Create and Manage Items Online
As you add your business details to Square, you can create, edit and manage items from your Square Item Library in Dashboard. Managing items from here will update most items details across several other Square platforms including Square POS and Square Online.
Note: In addition to your Dashboard, you can also create and manage items from the Square app.
| Want to sync your Item Library with Square Online? Learn more about item sync. |
Create Items in Dashboard
To create items from your Item Library in Dashboard:
From your online Square Dashboard, go to Items & Orders > Items to open your Square Item Library.
Click Create an Item. Note: All item creation and editing settings will display in a full-screen window. To return to your Item Library, select the X button.
Enter item information such as name, category and description.
Click Edit to add an optional colour to the Point of Sale tile to help organise your checkout screen.
Set up any of the following additional item features.
Item options help you create and organise your custom item variations. These options can be reused across your Item Library, saving time when you add new variations or items. Select Add options to add options to your item.
- If your item has a barcode, add the GTIN or SKU field.
- GTIN: The Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) allows companies to identify their items at any point along the supply chain. Note: GTIN is not supported with Square Terminal at this time.
- SKU: Stock-Keeping Units (SKU) are clear, internal identification numbers assigned to each of your variations.
- Select the unit to choose between selling whole or decimal quantities for your item.
- Add a price or leave it blank for a variable amount you can add at checkout.
- If applicable, add stock levels.
- Enable alerts by clicking Add low stock alert to track and notify you when stock is low.
- If applicable, add unit costs and vendor. Note: This is a Square for Retail Plus feature.
You can click Edit variation details at any time to make edits to your variation information, or Add variation to add a new one.
If you need customisable options – toppings, add-ons or special requests – create item modifiers.
Create custom attributes, and link them to items, to help add and track additional details about the items in your catalogue. Select Add custom attribute to get started.
The Skip detail screen in Point of Sale toggle means the item will automatically add to the POS bill without showing the item detail screen. If the item requires you to select modifiers or options during checkout, we recommend toggling this off.
You can adjust several settings as they relate to your Square Online websites, including site item visibility, prep times for online ordering and more. Check out how to manage Square Online item settings from your Item Library for more information.
Toggle this if you’d like to create a payment link or buy button for this item that you can use to sell via email, social media, your website, a blog and more.
Note: If you’re creating multiple items, you’ll be able to upload your items in bulk using item importing.
Quick Create
If your item library contains less than 10 items, you can use the Quick Create feature to quickly create items with a name and a price. Quick Create minimises the steps needed to create an item and you can edit the item details at any time. This feature is available from your online Square Dashboard. To get started:
Go to Items & orders > Items > Item Library.
Click + Quick Create and enter the item name. Note: If you haven’t yet created any items, you’ll see the item name and price field open.
Click the Price field to enter the item price. You can also leave this blank to add a variable price at checkout.
Click Save.
Set Up Item Unit Types
Each business is different – some sellers sell whole item quantities (like articles of clothing), while others sell items by weight or length. Some businesses sell both.
By default, each new item you create will have the unit type per item. When you set your unit type, you can choose from a list of pre-set units such as meters, ounces or feet. You’ll also be able to select unit types from both the metric and imperial systems. Learn more in our unit type FAQ.
To add a unit type:
- From your Square Item Library, go to Units.
- Click Add a Unit.
- Choose a preset unit.
- Set the unit precision. This helps keep track of your inventory and item sales price by allowing you to set the item count up to the hundred-thousandth place (0.00000).
- Click Save.
Unit types will reflect on your customers’ receipts, as well as on your item and sales reports within Square.
Note: Each custom unit type must have a unique name. Names aren’t case sensitive.
- From your Square Item Library, go to Units.
- Click an existing unit. If you’re updating a custom unit, you’ll see the option to change the precision.
- Choose to either Save your changes or click Delete to remove the unit type altogether.
Note: By default, if an item is assigned to a unit type you delete, the new unit type will convert to a per-item quantity.
Note the following limitations when managing units:
- Updating a unit type for an item won’t update your stock amount. For example, if you have 10 centimetres(cm)/inches(in) of Denim in stock, and you update your unit type from cm/in to metres(m)/feet(ft), your inventory levels for the item will be reflected as 10 m/ft in stock. To keep your inventory levels accurate, make sure to manually adjust your stock levels after updating the unit type.
- Your reporting and transaction history will reflect the unit type at the time of sale. Let’s say you sell coffee with the unit type set to ounces(oz). You later update the unit type to grams(g)/pounds(lbs), and complete another sale. If you review a report for coffee, you’ll see separate lines for both oz and g/lbs.
- When using unit types for inventory tracking, it’s not possible for items with a smaller unit to be deducted from a larger unit. For example, it’s not possible to set the unit type for wine as a 250 millilitre(ml) glass, and have a 750 ml bottle of wine deduct from stock every time three 250 ml glasses are sold.
