How To Use Square Inventory Management in 10 Steps (+ Video)
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This article is part of a larger series on POS Systems.
Square offers a complete inventory management tools software, hosted within the larger Square POS system. Square POS is free to use with any Square account and can be accessed both through your browser or via the free Square POS iOS and Android apps.
Learn how to use Square’s inventory management tools, from creating your account to enabling tracking to using your reports, and get the most out of your account with our step-by-step guide. Also, view our brief video guide:
Step 1: Create a Square Account
Before you can start using Square’s inventory management tools, you will need to sign up for a Square account. Square offers several different point-of-sale (POS) plans for different kinds of businesses, including Square for Retail, Square Restaurants, and a general-purpose POS. For this guide, we are using the general-purpose Square POS. However, every Square POS product has free inventory tools.
Read more about Square and Square’s pricing, or see our guides to find which POS product is right for you:
If you happen to already have a Square account, all you will need to do is sign into your account on either your mobile app or desktop.
Step 2: Click on the ‘Items’ Tab on Your Main Dashboard
Before you can start managing inventory, there has to be inventory to manage. This means adding all the products you plan to sell to your inventory catalog. Square makes this process extremely easy and allows you to add detailed information about each of your products.
All you will need to do is select “Items” from your home screen menu to be taken to your inventory catalog where all your products will be listed and you can add additional items.
Step 3: Hit the ‘Create an Item’ Button
Once you are in your inventory catalog, select the “Create an Item” button. This will allow you to add new inventory items to your catalog.
Pro tip: If you want to create multiple inventory items for your POS system, you can import them in bulk using an XLS or comma-separated values (CSV) file. We’ll cover how that works at the end of this article.
Step 4: Edit Image, Name & Category
Once you have hit the “Create an Item” button, you will be taken to a product from where you should first add your product’s image, name, category, description, and location(s) where sold.
To edit your inventory item image or color, you simply hit “Edit” under the image box, and then options to either upload an image or add a color to your product will appear. Color coding products is a great strategy for visually categorizing your catalog such as all cleaning services being purple. Once you’re finished uploading an image or selecting a color, click “Done.”
From there, you will want to enter your item name into the “Name” field and pick its category. For example, if you have a bakery, you might have different categories for “cakes,” “cupcakes,” and “cookies.” Categorization helps Square run category reports, something we will look at later on in this article.
If you already have a category created, simply click on the “Category” field and select it from the drop-down list. If not, if you start typing a new category name, the options to “Create New” will automatically appear so you can create new categories without leaving the product page.
At this time, you will also fill in the product description and select which locations sell those products or services.
Step 5: Set Product Options
Scrolling down slightly on the product form, you will come to the Options section. With this tool, you can categorize item variations into “Option Sets” like size, flavor, or color, and then add specific variations under each option category. The variations will then be added to your product page under Variations as well as to your inventory list.
So, for example, a size option set would likely have variations within it for small, medium, and large. Another great feature of this tool is if you add a second option set for the same product—say color with red, yellow, and green variants—Square will create variants for each of the products automatically. So, for the size and color option set example, there would be small red, small yellow, and small green variants automatically, and so on for all the sizes and colors.
Your option set names will appear on your product price tags to help you stay organized.
To begin adding options for your product, all you will need to do is select “Add Options” and an option form will appear.
Here, you simply fill out the option set name and the individual options within the set, click next, review the variants your option set creates, and then hit “Create Variants.”
Step 6: Edit Your Variants
Below the Options section, you will find another, similar section: “Variations.” Here is where all of your individual options will appear for you to edit. Here, you will click on an individual product name, and a form will appear where you can input the product’s stock keeping unit (SKU) number, pricing, and low stock alerts.
You can also set the price for multiple variants at once by selecting the variants you want to edit from your variants list and clicking “Edit Price.” Then set your price for all variants and hit save.
Step 7: Add Quantities on Hand
While you have filled out your product details and told Square what products you have, there is still an important piece of information that you need to add―how much of each product you have. This information is vital for Square to be able to accurately track your inventory levels and help you stay on top of your products.
