How can I search transaction Square For Retail on a Square Register by item or receipt barcode?

[DMCStore]

My Square For Retail on Square Register will not search by anything other than the credit card being dipped or tapped.  I need to be able to search by item purchased or by scanning the receipt barcode like I can in the dashboard, but cannot.  When I slick in the Transaction Search Box, it says below:

Tap, dip, swipe, or enter a receipt or card number.

Contactless search is enabled. 

I assume that the contactless search enabled may be the problem but I also do not see any way to modify the search.  Help!  I have called Square and was told the answer would be emailed to me and have followed up on that email repeatedly over the last week plus with no response.  

[Beemom]

I have the same issue!! I used to be able to scan the bar code on a customer receipt and it made returns super easy. Now I have to run their credit card or manually enter the receipt #, which isn't always easy to read. I also noticed that my bard codes on receipts no longer print a series of numbers under the barcode. That might be the problem, but no one can help me fix it

[_Violet]

Hi there @DMCStore & @Beemom - Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Square Seller Community. Sorry that we haven't answered this question for you just yet. Apologies for the delay.

I'm not quite sure if this is a feature that was removed from Square for Retail or not. I will go ahead and reach out to the Retail Support Team to confirm. I'll be sure to reply to you both again, here, once I receive more information to relay. We appreciate your patience in the meantime!

[_Violet]

Hello again @DMCStore & @Beemom - Thank you once again for your patience here. I ended up reaching out to our Engineers for more information on this. 

Here's what they said:

"When using Square Retail on the Register, Sellers should be able to scan the receipt code while they're on the Checkout Screen(viewing the cart). If a Seller is trying to scan the receipt code while in any other applet (for example: viewing the Transactions), it won't work. This is a feature gap that we're aware of. So the feature hasn't been removed but it only works from the cart/Checkout Screen."

I hope this information is helpful but please do let us know if you have any additional questions. Always happy to help! 😊

[theyarnbowl]

You also used to be able to search transactions by item. Sometimes a customer comes in without a receipt but we used to be able to search transactions by entering items that were included in their purchase. Has this feature been removed?

[_Violet]

Hi @theyarnbowl - Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Square Seller Community👋

I just tested this out on my own Square Register and was only able to search by receipt ID or the last 4 digits of the card. So it seems that we no longer have the ability to search by item. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news 😔

[theyarnbowl]

That is disappointing. This makes it especially difficult if there is no receipt produced and cards not available

[_Violet]

@theyarnbowl I’ve shared your feedback with our Product Team, as they are constantly improving our products. We appreciate your input! 🙂

[RossC1]

I updated to Square Register Retail Plus - I use to be able to look up items in transactions by simply typing in the item or looking up receipt #, now that I have updated I cannot look up item in a previous transaction or look up receipt # - ? how do you do this in Square Register

[_Violet]

Hi @RossC1 - Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Square Seller Community👋

I went ahead and merged your post to an existing thread where other Square Sellers have been discussing this topic as well. We merge duplicate conversations together to keep like comments in one place, and to make it easier for others to find the thread in the future. 

Since there are a few of you asking about this now, I am going to reach out to the Square for Retail and Square Register Teams to confirm whether this is an update or possibly a bug. I'll get back to you all here once I've gathered more info!

[_Violet]

Hi all - Thanks for your patience here while I worked on digging up some information 🙏

Our Product Team has confirmed:

1. This isn’t unique to Square for Retail and also applies to the Square Point of Sale 

2. Transactions applet search parameters were more recently updated on iOS. That’s why you can search by item there, but this has not yet been updated on Android/The Square Register. The Order Manager Team does NOT have plans to bring to parity in the future. This is basically a difference between how we have built this search for iOS vs Android and not a regression in behavior.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.

cc: @DMCStore @Beemom @theyarnbowl  @RossC1

[theyarnbowl]

That’s very disappointing as it was a very useful feature especially when there is the option for the customer not to receive a receipt at the time of purchase. It makes it extremely difficult to search for a transaction then. Even more difficult if the card used is not available for whatever reason eg, loss, stolen, damaged, replaced. 

[Arie]

Thank you for sharing your honest feedback with us @theyarnbowl. While we don't have a solution here yet, we'll continue to share this with our product team for consideration. 

[DMCStore]

The most disappointing part of this is that you can search receipts on an Ipad with app.  Square just isn't providing an update for their own register system after nearly two years.  That makes me think I shouldn't have invested in the Square Register and it makes me wonder if Square will discontinue it.  It was a waste of money for our non-profit.  It's a shame Square has such a huge customer base and rarely makes any updates of value.  

[Missy22cc]

Had I known this , I would have never upgraded to the register. 

[Missy22cc]

What about gift shops? People return gifts, they may not have the original card number. 

[Missy22cc]

It’s been a year and this is still a problem. We have also discovered that if a customer taps from their phone, a different set of numbers appear as their last four digits. This makes it virtually impossible to find a transaction on the POS register. Square is no longer user friendly option for small businesses that may have to deal with returns.