What this screen is for
The brands your products belong to, each with a name and a description. A brand is a separate axis from a category: a category says what a thing is, a brand says whose it is, and an item has both.
When to use it
Create brands where you carry several manufacturers' goods and need to tell them apart when searching stock or analysing sales. Items can then be filtered by brand on the stock screens, which is the difference between finding one supplier's range and scrolling through everything you sell.
What you see on this screen
Three counters open the screen: Total, Active and Inactive.
The table:
- Name — the brand.
- Description — what it covers, in your own words. Useful where a manufacturer trades under more than one name.
- Products — how many items belong to it. A brand with none has either just been created or is no longer carried.
- Status — Active or Inactive.
- Actions — edit or delete.
The form is short: a name and a description.
Filters and actions
A search box matches brand names, with a search button beside it. Add Brand opens the form.
A brand is a filter on the stock screens rather than a grouping in its own right, so the practical test of whether it is worth creating is whether you would ever want to see that manufacturer's range on its own.
Deleting a brand leaves its items without one, so the Products count is worth reading first.
Status values
- Active — in use, and offered when creating or editing an item.
- Inactive — kept, with its items and its history, but withdrawn from everyday use. Use it for a line you have stopped carrying but whose past sales still need to report under the right name.
Related
- Items
- Categories
- Stock