Create, import, edit, and deactivate vendors
About managing vendors
With Square for Retail Plus, you can create, import, edit and deactivate your vendor list, send and receive purchase orders from your Square Dashboard. Vendor management also allows you to enter both SKUs and vendor codes. Including both SKUs and vendor codes for an item will help you match the items in your library with the codes vendors use to identify their products. If a vendor code includes a barcode, you can add stock from the Square Retail POS app for received orders by scanning the vendor code directly.
Before you begin
When you add a vendor code to an item, you can search your item library by vendor code using:
Search Bar: Enter the vendor code in the search bar at the top of your item library.
Column Filter: Click (+) to add vendor codes to your item library columns.
Create a vendor
You have multiple options to create a vendor from your Square Dashboard.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard, then go to Items & orders > Items > Inventory management > Vendors.
- Click Create Vendor.
- Enter details about your vendor, then click Save.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard, then go to Items & orders > Items > Item library.
- Select Create item.
- Click Add vendor under Units.
- Select an existing vendor or add the vendor’s name, cost and vendor code for the individual item.
- Click Save.
When you make a Purchase Order, you can create a new vendor on the spot.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard, then go to Items & orders > Items > Inventory management > Purchase orders.
- Click Create.
- Select an existing vendor or create a new vendor.
- Fill out the rest of the order and item information, then click Create or Save as draft.
Bulk import vendors
You can add a default vendor to multiple items quickly and easily by bulk importing an Excel or CSV file from your Square Dashboard. To do so:
Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items > Item library.
Click Actions > Export library. If no inventory currently exists, you can select the download template.
Open the “catalog-YYYY-MM-DD-XXXX.xlsx or .csv” file saved to your computer using Excel (XLSX) or another spreadsheet program.
Add the applicable vendor for each item in the “Default Vendor Name” column. You can copy and paste an existing vendor name to update the default vendor associated with an item variation, or create a new vendor on the spot.
Save the edited Excel (XLSX) or .csv file to your computer.
Go back to your item library.
Click Actions > Import library.
Drag and drop the file or click browse file to manually select.
Click Next to add new items and update existing items or select Overwrite entire item library to delete all existing items and replace them with your uploaded items. Click Next.
Correct any columns on the Sync data page, then click Next.
Review your changes and click Confirm Import to upload your new item library.
If the vendor name is removed from a cell, it will delete the associated vendor for the item.
Edit vendor specific item library
When you create a purchase order with a vendor, the items added to the order will automatically list under the Item Library in their vendor profile. If you’d like to update or edit the vendor-specific item library:
Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items > Inventory management > Vendors.
Click on the vendor’s name.
Select Items at the top of their profile.
From here you can edit the unit cost or vendor code for each price point.
Click Save when you're done.
Filter by vendor
When you filter your item library by vendor, only items supplied by or associated with a specific vendor will appear:
Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items > Item library.
Click on the All Vendors drop-down menu.
Select a vendor to filter by. To view items in your library without an associated vendor, select Missing Vendors.
Deactivate a vendor
Deactivating a vendor will remove them from your recipient list when creating a purchase order. Learn more about how to create or cancel a purchase order with Square for Retail.
Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items > Inventory management > Vendors.
Next to the vendor's name, click (•••) > Deactivate. Alternatively, click on the vendor's profile then click Deactivate vendor.
Click Deactivate vendor again to confirm.
Inactive vendors will not be available when creating a purchase order and managing unit costs on items. If you choose to use this vendor again, you can always reactivate them by clicking (•••) next to their name, then click Activate.