Set unit costs with Square for Retail purchase orders
About setting unit costs with purchase orders
Unit cost is the cost incurred to produce, purchase, or acquire a single unit of a product or service. It includes all relevant costs, such as materials, labor, and overhead. You can add unit costs to your item catalog in Square to produce more detailed reports with COGS (cost of goods sold), and better calculate your margins.
Before you begin
There are three ways to add your unit costs:
Online bulk import: Learn how to bulk import items.
Manually update individual items: Learn how to create and edit items.
Receiving purchase orders: When you receive stock using a purchase order, the unit cost for items is automatically saved. Learn how to create or cancel purchase orders.
Tracking stock and including a unit cost for item variations will ensure your reporting going forward will accurately reflect your cost of goods sold, profit, and profit margin; however, to correct your historical stock adjustments, you’ll need to head to your History log on your Square Dashboard.
Keep in mind that stock adjustments that deduct from your inventory levels will credit or debit your Cost of Goods Sold and Inventory Value (depending on the type of adjustment) based on a first in, first out (FIFO) accounting method. If the cost appears to be inaccurate, you can edit the cost of the original stock intake. As a result, you are unable to update the unit costs for adjustments that deduct from your stock levels — such as re-counts that adjust down, loss, damage, or theft stock adjustments. Learn more about Square inventory management.
Keep in mind, if an item is missing a unit cost, you’ll need to update each variation from your item library before you can bulk resolve missing costs from your History log.
Set up unit costs
Sign in to your Square Dashboard, then go to Items & Orders > Items > Item library.
Search and select an inventory item to adjust.
Scroll down to Variations, then click Receive stock.
Choose a location to adjust its inventory under Manage stock.
Click Stock received next to Stock action.
Enter the stock quantity, vendor name (optional), and the unit cost.
Configure any other variation setting, then click Done.
Bulk edit unit cost for variations
Sign in to your Square Dashboard, then go to Items & Orders > Items > Item library.
Select the relevant items, then click Edit items.
Scroll to Unit cost and enter the new unit costs.
Click Update variations.
Update missing unit costs and quantity
Step 1: Identify missing unit costs
Sign in to your Square Dashboard.
Navigate to Items & Orders > Items > Inventory Management > History.
Select Missing Cost from the All Costs drop-down menu.
The Missing Cost filter will display a list of items that are not associated with a unit cost.
Step 2: Add a unit cost
Sign in to your Square Dashboard > Item library.
Tap Add Cost next to one of your items, or select your item > Edit.
Enter the unit cost > tap Save.
If the original stock intake was with a purchase order, click the link listed in the historical adjustment details page to update the associated unit cost.
Step 3: Bulk resolve missing unit costs
Sign to your Square Dashboard and go to Items & Orders > Items > Item library to confirm each item variation has an associated unit cost.
Navigate to Inventory Management and click History.
Select Resolve Unit Costs > Resolve Costs. You can also select See Stock Actions to see each historical adjustment missing an associated unit cost.
For items with a cost associated at the variation level, you’ll see the option to Resolve Unit Costs for adjustments in the History tab of your Square Dashboard.
If an item in your library is missing a unit cost, you’ll need to update each variation before you can bulk resolve missing costs from your History log.