Items and catalog
Create an item
Add a product or service to the catalog with its category, units, prices and tax, and record the opening quantity in the warehouse that holds it.
3 min readLast updated
In this article
Every purchase, sale, transfer and work order uses an item. Create the item once, with its units and prices, and it is ready for every document in every branch.
Before you start
Create the category the item belongs to. See Categories and brands.
Create the units you will use, such as piece and carton. See Units of measure.
To record an opening quantity, the warehouse must exist in your branch. See Set up warehouses.
Steps
Open Inventory › Items › Items and select Add item. The new item form opens.
In Classification & units, choose the Category and the Item type.
Under Units, choose the Base unit. This is the unit stock is counted in.
To sell or buy in other units, select Add unit, choose the unit and enter its Conversion factor: how many base units one of it contains.
In Identity, enter the Name and the Code. Add a Brand, Color, Image and Description if you use them. Keep Active on.
In Pricing & flags, enter the prices and the reorder level described below, and choose the Tax.
To record stock you already hold, enter the Opening quantity and choose the Opening quantity warehouse.
Turn on the options at the bottom only if the item needs them: Has options / variants, Has sub-items (BOM) or Has commission.
Select Save. A confirmation appears and the items list opens.
Pricing and flag fields
Field | What it does |
|---|---|
Cost price | The value of one base unit in stock. Purchases update it as a moving average |
Retail price | The default selling price |
Consumer price | The price to the end consumer, which can appear on the printed sales invoice |
Discount % | A standing discount on the item, from 0 to 100 |
Reorder level | At or below this stock, the item shows as Low |
Exclude from sales / Exclude from purchase | Hides the item from sales or purchase documents |
By-product / Scrap item | Marks items that come out of manufacturing |
Item types
Purchased: bought and resold.
Manufactured and semi_finished: made in a work order.
Service: sold without stock. The system never checks its balance.
What happens when you save
Each unit gets its own barcode automatically. You can see them on the item profile.
If you entered an opening quantity, it is added to the warehouse you chose and appears in the movement log as the opening balance.
The system posts the value of that opening stock, quantity times cost price, to the warehouse stock account against the branch stock variance account.
If the cost price is 0, the stock is added but no entry is posted. A warning tells you so.
Common questions
The form asks me for a warehouse. You entered an opening quantity. The system needs to know which warehouse holds it.
Can I enter opening stock for several warehouses? The form records one warehouse. Add the other warehouses with a quantity adjustment, or load many items at once with the bulk quantity sheet: see Enter opening stock balances.