Why would my inventory go negative for no apparent reason?

[brju2013]

The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Negative Inventory

I have been having issues with items going negative on some of the item variations. For example, I have a shirt that showed -1 for one of the variations (small), even though I only had one small sold; I had 2 smalls in stock, now I have one. 

Does anyone else have issues with inventory levels going negative for no apparent reason? I looked at the item sales for this past year for one of the items in question, and it should definitely NOT have negative levels based on the sales.

[RandomHeroMusic]

My trouble is I currently have 0 stock in this t-shirt. Someone tried to purchase one and the inventory went to -1. Why is that? It shouldn't be if the inventory is at 0. It shouldn't be listing that as an option. I know to keep track of inventory through the computer on the dashboard thing. This though doesn't seem right. Or does Square not really keep track at all?!

[EJ_]

@RandomHeroMusic Hi there, 

This is actually intended behavior.

The thinking here is that if for any reason you're not able to update the quantity levels for an item, we don't want to block your sales if the quantity level goes below 0 when you actually have the item in stock.

The Online Store won't allow customers to buy of out of stock items, but in person sales with the Point of Sale app will. 

[bluescorcher]

We're a cafe just trying out the inventory function.  We want to offer a fixed number of take-out pizzas in our online store, and make sure we don't oversell our capacity.  For example, no more than 6 pizzas pre-ordered and pre-paid, that customers can pickup at 5:15 pm every Friday on their way home from work. We'd like to be able to let regulars who are in the store claim and pay for one of the six ahead of time, but Checkout allows you to sell even with a zero or negative inventory, so we're at risk of overselling.

  Any suggestions for how we could work around this?  I see the logic for letting a retailer sell a t-shirt in hand even if the inventory shows zero.   There's no doubt a clever work-around that we could use to make sure we don't oversell our oven capacity.

   Thanks for your help -

[Chad]

Hello @bluescorcher, welcome to the community! 

I have a question, in your example is it 6 pizzas in total that can be purchased in store and online? 

Currently you can go negative on the Point of Sale app, but this isn't the case for the Online Store. You can enter an inventory for an item on the Square Online Store and once it hit's zero it will display as out of stock. Customers won't be able to purchase an out of stock item on the Online store. 

[bluescorcher]

Our oven capacity is the limiting factor, so 6 pizzas max.  We'd like to be able to pitch the online store at the counter, and assume that some regulars will want to pay for one of the 6 right at Checkout, rather than have to go online later. And so we'd risk overselling.

  Thanks for your help -

[Chad]

@bluescorcher Okay, I think I have a better grasp on this now. So it's not that you sell only 6 pizzas each day, but rather you don't want more than six orders coming in at a time? 

Please let me know if I've missed the mark. 

[bluescorcher]

Yes, that is exactly correct.

[Helen]

@bluescorcher Helen here stepping in for Chad. At this time it's not possible to automatically limit your incoming Online Store orders to 6 at a time. I'll share this thread with the Online Store team, definitely see how it would help your restaurants manage your in-store and pick up orders! 

[NegativeStock]

Yeah, what's going on?!  Why do I keep getting negative items.

[Tom]

Hey @NegativeStock, sorry for the frustration. Are you processing sales directly from the Point of Sale app, Online Store, or with one of our eCommerce partners? EJ's reply towards the top of this page may help clarify a bit more.