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Home>Inventory & Item Management

Basic Inventory Management

Square’s inventory management gives you basic tools to keep a clear count of in-stock items in your item library. For items with inventory enabled, the stock count will update based on sales recorded from Square Point of Sale or Square for Retail.

To use inventory management, make sure you’re running the most up-to-date version of the Square Point of Sale app on a supported device.

New to managing inventory? Make sure to check out our best practices for inventory management.

Enable Inventory Management

Stock Actions

Stock actions allow you to adjust stock levels and apply reasons. For instance, you are able to add or remove stock and assign reasons such as Stock Received, Inventory Re-Count, Damage, Theft, Loss, and Return.

Manage Inventory by Item

With inventory enabled, you can receive alerts in your Dashboard for low-stock or sold-out items, so you’ll know when to reorder and restock.

Online

  1. Go to Items & Orders > Item Library from your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Select an item from your item library.
  3. Scroll down to “Variations,” then click Edit variation details.
  4. Click Manage stock. : Square Dashboard - Item Library - Edit Variation - Manage Stock - EN
  5. Under “Stock action,” select the reason for adjusting your stock.
    • If you select Damage, Theft, Loss, the amount entered will automatically deduct from your current stock count for that location.
    • If you select Stock Received or Restock Return, your stock count will increase for the amount entered.
    • Selecting Inventory Re-Count will show your current stock amount—just enter in your new stock amount to update.
  6. Toggle on Low stock alerts to enable alerts. If your stock drops below the alert threshold, a stock alert will be generated.
  7. Click Done to confirm your update, then click Save to return to your item library.

Square POS App

  1. Tap ≡ More and select Items > All Items.
  2. Create or select an existing item.
  3. Scroll down to “Variations,” then select the variation you wish to edit.
  4. To adjust stock, tap the stock amount > select a reason > enter amount to be adjusted.
  5. Tap Done, then tap Save to return to your item library.

Important to note:

  • If you have multiple locations, inventory is established, edited, and tracked on a per-location basis.

  • You can also update your inventory alert settings at any time from Email notifications in your online Square Dashboard.

Mark Items as Sold Out

Even if you don’t track inventory, you can mark an item or item variation as sold out, in the case that it’s unavailable for sale.

Online

  1. Go Items & Orders > Items in your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Select the item(s) or item variation(s) that you’d like to mark as sold out.
  3. Click Edit variation details > Manage stock.
  4. Toggle on/off the Mark as sold out on Point of Sale and Online option.
  5. Click Done.

Square POS App

  1. Tap ≡ More then select Items > All Items.
  2. Select the item(s) or item variation(s) that you’d like to mark as sold out.
  3. From the Edit Item screen, tap the variation(s) to open up the “Edit Variation” screen.
  4. Toggle on/off the Label as sold out at this location option.
  5. Tap Done > tap Save.

Note: This will also label the item or item variation as sold out in Square Online.

Note: This will also label the item or item variation as sold out in Square Online.

Schedule an Automatic Restock

You can also schedule items marked as Sold Out to restock automatically. Set a specific day and time for the items to automatically restock or use your business’ end of day to keep your stock accurate and up to date.
To schedule an automatic restocking time:

  1. Go to Items & Orders > Items > Item Library from your online Square Dashboard.

  2. Select the item you want to schedule.

  3. Under "Variations," click the Stock count. Note: If the stock is zero, the stock count may show as None or a dash.

  4. An “Edit variation” window will pop up. Under “Manage stock,” toggle on Mark as Sold Out and Choose a time to make for sale again.

  5. You can choose to keep the restock scheduled for the end of your business day or to use the date selector to choose a custom date and time.

  6. Select Done > Save.

Once you schedule an automatic restock time, a calendar icon will appear in the Stock line under Variations for that item.

Note: Your end of day is based on your set business hours. To edit these hours, go to Account & Settings > Business > Locations.

Manage Inventory and Alerts In Bulk

The import tool allows you to download a report of your current inventory and update your inventory quantities in bulk. This is especially helpful for adding new inventory and verifying current stock. To download an inventory report or make updates to your inventory in bulk:

  1. Go to Items & Orders > Items > Item Library from your online Square Dashboard.

  2. Click Actions > Import Library from the drop-down menu.

  3. Choose to modify or replace your library > “Download our template file” to download your current inventory Excel (XLSX) or CSV report.

  4. In this report, update your Alert Threshold and New Quantity values and save the file to your computer. Don’t edit any other columns to prevent trouble uploading the file.
    Note
    : At this time, Excel (XLSX) and CSVs are the only supported file for bulk import. Custom templates aren’t supported.

  5. Drag and drop your saved file to the Import Inventory window and click Upload > Confirm Import > Done.

To print this information for your records, click Actions > Export Library and follow the on-screen prompts.

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