Set up items

An item is anything you buy, sell or keep in stock. Its type decides whether it holds stock, its costing method decides how that stock is valued, and its tracking decides whether each unit or batch carries a number. Set these with care: once an item has moved, its base unit, costing method and tracking can no longer change.

Create an item

1. Go to Inventory ‣ Master data ‣ Items and click New item.
2. On the General tab, fill in Code and Name. Pick a Subsidiary only if the item belongs to one subsidiary.
3. On the Classification tab, pick the Type and, if you use them, the Category.
4. On the Costing & tax tab, pick the Base unit of measure, the UOM and the Tax group, and check the Costing method.
5. On the Tracking tab, pick how the item is tracked.
6. Click Save.

The item opens on its own page, with tabs for its Barcodes, Components and Conversions. A new item starts as a stocked, untracked, average-costed item.

Classification

Field	What it sets
Type	Stocked holds stock in warehouses. Non-stock is bought and sold but never held. Service is work you sell or buy, never received or transferred. Kit is sold as one item and takes its components from stock.
Category	The group the item is filed under, for filtering lists and for browsing on the till and the online store.
Sold	Item can be sold to customers. Only items with Sold on appear on the point-of-sale till.

Costing & tax

Field	What it sets
Base unit of measure	The unit stock is held and valued in. Every conversion is stated against it.
UOM	The unit the item is bought and sold in by default. If it differs from the base unit, add a conversion.
Costing method	How stock leaving the warehouse is valued. See the list below.
Tax group	The tax the item is charged under. An untaxed item takes a zero-rated group.
Expense account	Where a purchase of the item is booked when it is not held in stock.

The costing methods:

• Average: each receipt blends into a running average cost per warehouse, and stock leaves at that average.
• FIFO: stock leaves at the cost of the oldest receipts first.
• FEFO: stock leaves at the cost of the batches that expire first, so it suits goods with an expiry date.
• Specific: each lot or serial number carries its own cost, so the item must be tracked.

Tracking

Option	What it means
None	Only the quantity is kept.
Batch	Every quantity belongs to a lot, with an expiry date. Each receipt names its lots.
Serial	Every unit has its own serial number. Each receipt names one number per unit.

Example

A pharmacy wholesaler tracks medicines by Batch with FEFO costing: each delivery is received under its lot number and expiry date, and the lots closest to expiry are valued out first.

Import items

To load many items at once, import them from a spreadsheet.

1. Go to Inventory ‣ Master data ‣ Items and click Import.
2. Under Download template, pick CSV (.csv) or Excel (.xlsx), and fill it in.
3. Drop the file on the dialog, or click to browse for it.
4. Under Map columns, match each expected field to a column of your file, and click Continue.
5. Check the Preview, then click the button that imports the rows, for example Import 40 rows.

The Result step shows how many rows were imported. Rows that failed are listed with their error; click Download errors as CSV to fix them and import again.

Add barcodes

A barcode is a code printed on the item. Each barcode says which unit a scan of it counts as, so the barcode on a carton can count as a whole box.

1. Open the item and go to its Barcodes tab.
2. Click New barcode and enter the Barcode.
3. Pick the UOM the barcode counts as.
4. Switch on Primary for the item’s main barcode, and click Save.

An item keeps one primary barcode. To remove the primary one, make another barcode primary first.

Build a kit

A kit is sold as one item but holds no stock of its own: when it is sold, its components leave the warehouse.

1. Create the item with Type Kit, and save it.
2. Open its Components tab and click New component.
3. Pick the Item, and enter the Quantity one kit takes in the UOM you pick.
4. Switch on Removable if a sale may leave this component out.
5. Click Save, and repeat for each component.

To let a sale swap a component for another item, open the component, go to its Alternatives tab and click New alternative. Pick the Item, its Quantity and UOM, and save.

Note

A kit with no components cannot be sold, and a kit cannot be tracked by batch or serial.

Group items into categories

1. Go to Inventory ‣ Master data ‣ Categories and click New category.
2. Fill in Code and Name, for example BEV and Beverages, and add an Image if the category shows on the till or the online store.
3. Click Save.

Inactive categories are hidden from new items. A category that live items still carry cannot be archived until they move to another one.

Archive an item

Open the item and click Archive. It disappears from lists and new documents; turn on Show archived in the list to find it, and click Restore to bring it back.

Message	What to do
The item still has stock on hand; move or write it off before archiving the item.	Transfer or adjust the stock to zero first.
The item is still on open orders; ship, receive or cancel them, or deactivate the item instead.	Finish or cancel the orders.
The item is a component of a kit; remove it from the kit before archiving the item.	Archive the component on the kit first.
The item has already been used, so its costing method can no longer change.	Create a new item with the method you need.