Product categories allow you to classify your products, and you must define your product categories before defining your individual products. Each time you define a product, you must assign it to one of your product categories.
Product categories are used to assign default accounts and to enable category options for groups of products. Do the following to define product categories:
- From the Staff site, go to Settings > Commerce > Product categories.
- Select Add product category.
- Enter a code for the product category in the Category field.
- Enter a Description of the product category.
- Enable the applicable Category options. Select the options that you want enabled by default when defining new products. You can override all settings at the product level:
- Commissionable – (This option currently only provides useable functionality through the iMIS Desktop) Enable if you want the sale of a product within a category to generate a commission.
- Commissionable % – Enter the default commission rate generated by the sale of a product in this category. For example, a 5.00% commission rate would generate a 5.00 commission on a 100.00 sale. Make sure to enter the rate as a percentage and not as a decimal.
- Product kit – Enable to indicate that the product category consists of product kits. To continue setting up your product kit, see Defining product kits.
- Stock item – Enable to indicate that products within this category have physical inventory. You can track inventory only for items stocked in inventory.
- Taxable – Enable to indicate that the product category is taxable.
- Use publication demographics – (This option currently only provides useable functionality through the iMIS Desktop) Enable to define publication demographic information for a category's products. If the option is enabled, the Publication button displays and enables on the Manage products window (in the Advanced Accounting Console) for products belonging to that category. Clicking the Publication button on the Manage products window opens the Publication Demographics window used for defining demographic information for publications.
- Commissionable – (This option currently only provides useable functionality through the iMIS Desktop) Enable if you want the sale of a product within a category to generate a commission.
- (These options currently only provide useable functionality through the iMIS Desktop) Enter the User defined field captions that will display and generate text boxes when creating a new product through the iMIS Desktop or Advanced Accounting Console.
Enter captions in the User defined field 1, User defined field 2, User defined field 3, and User defined field 4 fields that will display on the Product Detail window. Each caption that you define generates a text box on the Product Detail window for products belonging to that category. You can define the same or different captions for any product category.
When entering or editing an order, some products may require additional order information before an order can be shipped. The user-defined fields on the Product Detail window allow you to record this additional information.
You also have the ability to define general lookup/validation tables for each of the user-defined fields, and any predefined data can be accessed by selecting each field's Find icon on the Product Detail window. Regardless of whether general lookup/validation tables have been set up, you always have the ability to enter any necessary order information.
General lookup/validation tables are set up for product category user-defined fields by combining the product category codes and field labels defined on the Set up product categories window. When setting up a table for a user-defined field, the product category code and field label must be separated by an underscore.
- Enter any applicable Default accounts. These accounts allow you to define the default accounts for products within this category. You can override the accounts at the product level, and at the warehouse level if Multi-Warehouses is enabled.
When defining product-level accounts, the most specific accounting information takes precedence. For example, iMIS first looks for warehouse level accounts. iMIS then looks for product level accounts. If you have not defined product-level accounts, iMIS uses the default product category accounts. If you have not defined default product category accounts, iMIS uses the accounts defined on theInventory System Setup window (from the Advanced Accounting Console, go to Orders, select Set up module, and click Inventory).
- Income – Select a product category's default Income account number.
- Inventory – Select a product category's default Inventory account number.
- Cost of goods sold – Select a product category's default Cost of goods sold account number.
- Adjustments – Select a product category's default Adjustments account number.
Note: Defining Inventory, Cost of goods sold, and Adjustments default accounts only apply to functionality that exclusively exists in the iMIS Desktop.
- Click Save.