> ## 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. # Square Inventory vs Marketplace Listings, Square Online > Square Inventory vs Marketplace Listings: SKUs out of stock on Square but still active on a marketplace feed. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Card class:** [Hero](/nerve-centre/overview#card-classes-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) > Square Inventory vs Marketplace Listings. ## At a glance > A cross-channel revenue-at-risk audit. It compares Square inventory on-hand counts against the active listing status on a connected marketplace listing feed, and flags SKUs that a marketplace is still advertising as buyable while Square shows them out of stock. Every flagged SKU is an oversell waiting to happen: a marketplace order you cannot fulfil, a cancellation, and a marketplace account-health penalty. | | | | ------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | SKUs where Square on-hand inventory is zero (or below the sellable threshold) but the matching marketplace listing is still active and accepting orders. One row per flagged SKU. | | **Channel / source treatment** | **Cross-channel by definition.** It joins Square Inventory on-hand counts (per `location_id`) to the listing status in a connected marketplace feed. Meaningless without a marketplace connector configured. | | **How SKUs are matched** | On SKU. A Square variation with no SKU cannot be matched to a marketplace listing, which is itself a gap surfaced by [Items missing SKU](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/items-missing-sku). | | **Currency / unit** | Count of flagged SKUs (whole number). Each row shows the Square on-hand count and the marketplace listing status. | | **Time window** | `RT / 24H` (on-hand is checked in near real time; the audit list is refreshed continuously and reviewed at least daily). | | **Alert trigger** | Fires when more than 5 SKUs are out of stock on Square but still active on the marketplace. The list is ranked by oversell exposure. | | **Roles** | owner, operations, marketing | | **Why it is revenue at risk** | A live marketplace listing on stock you do not have leads to a sale you cannot ship. On most marketplaces that means a cancellation, a refund, a defect-rate hit, and in repeat cases suppressed listings or account suspension, far costlier than a quiet stockout. | | **The dangerous direction** | This card flags the oversell direction (live on marketplace, empty on Square). The opposite (in stock on Square, not listed on marketplace) is lost reach, lower urgency, and is better read through your marketplace listing coverage. | ## Calculation Calculated automatically by cross-referencing your Square Online inventory against your connected marketplace listing feed. 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 outdoor gear retailer on Square. One store plus a Square Online storefront, also selling on a marketplace via a listing feed. The audit is reviewed on the morning of 14 Mar 26. Each row is a flagged SKU. | SKU | Item variation | Square on-hand | Marketplace listing | Flag | | ---------------------------- | --------------------- | -------------- | ------------------- | -------------------------- | | TENT-2P-GRN | 2-Person Tent, Green | 0 | Active, buyable | Oversell risk | | STOVE-CMP | Camp Stove | 0 | Active, buyable | Oversell risk | | BAG-20-BLU | 20L Daypack, Blue | -1 | Active, buyable | Oversell, already negative | | FLASK-1L | 1L Flask | 0 | Active, buyable | Oversell risk | | HDLMP-300 | Headlamp 300lm | 0 | Active, buyable | Oversell risk | | MAT-REG | Sleeping Mat, Regular | 0 | Active, buyable | Oversell risk | | BOOT-10 | Hiking Boot, size 10 | 8 | Active, buyable | In stock (not listed) | | **Flagged SKUs (this card)** | | | | **6** | Three things to notice: 1. **Six SKUs are live on the marketplace with nothing to ship.** Each of TENT-2P-GRN through MAT-REG shows zero (or negative) on-hand in Square while the marketplace is still taking orders. The next marketplace buyer for any of them gets a cancellation. The Hiking Boot is in parity (8 on-hand, listed) so it is not flagged, the list stays short and actionable. 2. **A negative on-hand is the most urgent row.** BAG-20-BLU at -1 means Square already believes it has oversold, and the marketplace is still advertising it. Work negatives first, then zeros. Pair with [Oversell Risk](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/oversell-risk-negative-on-hand-projected) for the Square-side projection. 3. **Crossing 5 SKUs fires the alert.** With 6 flagged, the Vortex IQ Nerve Centre alert raises. The fix is to pause or zero out the marketplace listings for these SKUs until Square on-hand recovers, then let the feed re-activate them. Recurring flags usually mean the inventory feed to the marketplace is stale or one-directional, the real fix is the sync, not the listing. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Square Inventory vs Marketplace Listings | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Out-of-Stock Items](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/out-of-stock-products) | The Square side of the flag. Every SKU here is out of stock on Square; this card adds the marketplace exposure on top. | | [Oversell Risk (negative on-hand projected)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/oversell-risk-negative-on-hand-projected) | The Square-internal version of the same danger. Negative-projected SKUs that are also live on a marketplace are the highest-priority rows. | | [POS to Online Inventory Drift Alert](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/pos-online-inventory-drift-alert) | If POS and online disagree inside Square, the marketplace feed is fed bad numbers too. Drift upstream causes marketplace mismatch downstream. | | [Items missing SKU](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/items-missing-sku) | SKUs are how this card matches Square to the marketplace. Missing SKUs break the match and create silent blind spots. | | [Low Stock Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/low-stock-products) | Low-stock SKUs still listed on a marketplace are the next oversells. Watching this card preempts the flag. | | [Active Locations](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/active-locations) | On-hand is per location. The number of active locations frames which inventory pools the marketplace feed should be summing. | ## Reconciling against Square **Where to look in the Square Dashboard:** [Square Dashboard, Items & Orders, Inventory management](https://squareup.com/dashboard). Find each flagged SKU and confirm its on-hand count per location. Square will show the zero or negative on-hand that triggered the flag. Square alone cannot show the marketplace listing status, that is the cross-channel half of this card, confirmed in the marketplace seller console. Other Square Dashboard views that *look* like the same issue but aren't: * **Inventory management, on-hand by location**: confirms the Square side of the flag (zero or negative stock). * **Online, Items, stock**: the Square Online sellable view. Useful to confirm the web channel is also empty, but it is not the marketplace. * **Inventory history**: shows the adjustments that drove the SKU to zero, the root cause of the stockout. * **Item sales report**: shows what sold, not what is listed where. Not relevant for confirming the marketplace exposure. