Back to Home

Receive stock with Square for Retail

What’s in this article?
Who is this article for?
This article is for business owners and their team members with inventory permissions who want to update their inventory by adding stocks they received from the online Square Dashboard or in the Square Retail POS app. This is a feature available with Square for Retail Plus. Learn more about Square Staff and custom permissions.

Before you begin

Exiting the screen while receiving stock will not save the scanned inventory added. If you’re receiving hundreds of new items, make sure to periodically commit your work by saving all the items and their counts.

About receiving stock for your retail business

Receiving stocks for your retail business ensures you have inventory available to offer to your customers. It allows your business to meet customer demands, offer a variety of products. With Square for Retail Plus, you can receive and manage stocks from your Square Dashboard and the Square Retail Point of Sale app, or bulk receive stock using Square for Retail on Square Register.

Receive stock in Square Dashboard

From your Square Dashboard, you can receive stocks of specific variations for items with variations, or add stocks for an item without variations.

Items with variations

  1. Go to Items in your Square Dashboard.
  2. Select an item to open the “Edit Item” view.
  3. Scroll down to Variations, then select the Stock field which has a 0 next to it.
  4. Click on the 0 to open the “Edit variation” view.
  5. Scroll down to the correct location and click Select reason and choose Stock Received from the list.
  6. In the “Add Stock” field, enter the quantity of stock you want to add.
  7. Click Done then click Save to return to your item library.

Items without variations

  1. Go to Items in your online Square Dashboard.
  2. Select an item to open the “Edit Item” view.
  3. Scroll down and click Manage stock.
  4. Select reason and choose Stock Received from the list.
  5. In the “Adjustment” column, enter the quantity of stock you want to add.
  6. Click Done then click Save to return to your item library.

Receive stock in the Square Retail POS app

With Square Retail Point of Sale Plus tools, you can receive and manage inventory from the free Square for Retail app on compatible iOS devices and Square Register.

On iOS devices

  1. Tap Inventory from your navigation bar. If you’re using Square for Retail on an iPhone, tap the list icon to view Inventory.
  2. Tap Stock Overview > Receive Stock.
  3. Search or scan items to receive stock > enter stock amounts. You can also scan the same item numerous times to receive multiple stocks, or scan multiple items once and adjust their quantities afterwards.
  4. To edit vendor and item information including the item unit cost, tap the appropriate items from Stock Overview and edit the information from the pop-up screen.
  5. When you’re finished, tap Confirm Receive.

On Square Terminal

  1. Tap Inventory from your navigation bar.
  2. Tap Search by to add items. You can multi-select items, then tap Add to list.
  3. Enter the stock levels, then tap Continue.
  4. Review the stock information, then tap Done.
  5. Add a vendor, then tap Done.
  6. Follow the prompts until you’re done.

Bulk-receive stock

You can also receive stock in bulk using Square for Retail on Square Register by using a compatible barcode scanner. To do so:

  1. Make sure your barcode scanner is connected.

  2. From the Navigation menu in Square for Retail, select the list icon > Add Stock > Receive Stock.

  3. Scan all relevant barcodes that you’d like to add > click Next.

  4. Review all item information and add vendor information and unit cost, if applicable > click Continue.

  5. From the stock added confirmation, confirm the number of items added.

Related Articles

What’s in this article?