Thanks for the response, however that doesn't really answer the question. I'm not concerned with the ability to track both the SKU and UPC. The focal point of the post is re the UPC.

My question was, "Why does the UPC scan go into the SKU field?" One has nothing to do with the other.

"Can you tell me a bit more about how this would be useful for your business?"
The UPC is the fundamental identifier in retail. That's why it was invented decades ago—because it's universal, regardless of the reseller.

Also, I had a few follow-up questions:

1. What course of action does Square suggest, if we'd like to use the original UPCs/barcodes?
2. Does Square's inventory management system use original UPCs as intended (not as SKUs)?
3. Is there a field on Square's inventory template for the UPC?
4. If barcodes are required, does Square suggest creating new ones for every product?

Thanks again,

Tom

Thanks for your message @techwork, sorry my first reply wasn’t helpful.

Because we currently only support adding either the UPC or the SKU, when you add UPC it will automatically populate in the SKU field.

I checked in with our Square for Retail specialist and they mentioned this workaround: you can add either the UPC or the SKU to the item name, and the other to the SKU/UPC field. Global search is a feature of Square for Retail so you should be able to pull up the item regardless of which you’re using!