I’m in exactly the same situation . I don’t like the invoice suggestion as it charges a fee to the customer I think and I would definitely loose the sale
I've been asking for this for YEARS!!!! They don't care about it..... I wouldn't invest too much in this cart until they do. I'm stuck in it for now but Layaway options is a deal-breaker for sure.
I know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but until Square has a layaway feature, we do integrate with Vend that provides sellers the ability to create a layaway.
We'll make sure to update this thread when we hear an update regarding the development of this feature @TMO. Thanks for your time and patience.