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Square Dashboard:** | Reason | Direction of divergence | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | **SKU match**. A SKU mismatch between Square and the marketplace (typo, suffix, or no SKU) can make a flag appear or disappear even though stock is correct. | Vortex IQ may over- or under-flag until SKUs align | | **Multi-location on-hand**. The marketplace feed may sum stock across locations while a single-location view shows zero. The flag uses the pool the feed sells against. | Single-location dashboard view can look emptier than the flag | | **Marketplace feed lag**. The marketplace may take time to deactivate a listing after Square hits zero; the gap during that lag is exactly what this card catches. | This is the real exposure, not an artefact | | **Sync lag**. Square on-hand is near real time but the most recent updates may take a short cycle to reach our index. | Self-resolves within minutes | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Marketplace listing feed (connected connector) | An active, buyable listing should map to positive Square on-hand | The flag exists precisely when this breaks: marketplace active, Square empty. The legitimate cause is feed lag or a one-directional sync that pushes listings but does not pull stock down. | | [`google_analytics.product-performance`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-analytics/product-performance) | No direct relationship | GA4 records web product activity on Square Online, not marketplace listings or stock levels. It cannot confirm the flag, but falling conversion on a flagged SKU can be a symptom. | **The Square unified-inventory advantage and its catch:** Square gives you one authoritative on-hand count per SKU per location across POS and web. That makes Square the natural source of truth to feed a marketplace. The catch is that the marketplace is a separate system with its own listing lifecycle, so the value of Square's clean inventory is only realised if the feed to the marketplace is timely and two-directional. This card is the audit that proves whether it is. ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) The pattern of auditing platform inventory against an external marketplace listing feed exists on other commerce platforms too. This is **not a reconciliation**, it is a documentation cross-link for agencies running this same revenue-at-risk audit across a multi-platform client book. * [`shopify.inventory-vs-marketplace-listings`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/inventory-vs-marketplace-listings) * [`bigcommerce.inventory-vs-marketplace-listings`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/inventory-vs-marketplace-listings)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **What exactly gets flagged?** A SKU that Square shows as out of stock (zero or negative on-hand) while the matching listing on your connected marketplace is still active and accepting orders. That combination is an oversell waiting to happen, so each one becomes a row. SKUs that are out of stock on Square but already paused on the marketplace are not flagged, that gap is closed. **Why does the opposite case (in stock on Square, not listed) not alert?** Because it is lost reach, not an oversell. Stock sitting unlisted is missed revenue, which is real but far less damaging than selling something you cannot ship and taking a marketplace defect-rate hit. This card is tuned to the urgent, costly direction. Listing coverage is better read through your marketplace connector. **A SKU is flagged but I have stock in the back. What happened?** Square's on-hand count for that location is zero or negative even though physical stock exists. That is an inventory accuracy problem inside Square: a missed receipt, a return not restocked, or drift between POS and online. Fix the on-hand count in Inventory management; the flag clears once Square shows real stock. See [POS to Online Inventory Drift Alert](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/pos-online-inventory-drift-alert). **Why do the same SKUs keep getting flagged?** Recurring flags almost always mean the inventory feed to the marketplace is stale or one-directional, it pushes listings but does not pull Square's stock levels down in time. The durable fix is the sync, not pausing listings by hand each morning. Check that the feed reads Square on-hand and deactivates listings at zero. **Does this work if my SKUs do not match between Square and the marketplace?** No. Matching is on SKU. A Square variation with no SKU, or a SKU that differs from the marketplace listing, cannot be matched and will be a blind spot rather than a flag. Clean up missing and mismatched SKUs first, see [Items missing SKU](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square-online/items-missing-sku). **Which location's stock does the flag use?** The inventory pool the marketplace feed sells against. If your feed sums multiple locations, the flag uses that combined on-hand; if it draws from one fulfilment location, it uses that. This is why a single-location dashboard view can look emptier than the flag, the feed may be summing more than one location. **Can I change the threshold?** Yes. The default alert fires above 5 flagged SKUs. The threshold can be tuned per merchant in your Vortex IQ workspace settings. Given the account-health cost of marketplace oversells, many merchants set it lower rather than higher. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Square Inventory vs Marketplace Listings* 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.