Steps
- Open Catalog to Manage Product Category. The Product Categories page shows every group you already have.
- Click New Category, type the Category Name (for example Biscuits), add a Description and an icon if you want, then click Save Category.
- Open Catalog to Manage Brand, click New Brand, type the Brand Name and click Save Brand.
- Add one row for every group you stock and every brand you carry. The same name twice is refused.
- On the product form the Product Category and Brand Name dropdowns have a search box. They list your own names, names Suggested for your business, and any new name you type, added when you save.
Good to know
A product needs a Brand Name too. With auto SKU on, saving without a brand fails with SKU generation error: Brand is missing or invalid. Keep one brand like Local for goods that carry no brand.
A category or a brand that any product uses cannot be deleted; the page refuses it and says so. Correct the spelling with Edit instead.
Edit changes only the name, description or icon and leaves old bills alone. The graph button opens the sales report for that category or brand.
Words used
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Products | How many catalogue items sit in this category. |
| Purchased | Units bought in, after goods returned to the supplier. |
| Sold | Units sold, after customer returns. |
| Processing | Units on orders that are taken but not delivered yet. |
| Available | Units still on hand. On Brands the Processing figure is taken off this number; on Product Categories it is not. |
| Suggested | A name offered for your kind of business. Nothing is added to your lists until a product is saved with it. |
| Show unused | Shows the categories or brands no product uses yet. They are hidden from the list until a product uses them. |
The icon is optional: JPEG or PNG up to about 150KB, square (about 100x100 px) looks best. The search box on Product Categories looks in the name and the description; on Brands it looks in the name only. Product Categories and Brands list only the names a product uses; the rest wait behind Show unused. Your online store menu shows only categories with a product switched on. + Add Category and + Add Brand at the end of the dropdown still open the full page.
Next in this sectionAdd your first product