Transcript
Organising the catalogue and recording who you buy from.
0:00 Introduction
In this episode we organise the catalogue with categories and brands, and record the suppliers you buy from.
0:08 Categories
Categories group your products, like departments in a shop. Open Categories from the Catalog menu.
The categories form a tree. Each one shows how many products it holds, and how many custom fields it asks for. Click the arrow beside a category to open it and see the ones inside.
Click a category to see its custom fields on the right. These are extra details you want to record for products in that category, like frame size for a bike.
Now let's add one of our own. Click New category.
Call it Drinkware. A category can sit at the top level, or inside another category by choosing a parent. We keep it at the top. Press Create.
The category count has gone up by one. Use the filter box to find Drinkware.
0:58 Brands
Brands are the makers of the products you sell. Open Brands.
It is a simple list with a name and a description. Click New brand.
We will add a brand called Alpine Gear, with a short description. Press Save.
Alpine Gear is in the list. When you add or edit a product, you pick its brand from this list, and you can filter the product list by brand.
1:25 Suppliers
Suppliers are the businesses you buy from. Open Suppliers.
Each has a contact, an email, an account number and a lead time, which is how many days they usually take to deliver. Click New supplier.
We type the supplier name and a contact. The email is the one that purchase orders are sent to.
Our account number is the number they know us by. Lead time is seven days. The system uses it when it suggests when to reorder.
The address and notes are optional. Press Save.
The supplier is added. When a supplier stops trading, use Deactivate rather than deleting, and tick Include inactive to see them again.
2:09 Putting it to use
These lists pay off on the product list. Go back to Products and open the brand filter.
Choose a brand, and the list shows only its products. Category and supplier filters work the same way.
Categories, brands and suppliers are the backbone of a tidy catalogue. In the next episode, we bring in many products at once from a spreadsheet.