what a mess. . .

I set up and sold some stuff at a recent outdoor event and now I have the fun-funs of reconciling inventory and making a list of things to re-make. 

I got my square reader through my etsy for the discount equipment and promises of fee refunds, which I gotta say is working out mostly.  I got my readers before the event, yes that's plural I got a package with a little mag-stripe reader and the bigger way cool chip, dip, wave version that works off blue-tooth. I used the little mag-stripe reader, it took some adjusting to trying to keep the cards perfectly square while swiping, but it worked. The monies were deposited quickly and in full as in I got all the $$$ the fees show on my square dashboard but were not taken out of my deposits. ~woo-hoo~  

Now for the things I didn't understand or realize about this use. First, I never did "sync" my etsy listings because there were things I was selling that were never listed on etsy. Also I had read about some issues others were having syncing their listings. So I was actually a bit surprised to discover that every square payment I processed counted as a "sale" in my etsy shop display info even though they were simply entered as "custom amounts" and not tied to an actual listing or item. 😕  Also etsy charged me .20 cents for each payment as they were for items not listed, I knew this was coming from what I had read and it's not a big deal or a large amount. 

I am now wondering about syncing my listings and if I should but, honestly, I don't sell "in person" very often so I'm debating on if it's worth it. I didn't do it before because I had read other's complaining that photos didn't show up which would be super problematic for me trying to tell which tree is which without photos. I also saw some complaining that the square set up did not prevent "over-selling" that it would allow you to sell things but not always correct the inventory or show things as "sold-out" big problem for me with one of a kind things when I sell it it's gone. 

So I have some more reading and double checking before I decide what to do about it all.  In the meantime I have a tangle of leather jewelry chokers and bracelets that need to be untangled and checked against the list so I can zero out the right things in the listings.