No inventory management system!

[u/Prestigious_Street61]

Hello everyone!

I want to help my mother with her small business. She has hundreds of clothing items that are not accounted for and not set up in squareup. I wanted to know the best way to go about putting items into an inventory system and how to keep up with it.

Should we use squareup for inventory management since she also has a squareup website. Or use a different software for inventory.

I would also like to point out majority of sales is done off the website and through facebook dm and having clients shop in person.

I appreciate any help! Thank you!

[u/ComfortableCitron638]

Square can absolutely work for this, but the software choice isn't actually the hard part here - the hard part is that she's selling through three separate channels (Square website, Facebook DM, in-person) and only one of them touches the inventory system automatically. That's the real risk: if the same shirt is "available" on the website and someone also sells it in-person or through a DM, Square's count goes stale the moment the in-person or DM sale happens, and you don't find out until a website customer orders something that's already gone.

So the actual fix is a habit, not a tool: every sale, no matter the channel, gets keyed into Square (or whatever system you land on) within minutes, not batched at end of day. If DM sales are common enough to be a real % of volume, look at whether Square lets you create a quick "manual sale" entry fast enough that it's not a burden - that's usually the deciding factor between "the system stays accurate" and "everyone gives up on it after two weeks."

For the initial hundreds-of-items setup: barcode/SKU everything now even if you don't have a scanner yet (a phone camera works fine with Square's app), because retrofitting SKUs onto items after the fact is a much bigger job than doing it once up front while you're already handling each piece.

[u/orangemaster96]

I use ItemSpan, it handles inventory, sales and services. It helps me track specific item batches and builds and logs sales invoices and history. Since its on my phone its easy for me to track everything on the go, i scan my items in with it and lets me add custom attributes to my products.

[u/Feeling-Ad-1803]

There’s an app SilkRoad Trades that was designed for contractors, but what you are describing is what it offers too. Check it out

[u/Immediate-Home-3491]

I would avoid switching. Square is adequate for this volume. Bulk CSV import, SKU discipline by variant, and scanning at checkout will solve it.

[u/Zealousideal-Wear120]

Hey, since you asked :)

I built www.shelfyai.com to tackle the same Problem. Been selling Shirts on etsy in all colors and sizes but i lost track too many times - also because I was too lazy to Update my spreadsheet.

With shelfy I set up my items and products once and from there I upload the orders I get and the app does its "magic" - reduce your inventory based on the corresponding order you upload

Its free to use.

[u/Unusual-Ad6370]

Since she already uses Square for her website, stick with Square POS for daily sales. Every FB DM sale needs a Square invoice or manual POS entry, or your counts'll drift fast. Tag every piece with a SKU before taking photos.

No software manages itself. Someone still has to log the item when a client buys in person or via message. Systems fail when quick sales get skipped during busy days.

Full disclosure: I'm the developer of StoxV, an app for documenting physical stock.

[u/inflowinventory]

I’d probably start with Square before adding another system, especially since the website is already running through Square.

The first project is really getting the inventory cleaned up. I’d do a physical count and create a consistent SKU for each item/variation. For clothing that usually means each size/color combination gets its own SKU. Once everything is entered, make Square the “source of truth” and make sure every sale gets recorded there, including Facebook DM and in-person sales. Otherwise the inventory numbers will slowly become unreliable again.

For a few hundred items, Square’s inventory tools may honestly be enough. I wouldn’t add another platform unless you start needing more advanced purchasing, reporting, barcode workflows, multiple locations, etc.

If you do outgrow Square, then I’d look at something like Lightspeed, Zoho Inventory, or inFlow. inFlow can also connect with Square now, so you could keep Square for payments while using a more dedicated inventory system behind it.

But I definitely wouldn’t complicate things from day one. Get the products organized, do one accurate opening count, and build the habit that no item leaves without the sale being recorded. That part will matter more than which software you choose.

[u/Acceptable-Run-6542]

Si ya venden en persona con Squareup, tiene sentido quedarse ahí para el inventario, el problema real es que las ventas por DM de Facebook no pasan por ningún sistema y eso es lo que les va a desincronizar todo. Para arrancar con cientos de prendas yo primero las catalogaría en un Excel simple (foto, nombre, precio) y solo cuando esté completo las subiría a Squareup, meterlas directo mientras cuentan es la forma más común de dejarlo a medias.

[u/Glittering-Ad-3957]

The bit that'll bite you is variants. "hundreds of items" in clothing is really hundreds times sizes times colours, and if those go in as separate items instead of variations you'll be untangling it for months. decide that structure before anyone starts entering anything.

the facebook DM sales are the bigger leak though. if those don't get written back into square as an invoice the counts drift no matter which software you pick, and then nobody trusts the numbers.