What this screen is for
How your catalogue is organised. Categories can be nested, so a category either sits under a parent or stands at the top level, and each carries a description and a display position that controls where it appears in lists.
When to use it
Set the structure up before entering many items, and keep it shallow enough to stay useful. Reports group by category — sales by product and inventory valuation both do — so the categories chosen here quietly decide how legible those reports will be later, and restructuring afterwards means reassigning every item.
What you see on this screen
Three counters open the screen: Total, Active and Inactive.
The table:
- Order — the position in the list, 1 showing first. A dash means no position was set and the category falls in by name.
- Name — the category. A sub-category is indented under its parent, marked with a corner character and a line naming the parent, so the nesting still reads correctly when a page break separates the two. A top-level category with children instead says how many sub-categories it has.
- Description — what belongs in it, in your own words.
- Products — how many items are filed under it. A category with none is either new or is quietly redundant.
- Status — Active or Inactive.
- Actions — edit or delete.
The form takes the name, a Parent category for nesting, a description and a Display order.
Filters and actions
A search box matches category names, with a search button beside it.
Deleting a category that still has items under it will leave those items uncategorised, so the Products count is worth reading before removing anything.
Status values
- Active — in use, and offered when filing an item.
- Inactive — kept, with its items and its history, but withdrawn from everyday use. This is the right choice for a range you no longer buy but whose past sales still need to report correctly.
Related
- Items
- Brands
- Sales by Product