Catalog

What it is for#

The Catalog is everything you sell: products, which are counted in stock, and services, which are not. Each one has its price, cost, taxes, category and, if you want, its barcode and photos. The point of sale, purchasing, inventory and the reports all read from here.

Around the catalog, in the Inventory group of the menu, are Categories, Units, Taxes, Price lists and Promotions.

Before you start#

• The Manage catalog permission to create and edit items, prices, taxes, lists and offers. With View catalog you can only look.
• If you have many products, load them at once from a spreadsheet (Load your data) and use this page to fine-tune them.
• Decide whether your prices include taxes: Prices already include taxes, in Settings, Operations (Set up the company).

The list#

Catalog shows each item with its photo, Code, Category, Price, Cost, Margin, Taxes and Stock on hand. Search by name, code, category or zone, and filter by category, zone, status (Active, Inactive) or stock (Out of stock, Low stock).

Create an item#

1. The details

   Click New item. A Name is enough to start; the rest can be set later.

   • Type: Product (counted in stock) or Service (not).
   • Code: suggested; you can change it, but it cannot repeat within your company.
   • Barcode: the one on the package. It is what the scanner reads at the point of sale.
   • Category and Zone (where it physically sits: "Aisle 3"). If it does not exist, create it from the same picker with Create category... or Create zone....
   • Usual supplier: who you normally buy it from.
   • Unit of measure: what it is counted and sold in: each, kilogram, meter, hour.
   • Made of: for a pack, such as a six pack of 6 beers. See Packs.

   

2. Price and inventory

   On the Price and inventory tab:

   • Sale price and Cost. The cost is a reference: it is recalculated with each purchase receipt, and once there is stock it can no longer be edited by hand.
   • Warranty (months): printed on the invoice with its end date.
   • Taxes: tick the ones it carries. If you tick none, the item is Exempt.
   • Tracks inventory: every sale and receipt moves its stock.
   • Tracks lots and Perishable: each receipt creates a lot, with its expiry date if perishable. See Inventory.
   • Reorder point: alerts you when stock drops below it. 0 turns the alert off.

   

3. Photos and extra fields

   Upload up to 5 photos; the first is the thumbnail you see at the point of sale. Under Extras are your company's own fields (size, color, active ingredient...), if you have any. Click Create item.

For a service the form changes: there is no stock, and you get Labor cost (what it costs you to do it, only for profitability) and, in businesses with a schedule, Duration (minutes).

The item page#

Click an item to see its page: Details, Price (with its Margin), Stock on hand by branch, its Lots if it tracks them, and the Stock ledger, every movement newest first. Edit opens the form; before saving you see a summary of what changes.

In the list, each row's menu has Copy code, Copy barcode, Deactivate and Activate. A deactivated item is no longer offered, but its documents keep it.

Packs: assemble and break down#

An item can be made of another: a box of 10 tiles, a six pack of 6 beers. On the pack's page, Break down turns boxes into loose units and Assemble does the opposite; stock and cost move from one to the other. It does not work with lot-tracked items yet.

Categories and units#

Categories groups the catalog and sets the order of the point of sale's tabs. Your company starts with the ones for its business type; rename them, order them with Move up and Move down, or create others with New category. Only a category no item uses can be deleted; if it has items, deactivate it.

Zones works the same way for the physical spots where you keep the goods: aisles, shelves, storerooms. Each item's zone shows in the catalog and can be searched.

Units shows the catalog's units, the same for every company, and yours, marked Own. With New unit you create one (a "bale"): its Class (count, weight, volume, length, area or time) cannot change later, and Equals says how many base units it holds.

Taxes#

Taxes lists what is added when selling. An item can carry several. The one marked Default is put on new items by itself.

1. Check the ones you have

   Your company starts with its country's taxes (see the tabs below). Deactivate the ones you do not use: an inactive tax is not offered to new items.

   

2. Create a new one

   Click New tax and fill in Name, Tax type, the Mode (Percentage of the line or Amount per unit) and its value. Turn on Apply to new products if it should come ticked on every item you create.

3. Put it on your items

   On each item, Price and inventory tab, tick the taxes it carries. The invoice and the reports show them by name.

Price lists#

A price list gives different customers different prices: Wholesale, for example, at 10 % off.

1. Create the list

   In Price lists, click New list. Give it a Name and, if you want, a General discount (%): it applies to everything without its own price in the list.

2. Its own prices (optional)

   In the table, each product shows its Base price and its List price. Type an Own price where you want a fixed one; leave it empty to use the discount.

   

3. Assign it to the customer

   On the customer's page, choose their Price list (Customers). When you choose them at the point of sale, the ticket reprices itself.

Promotions#

A promotion is a discount by date, like Christmas: the point of sale applies it on its own while it is active and prints its name next to each discounted product.

1. Create the promotion

   In Promotions, click New promotion and type its Name, the Discount (%) and the dates From and To, both days included.

2. Add products

   Click Add product, or Add a whole category. Each product takes The promotion's, Its own % or a Fixed price. Click Save products.

   

3. Follow its status

   The list shows each promotion as Active, Scheduled, Ended or Inactive. Duplicate copies a promotion, deactivated: change its dates and activate it.

   

Labels and barcodes#

1. Choose the products

   In Catalog, click Labels. Find each product under Add item and type how many Labels you want of each. A product without a barcode uses its number.

2. The format

   In Format, choose Roll 50 × 25 mm (a label printer, one label per page) or Letter sheet 3 × 10 (sheets of 30 labels, type 5160). Show the price prints it under the barcode.

   

3. Print

   Click Print: the labels open in another tab, ready for your printer. Up to 600 fit in one print.

   

Common mistakes#

• "A product with that code already exists." (or "...with that barcode.") The Code and the Barcode do not repeat within your company: keep the suggested code or choose another.
• "This product has stock: its cost changes through a purchase or a stock adjustment, not by editing it." Once there is stock, receipts and adjustments set the cost.
• "This product already has inventory movements..." Once it has moved, you cannot change whether it tracks stock or lots. Create a new item to track it another way.
• "ITBIS is 18%, 16% or 0%." (Dominican Republic) For another rate, create the tax as another type.
• "No active taxes." Turn one on in Taxes before ticking it on the item.
• "I cannot delete the category (or the tax)." Some item uses it: deactivate it instead. An item with stock cannot be deleted either: take the stock out first with a stock adjustment.
• "The scanner does not find the product." Check that its Barcode is the one on the package and that the item is active.
• "The promotion is not applied." Check that it is Active and that the customer does not have a lower price list.

Next step#

Keep track of what is on the shelves: Inventory.