Create and Manage Item Categories
Categories help you arrange and organize your items, report on item sales, route items to specific printers, assign online visibility and much more. Manage categories from both your online Square Dashboard and Square Point of Sale.
Learn more about creating and managing items from Square Dashboard.
Categories in Dashboard
From your online Square Dashboard, manage item categories to organize your Item Library any way you need. Quickly review all of your categories and subcategories, rearrange them and confirm their online visibility as they relate to your Square Online websites.
- From your Square Item Library, go to Categories.
- Click Create category.
- Name your category (like Drinks, Food, Shoes, etc.), add items and adjust any other relevant settings.
- Click Save when finished.
- From your Square Item Library, go to Categories.
- Click Rearrange.
- Use the arrows to move your category to a new position.
- Click Done rearranging when finished.
Note: How categories are arranged here is how they’ll appear on your Square Online site.
- From your Square Item Library, go to Categories and select a category to update.
- Make your changes and Save to finish, or click Delete to remove the category from your library.
Note: Deleting a category with nested subcategories will also delete the subcategories. Additionally, all locations won’t be able to sort by this category, and you’ll no longer be able to view reporting specific to this category.
Channel visibility refers to how a category will appear on your Square Online site and other online channels. To control a category’s channel visibility:
- From your Square Item Library, go to Categories to select an existing category or create a new one.
- Under “Channel visibility,” toggle your settings to indicate on which Square Online sites, and other channels, the category or subcategory should be visible.
- Click Save when finished.
Note: If your Square Online ordering page template is Order Online, then items in a category won’t appear on your site when the category is hidden. If your template is Shop All, then items in a category will still be visible even when the category is hidden.
Note: Enable time-based categories by upgrading your Square Online subscription.
With Square Online, you can create a category that’s time-based to support menu items that are only available during certain times of the day (think breakfast, lunch, weekends, etc.). Learn more about time-based categories.
You can customize how an item or category page from your Square Online site displays on search engines. This is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Learn more about how to optimize your items and categories for Square Online SEO.
You can customize how links to the item and category pages from your Square Online site appear when shared on social media, particularly if you want to use different information from your SEO. Learn more about Square Online social media links for details.
Categories in Point of Sale
Item categories can also be managed from your Square Point of Sale to organize your item library and fine-tune in-app reports.
- From your Square Point of Sale, tap ≡ More > Items > Categories.
- Tap + to create a category.
- Name your category (like Drinks, Food, Shoes, etc.), add items and adjust any other relevant settings.
- Tap Save when finished.
- From your Square Point of Sale, tap ≡ More > Items > Categories.
- Tap on a category in your list, and tap ••• > Edit category or Delete category.
- Tap Save when finished.
Note: Deleting a category with nested subcategories will also delete the subcategories. Additionally, all locations won’t be able to sort by this category, and you’ll no longer be able to view reporting specific to this grouping of items.