After specifying each variation’s name, SKU, and unit price, you can proceed to add quantities to each variant. Go to the “Adjust Inventory” button under the variants list and select a reason for your stock adjustment. You will have the following options:
- Stock received: Indicates that additional stock was received from suppliers
- Inventory recount: Used to adjust the number of products after physical count
- Damage/Theft/Loss: Indicates when products were lost for reasons other than sales
- Restock Return: Indicates that you are adding back products returned by customers
If you select “Stock Received” or “Restock Return,” the amount you specify will be added to the current stock amount. If you select “Damage,” “Theft,” or “Loss,” on the other hand, any quantity adjustment will be deducted from the current stock amount of the particular variant.
Selecting “Inventory Recount” will show you the current stock amount, which you can then manually update by specifying the correct stock count. Choosing the appropriate stock action is important for accurate reporting and having a clear understanding of your inventory’s performance.
Once you have indicated the reason for your stock level adjustment, you can then input the amount by which you are adjusting your stock quantities in the “Adjustment” column. From there, you click “Done” and your quantities will be added to your inventory catalog.
Step 8: Enable Inventory Tracking & Low Stock Alerts
With your quantities input and ready to go, the next thing you will want to do is allow Square to track your inventory levels and send low stock alerts. Tracking permissions allows Square to deduct from your product levels as you sell through items, and low stock alerts let you set a custom quantity for when you want to receive a restock alert, telling you it’s time to order another set of the product in question.
So, for example, say that I set my low stock alert at 10 pieces for my red blouse. Then, when there are only 10 red blouses left in stock, I will receive an alert from Square telling me that it is time to reorder. This tool is optional; however, it is extremely helpful for staying on top of your products and ensuring you never face a stockout.
Allowing for tracking and low stock alerts is easy. Select the product you want to edit from the variants list and toggle over to the “Manage Stock” tab. Then, click the track option to “On” and scroll down slightly farther to do the same for the low Stock Alerts option. From there, a field will appear where you can input the quantity at which you want a low stock alert and all that is left to do is hit save.
Step 9: Review & Save
Once you have filled everything out, all that’s left to do is a final review. If your inventory item is good to go, just hit the “Save” button at the top right corner of your screen, and your item is complete.
Do not worry, though, as you can edit your inventory at any time simply by selecting the item from your inventory catalog. This will take you right back to its product page where you can edit any field you need to.
Step 10: Manage Inventory With Inventory Reporting Tools
With your inventory in your POS system and your tracking permission on, Square takes the lead. Square will track, analyze, and report on your inventory so that you can make better decisions and stay on top of your business. Anyone with a Square account can access inventory reports. All you need to do is select the “Reports” option on your home screen sidebar and then scroll down to “Inventory Reports.”
Here you will have access to several reports that are detailed below.
Tip: Adding Items in Bulk With a CSV or XLS File
If you already have an existing inventory list that you would like to upload in bulk, you can select the “Import Items” option from your inventory catalog. This allows you to download a Square-compatible spreadsheet where you can fill out product information in bulk and add all your existing inventory in a single upload.
The first thing you will want to do is download the Square inventory template and fill it out. After that, select “import” and you will be given two options:
- Choose “Modify Item Library” if you want to add new items to your inventory or update details for existing items, such as an item’s price or image. This won’t delete any items from your item library.
- Choose “Replace Item Library” if you want to get rid of your existing items and put the new items in their place.
Once you have selected the appropriate option, click “Next” to upload your file. At this stage, you can either drag and drop your file or select it from your computer. All that’s left to do then is click “Upload.” Square will take you through steps to review, edit, and approve the information. If everything looks good, click “Confirm” in the upper right. If not, fix it, and then click “Confirm” and your items will appear in your inventory catalog.
Bottom Line
Square offers a rich bank of inventory management tools that will help you run your business more effectively. As you sell through your stock, Square will adjust your inventory reports automatically and help you understand how products are performing so that you can make wiser business decisions and drive your bottom line. With the tools in this article, you are ready to start taking advantage of all the inventory tools that Square has to offer and to watch your business flourish.