- It’s not possible to set incremental minimums or maximums for unit types. For example, you won’t be able to set an increment such as 0.5 that the quantity must increase or decrease by when adjusting quantity during checkout.
Additional Item Actions
To update an item:
- From your Square Item Library, choose an item to update the item name, category, description, unit type, stock amount, stock alerts or variations.
- Choose to Save your changes, or click Delete to remove the item from your library.
You can also select the ‘•••’ button next to the item in your Item Library to edit or delete it.
To duplicate an item:
- From your Square Item Library, find the item you would like to duplicate and select the ‘•••’ button.
- Click Duplicate from the dropdown menu.
- The item editor will open pre-populated with all the values from the item you duplicated.
- Make any changes to the duplicated item and click Save.
You can mark an item or item variation as sold out in the case that it’s unavailable for sale. To start:
- From your Square Item Library, select the items or item variations that you’d like to mark as sold out.
- Click Edit variation details > Manage stock.
- Toggle on/off the Mark as sold out on Point of Sale and Online option.
- Click Done.
Note: This will also label the variation as sold out in any partner apps that are connected with Square.
You can 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’s end of day to keep your stock accurate and up-to-date.
To schedule an automatic restocking time:
- From your Square Item Library, select the item you want to schedule.
- Under ‘Variations’, click the Stock count. Note: If the stock is zero, the stock count may show as None or a dash.
- 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.
- You can choose to keep the restock scheduled for the end of your business day, or use the date selector to choose a custom date and time.
- Click Done, then 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 your Account & Settings page > Business information > Locations.
To edit an image for a single item:
- From your Square Item Library, click on the item you want to edit.
- Under the image, click Edit > Change Image.
- Click Save when finished.
To manage images from your image library:
- From your Square Item Library, go to Images > Image library.
- Use the filter options to specify or narrow your image search, and click on the image you want to edit.
- From the ‘Edit image’ window, you can update the image name, provide alt text for your image to improve search results online, or assign items to your image.
- Select Save when finished.
When adding item images, we recommend the following image specs:
- High resolution that is a size of 2,560 x 2,560 pixels.
- Dimensions that are square.
- Supported image formats include JPG, JPEG, PNG and GIF files. Images that are 360 degrees (SPIN files) or 3D aren’t supported at this time.
- Up to 20 MB in size, but less than 500 KB. This is optimal for loading speeds and search result rankings online.
Note: When you add, update or delete an item image, the change will reflect everywhere in Square, including your Dashboard, Square app and Square Online.
If you need help taking quality photos of your items, the Square Photo Studio app makes it easy to take professional-looking product photos in just a few simple steps. Learn more about getting started with the Square Photo Studio app.
Create Categories in Dashboard
Categories help you arrange and organise your items, report on item sales and route items to specific printers.
From your Square Item Library, go to Categories.
Click Create a Category.
Name your category (e.g. Drinks, Food, Shoes).
Click Save and Assign Items and tick the box next to each item you wish to include.
Click Move Items once you’re done.
Manage Item Stock
Square’s inventory management gives you basic tools to keep a clear count of in-stock items in your item library. Learn more about how to track your inventory with Square.
Note: If your business requires advanced inventory features and reporting, such as item unit cost management or Cost of Goods Sold reports, take a look at Square for Retail.
Create and Manage Sales Taxes
Sales tax should be enabled for applicable items sold at your business. You can easily create and manage them directly from the online Square Dashboard. Learn more about how to set up taxes.
Note: Square fees are taken out of the total amount of each transaction, including tax and tip.
Create and Manage Discounts
You can create and edit discounts from your Dashboard or Square app. Learn more about creating and managing discounts.
Items in Square Online
Square Online is a robust platform that covers your website, items, order fulfilment, customers and much more. When it comes to your items, Square Item Library affects Square Online in a few different ways.
As you add items to your Item Library, you can automatically generate an online ordering page with Square Online to sell from a website as well as your POS. To start:
- From your Square Item Library, click Online ordering to see a preview of what your online ordering site can look like.
- Click Site setup to generate the online ordering site with Square Online.
Once generated, you can navigate the Square Online Overview page in Dashboard to access the different features within Square Online, or navigate the Square Online site editor to create an ordering page that allows customers to quickly purchase your items.
When you first set up Square Online in your Square account, products in your Square Item Library will sync over to your Square Online Overview page. After the initial setup, syncing will continue automatically in the background with some exceptions. Learn more about Square Online item sync for more information.
If you don’t plan on selling in person with Square POS and only have an online business, you can create and manage items directly in Square Online rather than your Item Library. Because of Square Online item sync, the item information will always sync back to your Item Library when added directly in Square Online.
Learn more about creating items and categories from the Square Online Overview page in Dashboard. You can also learn how to create an item and category directly in the Square Online site editor.