Square — Clients, Services, Products and Inventory Sync
Peach Suite Pro can synchronize supported business information with Square. Different types of information have different purposes and different synchronization behavior.
This guide explains what each type of information means, how it relates to Square, and what to do when one of these items does not synchronize as expected.
Why Does This Matter?
Not everything in Peach Suite Pro represents the same kind of business information.
A client, service, product, and inventory quantity are four different things.
Understanding the difference makes Square synchronization much easier to understand and troubleshoot.
At a Glance
| Type | What It Represents | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Client | A person who does business with you | Helps identify the customer associated with business activity |
| Service | A service your business provides | Defines what you offer customers |
| Product | A physical or catalog item you sell | Represents the item itself |
| Inventory | The quantity and inventory activity associated with a product | Helps track what you have available to sell |
| Payment | A transaction processed through Square | Records how the customer paid |
Clients
What Is a Client?
A client is a person who has a business relationship with your company.
Client information can include information such as the person's name and other supported customer information.
Why Would a Client Be Synchronized With Square?
Supported client information can be synchronized so that your business can maintain the appropriate customer information across Peach Suite Pro and Square.
Synchronization does not mean that every piece of client information in Peach Suite Pro is automatically copied to Square. The integration follows the specific information supported by the synchronization process.
What If a Client Does Not Sync?
- Open Sync Activity.
- Find the client-related synchronization result.
- Review the available details.
- Correct any underlying information when necessary.
- Retry the synchronization when appropriate.
A single client synchronization problem does not necessarily mean that your entire Square connection is broken.
Services
What Is a Service?
A service is something your business provides to a customer, such as a facial, consultation, appointment, or other service offering.
Services can have business information such as a service name, duration, and price.
Why Would a Service Be Synchronized With Square?
Supported service information can be synchronized with Square so that the applicable business offering can be represented in the connected Square environment.
What If a Service Does Not Sync?
- Open Sync Activity.
- Locate the affected service.
- Review the synchronization details.
- Correct the underlying service information if needed.
- Retry the synchronization when appropriate.
Products
What Is a Product?
A product is an item your business sells or tracks as part of its catalog.
A product describes the item itself. For example, a business may sell a skincare product, retail item, food item, merchandise item, or another catalog product.
What Is Square Catalog?
Square uses catalog information to represent items that can be sold, managed, or otherwise used within Square-supported business workflows.
When Peach Suite Pro synchronizes supported products with Square, the product or catalog information represents the item itself.
What If a Product Does Not Sync?
- Open Sync Activity.
- Locate the affected product or catalog item.
- Review the available details.
- Correct the underlying information if necessary.
- Retry the synchronization when appropriate.
Inventory
What Is Inventory?
Inventory represents the quantity and inventory activity associated with products your business tracks.
Inventory answers questions such as:
- How many units do I have?
- How many units were sold?
- How many units remain?
Is Inventory the Same as a Product?
No.
A product represents the item itself. Inventory represents quantity and inventory activity associated with that item.
A product can exist even when there is no inventory quantity to track.
Why Is Inventory Synchronization Separate?
A product definition and the quantity of that product are different business records.
A Square payment can tell you that a transaction occurred, but inventory tracking concerns how the transaction affects the quantity of an item that your business tracks.
What If Inventory Does Not Sync?
- Open Sync Activity.
- Find the inventory-related synchronization item.
- Review the reported issue.
- Correct the underlying information when needed.
- Retry the synchronization when appropriate.
How Products and Inventory Work Together
Think of a product as the item and inventory as the quantity or stock information associated with that item.
For example:
- Product: Hydrating Facial Serum
- Inventory: 12 units currently available
The product identifies what the item is. Inventory tells you how much of that item is available or how its stock has changed.
Payments Are Different From Products and Inventory
A Square payment is a transaction.
A product is an item.
Inventory is the quantity or stock activity associated with that item.
These records can be related during a sale, but they are not the same record.
Example: Selling a Product Through Square
Imagine your business sells a product called Hydrating Facial Serum.
The business records involved might conceptually include:
- Product — identifies Hydrating Facial Serum.
- Inventory — shows how many units are available.
- Square Payment — records the customer's payment.
These records can work together without becoming one combined record.
What About a Service Sale?
A service is also different from a payment.
For example:
- Service: 60-Minute Facial
- Appointment: A scheduled visit for the client
- Square Payment: The transaction used to pay for the service
During appointment close-out, Peach Suite Pro can use Square payment information to help complete the income workflow.
How Synchronization Helps
Synchronization allows Peach Suite Pro and Square to exchange supported information so your business does not have to manually recreate every applicable record in both systems.
This can reduce duplicate data entry and help keep connected business information aligned.
What Synchronization Does Not Mean
Synchronization does not mean that every record in Peach Suite Pro is copied to Square or that every Square record is copied into Peach Suite Pro.
Each supported synchronization process has rules that determine what information is exchanged and how it is handled.
What If the Same Information Already Exists?
Peach Suite Pro includes duplicate-protection behavior for supported synchronization operations.
This helps prevent unnecessary duplicate records when information has already been synchronized.
Tip: Even with duplicate protection, do not repeatedly start synchronization just because you are unsure what happened. Check Sync Activity first.What If One Type of Data Syncs and Another Does Not?
That can happen because clients, services, products, and inventory are separate types of information.
Review the individual synchronization results instead of assuming that the entire synchronization failed.
How Do I Review Synchronization Results?
Go to:
Menu → Square → Sync Activity
Review the affected client, service, product, or inventory result and follow the available corrective action.
What If Something Is Marked Needs Attention?
Needs Attention means Peach Suite Pro could not complete the affected item automatically and needs you to review the available information.
- Open the affected item.
- Read the available details.
- Correct the underlying business information if required.
- Retry the synchronization when appropriate.
Should I Retry Immediately?
Not necessarily.
Review the synchronization status and problem details first. Retrying without addressing the underlying issue may simply produce the same result again.
Business Examples
Appointment-Based Business
An appointment-based business may primarily use services and clients, with Square payments brought into the appointment close-out process.
Retail Business
A retail business may use products and inventory heavily and use Square payments for purchases.
Food or Event Business
A food or event business may use products and daily Square sales without having every transaction tied to an appointment.
The same Square connection can therefore support different business workflows.
Security and Business Separation
Square synchronization operates within the applicable Peach Suite Pro business and workspace context.
Always confirm that you are working in the correct business before connecting Square or starting synchronization.
Important: Do not connect or synchronize Square while you are in the wrong business context.Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Do not assume a product and its inventory are the same record.
- Do not assume a payment is the same thing as a product or inventory record.
- Do not assume one failed item means the entire Square connection is broken.
- Do not repeatedly start synchronization without checking the existing result.
- Do not guess about a client association when reconciling a payment.
- Do not synchronize the wrong business's records.
Quick Reference
| If You Are Looking At... | Remember |
|---|---|
| Client | A person or customer associated with the business |
| Service | Something the business provides |
| Product | An item in the catalog |
| Inventory | Quantity and inventory activity associated with products |
| Square Payment | A payment transaction |
| Sync Activity | The history and status of synchronization activity |
When Should I Contact Support?
Contact Peach Suite Pro Support when:
- An item continues to fail after the available corrective actions have been followed.
- You cannot determine why supported information is not synchronizing.
- The synchronized result appears inconsistent with the business records.
- You are unsure whether a record has already been synchronized.
Remember
Client, service, product, inventory, and payment are different types of business information.
When something does not look right, identify which type of record you are working with first. Then use Sync Activity or the reconciliation tools appropriate to that record.