Create and edit item options and variations
About custom item variations and option sets
Item variations represent different versions of the same item, like different colours or sizes. Each variation can have its own cost, price and SKU.
Use variations when you need to offer specific alternative forms of an item, like small, medium or large drink sizes. Variations are chosen before the item reaches the customer and cannot be customized further.
Options sets are the attributes of a variation, like sizes and colours. Use option sets to generate many variations for an item quickly. Option sets can be applied to any item to create variations in bulk, so if you have multiple items that share the same colours, sizes or materials, you can save time by using your option sets to generate variations for those different items.
For example, let’s say you create two option sets: Sizes and Colours.
Sizes: Small, medium and large
Colours: Red, blue and green
If you create a new item, such as “shirts,” you can apply each option set to the item to create all nine variations of the shirt in just a few clicks (small red, small blue and small green; medium red, medium blue and medium green; and large red, large blue and large green) rather than creating each variation manually.
Before you begin
You have two options for creating item variations and options:
From the Square Dashboard on a laptop or desktop computer
From your point of sale app
Make sure you’ve created at least one item in your item library before assigning an item option set to an item. Learn how to Create and edit items.
Modifiers and variations have different use cases:
Use modifiers to provide customization options during the sale of an item, like adding cheese to a burger. Learn how to create and edit item modifiers.
Use variations to offer different forms of the item that are fixed, like small or large size.
Step 1: Create Variations
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items.
Click Variations > Add Variations.
Give each of your variations a name.
Click Done.
Step 2: Create and manage option sets
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items.
- Click Variations.
- If you plan to sell items with similar variations, such as sizes and colours, you can save these variations as an option set to save time in the future.
- Select all the variations on the item
- Click Save as reusable set.
- Give the option set a name and click Done.
- Open your point of sale app and tap ≡ More > Items > Options.
- Tap Create option or select an existing item option set to edit.
- Enter the Option set name and the Display name.
- Enter an option within the Options field.
- Tap Add option to add more options.
- Tap Create or Done.
Tap the (X) icon next to an option to delete it. Move the option’s order list using the three horizontal lines icon (≡).
Create variations in bulk with option sets
You can create variations in bulk with option sets from your Square Dashboard.
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items.
Click Variations > Add > Set title and select among your existing saved option sets or type to create a new one.
3. Click Add another set to add another option set.
4. Click Done to review the variations you’ll create.
5. Click Create and you’ll generate all the variations with a combination of option sets.
Remove option sets from an item
Once you’ve assigned an item option set to an item, you can remove the item option set assigned to this item at any time.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items.
- Click on the selected item from the list.
- Click the … three dots icon next to the name of the option set within the Options section.
- Click Remove option set > Delete variations.
- Click Save.