Item Availability
This updated experience is designed to make it faster and easier to control what is available to sell throughout the day, whether you are managing daily prep, running low on stock, or making changes during a busy shift.
With this new workflow, you can mark items as sold out, set a daily count, or enable inventory tracking, all from one simplified screen in your POS. This helps your team make quick availability updates on the spot, with less need to jump between tools or surfaces.
What are the benefits of this feature?
Support day-to-day availability workflows
Set daily availability counts for items that change based on prep or service.
Counts can reset to unlimited availability automatically, so sellers don’t have to remember to clear them.
Make updates from wherever you manage items
Update availability or inventory from the checkout screen (long press on tile) or Items Applet on POS, or Item Edit Sheet on Dashboard.
Helps prevent oversells and keeps item status accurate everywhere
Availability is updated based on sales across POS, online, and integrated third-party channels.
Available and sold out status are updated across channels.
Easier for teams to learn and use
Streamlined UI makes it faster to update availability.
Reduces confusion for teams who manage availability and inventory for different items.
Current Limitations
Only available on F&B Mode and Restaurants POS – Square Point of Sale and Basic Mode support are not yet included. Ensure you are on the latest version to access the feature.
No Bulk Editing – At this time, availability must be updated on an item-by-item basis. Although if inventory tracking is on for an item, bulk on hand stock adjustments can be done on the Stock Overview page on Dashboard.
Get Started
- Go to the Menu tab and long press on the item you’d like to edit.
- In the pop-up menu, select Edit Availability.
- From the Availability & Stock Modal you can:
- Mark the item as Available or Sold Out.
- Enter an Available Count if you want to sell a limited number.
- Toggle Inventory Tracking on or off*.
- (Optional) Choose when the item resets to available. By default, it will reset at the end of your business day (based on your location settings).
- Click Save to apply your changes.
Note: Inventory tracking is recommended for items that you want to track detailed stock on hand and movement for. Turning inventory tracking on will always require the item to have a stock count, and the item will show up in Inventory surfaces including: Inventory Applet, Stock Overview, Inventory Reports, Full/Cycle Counting Tool and Purchase Orders.
- Go to the Items tab and click on the item you’d like to edit to bring up the Edit Item page.
- The Items tab may be in the More menu.
- Scroll down to the ‘Price & Inventory’ section.
- Tap on Available to bring up the Availability & Stock Modal. In the modal you can:
- Mark the item as Available or Sold Out.
- Enter an Available Count if you want to sell a limited number.
- Toggle Inventory Tracking on or off*.
- (Optional) Choose when the item resets to available. By default, it will reset at the end of your business day (based on your location settings)
- Click Save on the modal and Save on the Edit item page to apply your changes.
Note: If you don’t see the All Items page, check your team permissions in Dashboard. Go to Staff > Team > Permissions > Items and ensure Manage items for all locations and manage inventory for assigned locations from the Items tab on your point of sale is enabled.
- In your Square Dashboard, go to Items > Item Library.
- Select on the item you’d like to update.
- Ensure you’re in the tracking mode you desire:
- Under Inventory, select the Change tracking button to toggle Inventory Tracking on or off.
- To edit availability status or stock counts:
- Under Inventory, click Edit Availability / Stock.
- Select the availability that is appropriate.
- If selecting Set Quantity, you will be prompted to choose the remaining quantity of this item you have to sell.
- When marking your item as sold out or setting a quantity, you can also choose a time to make it “Available” again. By default, your item will be marked as available again at the end of day (determined by the configured close hours in your location settings).
- Click done and Save on the Edit item page to apply your changes.
- Even if you hit Done on the modal, if the Edit item page is dismissed any changes will not apply.
Granular Inventory Permissions
We've introduced enhanced permission settings to give you greater control over employee access. Previously, the Manage Items permission allowed employees to both edit item details and manage inventory. These functions are now separated—so you can grant employees access to update inventory levels (such as stock counts and availability) without giving them the ability to edit item information like names, prices, or descriptions.
To change permission settings:
Go to your Square Dashboard and click on Staff > Team > Permissions.
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Select an existing permission set that you would like to change and click on Items.
If no permission setting have been set up, click on Create Permission Set and fill out the relevant information, then click into that permission set.
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Check the box beside Update item availability, modifier availability, and stock count on your point of sale.
Deselect the box beside Manage items for all locations and manage inventory for assigned locations from the Items tab on your point of sale to disable item editing permissions
Click Continue and choose which access points this permission set will apply to.
Click Save.
Note: Once the update is enabled, if you experience any issues with the feature, please restart your device or browser as a first step.
FAQs
Item Availability: This feature allows sellers to mark items as “available”, “sold out”, or track of quantities of prepared items. It’s useful when sellers want to control whether menu items can be sold.. For example: a restaurant may mark a dish as unavailable when they run out of ingredients but don’t track ingredient quantities in real-time.
Inventory Tracking: This feature enables sellers to track inventory levels using inventory methods that help with robust accounting and reporting needs. It’s useful for finished goods purchased from vendors like apparel. For example: a retail store selling clothing might track how many units of each size and color are in stock to prevent overselling.