> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Out-of-Stock Items, Square Online > Out-of-Stock Items: OOS bestsellers leak revenue while ad spend continues, feeds ads_on_oos kill-shot. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) > OOS bestsellers leak revenue while ad spend continues, feeds ads\_on\_oos kill-shot. ## At a glance > Real-time count of products that show zero stock right now in Square's Inventory API. The single highest-leverage operational signal on a Square account: every minute an OOS bestseller stays OOS while ad spend runs against it is leaked revenue. | | | | ----------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(items WHERE inventory_count.quantity == 0)` from the Square Inventory API, filtered to active items in the catalog. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | n/a, this is an inventory count. | | **Shipping** | n/a. | | **Discounts** | n/a. An item that's OOS at full price is still OOS. | | **Refunds** | n/a. | | **Cancelled / voided orders** | n/a, this card is real-time inventory, not order-based. | | **Currency** | n/a. | | **Channels / sources** | **Per-location.** Square tracks inventory per `location_id` (a 50-pack of beans can be in stock at the Brooklyn cafe but OOS at Park Slope). This card sums distinct items that are zero across **all** locations, the strict OOS set. To see "OOS at one location only", filter by location. | | **Time window** | `RT` (real-time, polled every 5-15 minutes from Square Inventory API) | | **Alert trigger** | `>10` items, threshold-based | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Square Online data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A US gift store on Square: one retail location plus Square Online. Catalog of 1,420 active items (mix of single-SKU and variant-driven products). Snapshot taken on 12 Apr 26 at 14:00 UTC. | Item bucket | Count | Notes | | ------------------------------------------------------------- | ------ | ------------------------------------------------------ | | Active catalog items | 1,420 | All items marked `is_archived = false` in Square Items | | In stock at both locations | 1,180 | Healthy core | | In stock at retail only (web shows OOS) | 124 | Web shoppers see "Sold out", retail shoppers can buy | | In stock at web only (retail shelf empty) | 76 | Retail walk-ins miss out, web is fine | | **OOS at every location (this card)** | **40** | | | Of those 40 OOS items: bestsellers (top 50 by 30-day revenue) | 6 | The dangerous slice | | Of those 40 OOS items: long-tail dead stock | 28 | Negligible revenue impact | | Of those 40 OOS items: seasonal items pre-launch | 6 | Expected, not a problem | What's interesting: 1. **Only 6 of the 40 OOS items actually matter.** A flat OOS count of 40 doesn't tell you whether you're losing money. The dangerous slice is OOS bestsellers, items that drive disproportionate revenue. Cross-reference this card with [Top Products by Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/top-products-by-revenue), the overlap is the kill-shot list. 2. **Per-location OOS is a richer signal than chain-wide.** A bestseller OOS at retail with web stock is fine if you can ship it; an item OOS at retail with active in-store ad campaigns is a problem. Square's per-`location_id` inventory makes this slice possible; pin per-location panels to surface. 3. **Variant-level OOS hides under product-level "in stock".** A t-shirt with 5 sizes might show in stock if any size has inventory, but if Medium (the bestseller size) is OOS, the listing converts at near-zero. This card counts at the variant level (`catalog_object_id`), not the parent product level, the right granularity for OOS reads. 4. **The alert fires at >10 OOS items.** This snapshot has 40, well above threshold. Vortex IQ Nerve Centre raises the alert; the kill-shot diagnostic surfaces the 6 OOS bestsellers and (if Square Ads is connected) any active ad spend pointing at them. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with OOS Products | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Low-Stock Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/low-stock-products) | The leading-indicator. Today's low-stock items become tomorrow's OOS items. Pair to anticipate. | | [Top Products by Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/top-products-by-revenue) | Cross-reference reveals which OOS items actually leak revenue. 90% of OOS items are long-tail dead stock; the 10% that are top sellers are the kill-shot. | | [Conversion Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/conversion-rate) | OOS spikes typically pull web CR down within a day, shoppers land on a sold-out listing and bounce. | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/total-revenue) | Rising OOS count usually precedes a revenue dip by 1-3 days. Useful as an early warning. | | [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/refund-rate) | Sometimes OOS at the warehouse without the catalog being marked OOS leads to oversells, fulfilment fails, customer refunds. A simultaneous OOS spike + refund spike points to inventory data drift. | | [`shopify.oos_products`](/nerve-centre/shopify/oos_products) | Same metric on Shopify. | | [`bigcommerce.oos_products`](/nerve-centre/bigcommerce/oos_products) | Same metric on BigCommerce. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in the Square Dashboard:** [Square Dashboard, Items, Inventory](https://squareup.com/dashboard/items/inventory). Filter by **Out of stock** to see the same set of items this card counts. Square Online's per-product editor also flags OOS state with a "Sold out" badge on the storefront. For per-location inventory, use the *Stock by location* tab. