Products

A product is anything you sell — a tin of beans, a shirt, a box of medicine, a haircut. Your product list (called your catalog) is the heart of the system: it feeds the checkout screen, your stock counts, your reports and your receipts. Get it right and everything else just works.

Who uses itOwners and managers setting up what the shop sells.

How long it takesA minute per product by hand, or seconds each in bulk via import.

Where to find itClick Products in the sidebar, or open /admin/products.

Overview

The Products screen shows everything you sell in one searchable table — with the product's picture, code, category, current stock, price and an on/off status switch. From here you add new products, edit existing ones, print barcode labels, and import or export your whole catalog as a spreadsheet.

Every product carries the details the rest of the system needs: its name, a unique code (its SKU), an optional barcode for scanning, the selling price, what it cost you, which category, brand and unit it belongs to, and the tax that applies. You only have to fill in a few of these to start selling — the rest you can add whenever you're ready.

The products list with images, codes, stock, prices and a status switch on each row — The product list: search at the top, one row per product, status switch on the end.

Why it's useful

It powers the till. Anything in your catalog can be scanned or tapped into a sale instantly. Nothing sells that isn't a product first.
It keeps prices consistent. Set a price once and every sale uses it — no more guessing or sticky notes.
It tracks your stock. Because each sale knows which product left the shelf, your stock counts stay accurate automatically.
It scales to thousands of items. Bulk import and export mean you never have to type a big catalog by hand.

Adding a product, step by step

Open the products list and click "Add product"
Go to Products in the sidebar, then click the Add product button at the top of the list. A form opens.
Give it a name and a code
Type the product's name (this is what staff and customers see). The system suggests a SKU — a short unique code used internally — which you can keep or change. If the item has a printed barcode, type or scan it into the Barcode field, or click Generate to have the system create one for you.
Set the prices
Enter the selling price (what the customer pays) and the cost price (what you pay your supplier). The cost is used to work out your profit in reports — it never shows to customers.
Choose category, brand and unit
Pick a category and brand to keep the product organised (see Categories & brands), and a unit — for example piece, kg or litre (see Units of measure). The unit shows on the cart, receipts and reports.
Set the tax
Choose the tax group that applies (for example VAT or GST). The till then adds the right tax to every sale automatically. See Taxes if you haven't set up your tax rates yet.
Add a picture and stock details (optional)
Upload a photo so the product is easy to spot on the touch screen. If you keep stock, switch on Track stock and set a reorder level so you're warned before you run out. You can enter your opening stock here too.
Save
Click Save. The product appears in the list immediately and is ready to sell at the counter.

Only four fields are required

To save a product you just need a name, a SKU, a selling price and a unit. Everything else can wait until you have time.

Other things you can do here

Editing a product

Click any row in the list to open that product and change anything — its price, picture, category, tax and so on. Save your changes and they take effect on the next sale.

The product edit form with name, code, price, category and tax fields — The product form — the same fields whether you're adding or editing.

The active / inactive switch

Every row has a status switch. An active product can be sold and shows on the till; an inactive one is hidden from checkout but kept on file with all its history. Use inactive for items you've stopped selling but don't want to delete — a seasonal line, say, or a product you may bring back. Deleting is for genuine mistakes only.

Searching & filtering

The search box at the top finds products by name, code or barcode as you type. You can also filter the list — by category, brand, whether it's in stock, low or out, and active or inactive — to zero in on exactly the items you want.

Batches, expiry & weighed items

Some products need a little extra. Medicines and perishables can track batches and expiry dates so older stock sells first and expired stock is blocked — see Batches & expiry. Loose goods like fruit or grains can be sold by weight, with the price worked out from what's on the scale — see Weighed & scale items. Turn these on per product when you need them.

Importing & exporting in bulk

For big catalogs, typing every product by hand isn't practical. Use the Export button to download your whole catalog as a CSV or Excel spreadsheet, and the Import button to upload one.

Import walks you through it in a few steps:

Step	What happens
Upload	Pick your CSV or Excel file. You can download a template that matches the right column layout.
Match columns	The system lines up your spreadsheet's columns with its own fields automatically; you can adjust any that don't match.
Preview	See the first rows with any problems flagged before anything is saved. You can skip bad rows or create missing categories and brands on the fly.
Import	The file is processed in the background. You get a summary of how many were created, updated and skipped — with a downloadable report of any that failed.

Existing products are matched by their SKU, so importing the same file again updates rather than duplicates. This makes import handy for bulk price changes too.

Tips & best practices

Add a barcode to anything that has one. Scanning is far faster and more accurate at the till than searching by name.
Add a photo for touch-screen items. Pictures make products easy to find when there's no barcode to scan — handy for bakery and produce.
Keep your cost prices honest. Your profit reports are only as accurate as the cost you enter.
Build big catalogs with import. Export the template, fill it in your spreadsheet program, and import once — much faster than the form.
Set reorder levels. They trigger low-stock warnings so you reorder before the shelf is empty.

Notes & warnings

SKUs and barcodes must be unique. Two products can't share the same code — otherwise a scan wouldn't know which one you meant. The form warns you if a code is already in use.

Hide, don't delete, items you've stopped selling. Switch a product to inactive so its sales and stock history stays intact for your reports.

Once a product has been sold, you can't change its type. Decide early whether something is a simple item, has variants (like sizes), is a service, or is sold by weight — this is locked after the first sale to keep your records straight.