Manage item availability
About managing item availability
Item availability allows you to quickly manage your stock from your Square Dashboard and Point of Sale. This feature differs from inventory counting as it allows you to mark items and variations as Available, Sold out (if you run out of an item or modifier in your inventory or want to no longer sell an item or modifier, you can 86 the items by marking them as “sold out”), or track the quantities of your prepared items so you have more control on whether your menu items can be sold. For example, you can mark a dish as unavailable when you run out of the ingredients to make it.
Before you begin
You can manage your item availability from your Square Dashboard, Square for Restaurants app and Square POS app with Full service, Quick service or Bar mode enabled.
Availability is updated based on sales across Point of Sale, online and integrated third-party channels. Available and sold out status are updated across channels.
When marking an item or variation as “sold out,” your item will be marked as available again at the end of each business day unless a reset availability is chosen. Business hours are determined via Locations in your Square Dashboard.
When marking an item or variation as “available” without setting a quantity, your item will be made unlimited and available with no count limits set.
Item availability applies at the variation level rather than the item level, meaning that each variation of an item (e.g. different sizes or colours) will have its own availability count.
When editing an item availability, you can turn ON/OFF Track Inventory. Inventory tracking is recommended for items for which you want a detailed stock history and movement. Once turned on, the item will show up in the Inventory applet, stock overview, inventory reports, inventory counting tool and purchase orders. Turning inventory tracking on will always require the item to have a stock count.
You cannot bulk-edit item availability. Adjusting item availability can only be done on an item-by-item basis. If inventory tracking is on for an item, bulk stock adjustments can be done from Stock Overview in your Square Dashboard.
Manage item and variation availability
From the Square Point of Sale app with Full service, Quick service or Bar mode enabled, or from the Square Restaurants POS app.
From the Menu tab:
- From the Menu tab, long-press the item you want to update.
- From the pop-up menu, tap Edit Availability.
- Select the variation if relevant, and mark the item or variation as Available or Sold out, as needed.
a. If marking the item or variation as Available, you can optionally choose the remaining quantity of the item or variation you want to sell and optionally tap Reset availability to determine when the item or variation will automatically reset to unlimited at a time you specify.
b. If marking the item or variation as Sold out, you can optionally tap Reset availability to determine when the item or variation will be available again. - Toggle ON/OFF Track Inventory based on your preference.
- Tap Save to apply your changes.
Alternatively, you can quickly mark an item as Available or Sold out (regardless of whether there’s an available account on the item or not), by long-pressing the item you want to update and selecting Mark as sold out or Mark as available.
From the Items applet:
- Tap More > Items.
- Tap Available or Sold out in the row of the item you want to update.
- Select the variation, if relevant, and mark the item or variation as Available or Sold out, as needed.
a. If marking the item or variation as Available, you can optionally choose the remaining quantity of the item or variation you want to sell and optionally tap Reset availability to determine when the item or variation will automatically reset to unlimited at a time you specify.
b. If marking the item or variation as Sold out, you can optionally choose Reset availability to determine when the item or variation will be available again. - Toggle ON/OFF Track Inventory based on your preference.
- Tap Save to apply your changes.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Item library.
- Click the item you want to update.
- Scroll down to Inventory, then ensure you’re in the tracking mode you desire by clicking Change tracking and select between Track by availability or Track by stock count.
- Toggle ON/OFF Inventory Tracking based on your preference.
- Under Inventory, click Edit next to Availability and mark the item as Available or Sold out, or Set quantity as needed.
- If marking the item as Available, your item will be made unlimited and available with no count limits set.
- If marking the item as Sold out, you can optionally toggle ON/OFF Choose a time to reset to available to determine when the item will be available again.
- If marking the item as Set quantity, add the remaining quantity and optionally toggle ON/OFF Choose a time to reset to available to determine when the item will automatically reset to unlimited at a time you specify.
- Click Done > Save to apply your changes. If the Edit item page is dismissed before you click save, your changes will not apply.