Create and edit item options and variations
About custom item variations and option sets
Item variations represent different versions of the same item, like different colours or sizes. Each variation can have its own cost, price and SKU.
Use variations when you need to offer specific alternative forms of an item, like small, medium or large drink sizes. Variations are chosen before the item reaches the customer and cannot be customized further.
Options sets are the attributes of a variation, like sizes and colours. Use option sets to generate many variations for an item quickly. Option sets can be applied to any item to create variations in bulk, so if you have multiple items that share the same colours, sizes or materials, you can save time by using your option sets to generate variations for those different items.
For example, let’s say you create two option sets: Sizes and Colours.
Sizes: Small, medium and large
Colours: Red, blue and green
If you create a new item, such as “shirts,” you can apply each option set to the item to create all nine variations of the shirt in just a few clicks (small red, small blue and small green; medium red, medium blue and medium green; and large red, large blue and large green) rather than creating each variation manually.
Before you begin
You have two options for creating item variations and options:
From the Square Dashboard on a laptop or desktop computer
From your point of sale app
Make sure you’ve created at least one item in your item library before assigning an item option set to an item. Learn how to create and edit items.
Modifiers and variations have different use cases:
Use modifiers to provide customization options during the sale of an item, like adding cheese to a burger. Learn how to create and edit item modifiers.
Use variations to offer different forms of the item that are fixed, like small or large size.
Step 1. Create and manage option sets
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Options.
- Click Create an option set or select an existing item option set to edit.
- Enter the Option set name and the Display name, and choose the Option set type within the Details section.
- Enter an option within the Add option field.
- Press Enter on your keyboard to add more options.
- Click Save.
Click the X icon next to an option to delete it. Move the option’s order list using the ≡ three horizontal lines icon.
- Open your point of sale app and tap ≡ More > Items > Options.
- Tap Create option or select an existing item option set to edit.
- Enter the Option set name and the Display name.
- Enter an option within the Options field.
- Tap Add option to add more options.
- Tap Create or Done.
Tap the X icon next to an option to delete it. Move the option’s order list using the ≡ three horizontal lines icon
Step 2. Add option sets to an item
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Options.
- Click Add.
- Select an Option set name from the list. Click Add options set if you want to add more options.
- Click Next once you’ve chosen the appropriate option set.
- Review the new variations created and click Create variations to confirm the changes.
- Click Save.
Remove option sets from an item
Once you’ve assigned an item option set to an item, you can remove the item option set assigned to this item at any time.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items.
- Click on the selected item from the list.
- Click the … three dots icon next to the name of the option set within the Options section.
- Click Remove option set > Delete variations.
- Click Save.