Is there a way to NOT allow discounts on specific items?

Thanks for posting, @MikeSL

I've moved your post over to this thread so we can keep track of the request, but it is currently a feature request to be able to exclude items from a discount. 

Perhaps the Automatic Discount feature will work for you, though. You can search and select each item or category you’d like to automatically discount when added to a sale. If an item is not included in the setup list the discount will not apply. 

The Auto Discount function is the exact OPPOSITE of what we're trying to do here.  We want to PREVENT a discount from being applied to an item.  Please stop suggesting this as a solution and come up with a valid option.

Just adding my voice to the list here. I use Square POS for brick-and-mortar sales in a thrift store. There are certain items that we do not discount; however, if we add a dollar amount discount to an entire sale, it will automatically apply that discount proportionately to each item in the sale. We can work around this by applying the discount to a specific item, but it doesn't always work, and it's definitely not convenient. It's also not convenient to have to go in and manually remove a percentage discount from individual items if we are applying the discount to an entire sale. PLEASE add a setting to item creation that allows for an item to be completely exempt from discounts, preferably with a manual override setting (so that, in the rare case that one of these items does need to be discounted, it can be). Thanks!

Adding my two cents to this thread:  Needed:

(1) Ability to limit discount coupons to sales greater than X
(2) Ability to exclude certain items from discount codes, for instance, I don't want my customers to be able to purchase gift cards with a coupon.  Why, because then they can use that gift card with another discount.
(3) Also need to be able to limit the use of multiple discount codes, which I can't seem to find any information on anywhere.

(4) Discount codes NEED to be available for checkout on INVOICES.  We do 90% of our sales through invoicing, and I can't reward my customers unless I do it manually and track it manually for each customer.

Bringing this back up as it seems to still be overlooked time and time again by Square. It would be really great along with fixing the report issue Square is now having with iOS 15 to have this feature become available. We want to be able to only allow discounts on beverages and not on bowling at our bowling alley. It is tedious to go through a guest check and discount each individual item every single time you want to provide a discount for a guest or for a coupon/discount code, so being able to add a discount to the entire check that doesn't include discounting items marked as undiscountable would be incredible.

I agree - this would be AMAZING to have as a feature!

When a guest uses a 10% coupon at our restaurant, how do I restrict the discount(s) to only the food and not apply the discount to the alcohol on the bill? Going item-by-item is not ideal and when applying the discount to the check we can not seem to remove the discount on the alcohol.

A link to a resource or step-by-step on how to apply this feature is requested/helpful.

I'd also need this feature request. I'd like to restrict manually applied discounts to only certain categories. I'd like to discount drinks, but not be able to discount food or merchandise, which I know my staff does no matter how many times I ask them not to discount food.

Does anyone think these feature request posts in this "Seller Community" do any good? There are so many of them and some are 5 or 6 six years old with a lot of community support. Very frustrating.

It sounds like you would like the ability to restrict specific items from discounts, @burrito 🌯 
While this is not currently possible, you are able to select the categories and items that discounts apply to.
 

1. I would first recommend creating a category from your Dashboard to house all of your alcoholic beverages in.
    
2. Next, you'll create or edit a discount via your Discounts page.
   While here, toggle ON the Discount rules option in the Automatic discount section:
   
   
    
3. You'll want to select the Item or category option in the pop-up that appears here:
   
   
    
4. Next, you can select all categories that you would like the discount to apply to.
   Be sure not to select the category you created for your alcoholic beverages!

Please let us know if this isn't quite what you were looking to do, and we can dig in a bit more ✨

Valentina, If you use this feature you do NOT void the discount on the checked-off items BUT you AUTOMATICALLY APPLY the discount to every checked-off item! 

See notes for this feature:

"Apply this discount automatically to specific times, quantities, items, or categories."