How to add and manage inventory categories

You can group your products and services into different categories for easier analysis and reporting. For example, if you’re a stationery and computer retailer, you can group your products and services into paper products, office supplies, computer accessories, etc.

You can also create subcategories, down to four different levels. This helps you find your products and allows for more detailed reporting. For example, you can break your office supplies category down into further subcategories, such as desks, chairs, and filing cabinets. You could then further divide the chairs category into executive, folding, and stools.

You can see the category that a product belongs to from the Product and services list.

How is this different from analysis types?

Use categories to group similar items together. This makes it easier to sort and filter your products and use for reporting.

Use analysis types to group your product records in other ways, across several categories. For example, you can report on your products by brand, colour, size, range, etc. You can set up analysis types in Settings. See How to set up Analysis Types for more information.

To create Product Categories

1. Go to Products and services.
2. Select New Item and choose Manage Categories.
3. Enter a name for the category.
4. If it's going to be a subcategory, then select Make a subcategory.
5. Choose the category that it will be under.
6. Select Save.

To edit Product Categories

If you need to, you can change the name of a product category, change the parent category, or create or delete a subcategory.

1. Go to Products and services.
2. Select New Item and choose Manage Categories.
3. Select the categories that you want to change from the list.
4. Make the required changes in the top section.
5. Select Save.

To delete Product Categories

When you delete a product category, this also removes the category from any product records it's associated with. If it has subcategories, they’ll become top-level categories.

1. Go to Products and services.
2. Select Create New and choose Manage Categories.
3. Select the categories that you want to delete from the list and select Delete.

To add Categories to Products and Services

Once you’ve created your categories, you can add them to your product records. You can do this when you create a new record and when editing an existing one. You can use categories with all types of products and services.

1. Go to Products and services.
2. Select the relevant item and then select Edit.
3. Select the required category.
4. Select Save.