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Square Dashboard:** | Reason | Direction of divergence | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | **Sync lag**. Square Inventory API has a small lag (typically \<5 minutes). A sale at the register that pushes inventory to zero is reflected here \~1-5 minutes later. | Vortex IQ momentarily lags | | **"Stock alerts" vs OOS**. Square supports a "Low stock alert" threshold per item (e.g. alert when \<5 left). Items at or below the threshold are flagged in Square but not OOS, those don't count here. | No divergence in OOS strict mode | | **Items without stock tracking**. Square allows items to be untracked (`location_overrides[].track_inventory = false`). Untracked items always show "in stock" and never count here, even if physically depleted. | Vortex IQ may understate true OOS for untracked items | | **Archived / hidden items**. Items with `is_archived = true` are excluded from this card. If a merchant hides an item from the storefront but doesn't archive it, the item still counts. | Vortex IQ may overcount | | **Variant vs parent**. We count at variant (`catalog_object_id`) granularity. Square's Items page can be set to show parent products; counts will look different in that view. | Vortex IQ usually higher (variants > parents) | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** OOS data is platform-internal (Square Inventory API is the single source of truth). If a merchant runs a separate ERP / 3PL system as the master inventory record, the Square count may lag the ERP count, the ERP push to Square is the bottleneck. For ad-driven kill-shot diagnostics, this card pairs with paid-ad connectors: * [`google_adwords.ads_on_oos`](/nerve-centre/google_adwords/ads_on_oos) (planned), surfaces ad spend currently pointing at OOS bestsellers. * [`amazon_ads.ads_on_oos`](/nerve-centre/amazon_ads/ads_on_oos) (planned). ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) OOS Products exists as a card on every commerce-platform connector. * [`shopify.oos_products`](/nerve-centre/shopify/oos_products) * [`bigcommerce.oos_products`](/nerve-centre/bigcommerce/oos_products) * [`adobe_commerce.oos_products`](/nerve-centre/adobe_commerce/oos_products)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **My Square Items dashboard says I have 8 OOS items but this card says 40. Why?** Three likely reasons: (1) Square Items dashboard counts at the parent-product level by default; this card counts at the variant (`catalog_object_id`) level, so a t-shirt with 5 sizes (Medium and Large OOS, Small / XL / XXL in stock) shows as 1 product in stock in Square but 2 OOS variants here. (2) Sync lag: this card refreshes every 5-15 minutes; instantaneous changes lag. (3) Per-location: this card counts items OOS at every location; Square's default Inventory page may show a single-location filter. **Does an item that's untracked count as OOS?** **No.** Items with `track_inventory = false` always read as "in stock" via the Square API, regardless of physical reality. This card respects that, untracked items never count here. Many small Square merchants run untracked for low-cost SKUs (greeting cards, sample-size items). If you need OOS visibility for those items, enable inventory tracking in Square Item editor. **Why does the count fluctuate hour-to-hour?** Real-time inventory changes with every sale and every manual adjustment. A bestseller can sell out at 14:00 and be re-stocked at 15:30 once the merchant tops up. **Use the trend, not the snapshot.** A persistent OOS count above threshold is a problem; a momentary blip is normal operations. **The alert says >10 OOS items but only 1 of them matters. How do I prioritise?** The headline count is a leading indicator; **the kill-shot diagnostic is what matters.** Vortex IQ Nerve Centre cross-references this card against [Top Products by Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/top-products-by-revenue) to surface the OOS-bestseller subset. Ten OOS items where none are top-50 sellers is a maintenance issue (clear them from the catalog or restock); one OOS item that's a top-5 seller is a \$5,000-a-week leak and a paid-ad budget burn. **Does this include POS-only items?** Yes, Square's catalog is unified across POS and Square Online. An item OOS at the warehouse is OOS for both retail and web. To split, look at per-location inventory, an item OOS at the retail location only is unsold in-store but still shippable from web stock if web inventory is tracked separately. **What about negative inventory (oversells)?** Square allows negative inventory if oversells happen (e.g. two simultaneous purchases of the last unit). Items with `quantity < 0` count as OOS in this card (zero or below). The merchant should investigate the oversell, those orders typically end in fulfilment fails and refunds. **My catalog has 5,000 items. Will this card slow my dashboard?** No. Square's Inventory API supports batch reads; we poll inventory deltas, not the full catalog every refresh. For very large catalogs (>10K SKUs), the refresh interval can stretch to 15 minutes; that's fine for an operational signal but not for sub-minute reaction. **What's the right action playbook when this card spikes?** Three steps in order: (1) sort the OOS list by 30-day revenue, focus on the top quartile, (2) check incoming purchase orders or transfer requests, are restocks already in motion? if yes, this is an inventory-team backlog issue, (3) if Square Ads or Google Ads is connected, pause campaigns that target the OOS bestsellers immediately, even a half-day of OOS ad spend can blow a week's marketing budget. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Out-of-Stock Products* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Square Online and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.