Items

Items are everything you sell. Each one is either a product, something you sell from stock, or a service, like a repair, an hour of work or a rental.

Add an item

1. Open Inventory, then Items, and choose New item.
2. Choose Product or Service, and give it a name.
3. Fill in the rest if you like:
   • Description, for your own notes about it.
   • SKU, your own code for it. You can leave it empty.
   • Category, for example BBs or Repairs (see below).
4. Under Price:
   • Price is before tax.
   • Cost is what one costs you, so IAPZ can show your profit. For a service, cost is optional.
   • Taxes are the ones the item is charged. A new item starts with all your taxes ticked.
5. Under Where it's sold:
   • Brands: if your business has more than one, tick the ones it's sold under. Leave them all unticked to sell it under every brand.
   • Keep count of its stock: for products. Untick it for things you don't count.
6. Choose Add item.

To change an item later, open it from the list, change its Details, and choose Save.

A product's weight, size and packing for shipping are on its own Shipping tab: see Shipping weights, sizes and boxes. How search engines show it on your online store is on its Website tab: see Products and categories in search engines.

Duplicate an item

For an item much like one you already have (another colour, size or weight), open that item and choose Duplicate. New item opens already filled in from a copy, with "(copy)" added to its name. Change what's different, such as the name and price, then choose Add item. Nothing is saved until you do. For a product you sell in several sizes or colours, Products with options makes all of them at once.

The copy takes the item's details and its Shipping tab. It doesn't take its SKU, barcodes, stock, photos or price-level prices, since those belong to one exact item, and it isn't set as a pack of what the original breaks down into.

Packs and cases

Some things you buy in one size and sell in another: a case of BBs holds 20 bags, and the bags are sold one at a time. Each size is its own item, and the case breaks down into the bags:

You can set this up from either end, under Buying and packaging on the item's form:

• Start with the bag: at Is it bought in a pack or case?, choose:
  • A new pack or case: enter how many per pack and what the case costs you, and IAPZ suggests its name (for example "BBs bag – case of 20"). The case is made as its own item when you save.
  • One already in your items: search for the case and say how many it holds.
• Start with the case: at Breaks down into, search for the bag (by name, SKU or barcode), or choose + New item to add it on the spot. Then enter How many it holds.

The cases an item comes in are listed on its form. Unlink one that no longer holds it: the case stays as an item.

A bag without its own cost takes the case's cost divided by 20: a $200 case makes each bag $10, for profit and stock value. The case is an item like any other, so it has its own price and can be sold whole too. Packs can go down more than one level (case → box → piece), but never round in a circle.

To open cases into bags in your stock, see Getting started with Inventory.

Find items

The list is in name order. You can:

• Search by name, SKU or barcode;
• show one Category, or the items with No category;
• show only products or only services;
• show Archived only.

To see the items charged no tax, or only those charged tax, use the Taxes filter. An item's Sales tab shows how many it has sold, for how much, and each sale, with its customer.

The price list

Items, then Prices (for Owners and Managers), shows every item's cost, retail price, margin, and its price at each price level. Find and filter items as on the Items tab.

• Change one: type over a cost or price; it's saved when you leave the box (or press Enter), and the margin follows. With no cost of its own, an item from a pack shows its share of the pack's cost in grey.

• A level's price: a grey price comes from the level's rule. Type a price to give the item its own price at that level (shown in bold); clear it to go back to the rule.

• Change many at once: tick items (or Choose all on this page), then choose what to change:

  • Retail prices up or down by %, for example 5, or -10 to lower them.
  • Retail prices for a margin: the price that gives that margin on each item's cost. Items without a cost are left as they are.
  • Cost: the same cost for each.
  • A level's price: a % off retail, a markup on cost, or back to the level's own rule.

  Choose Apply; you're asked first, saying what will change and on how many items. Prices are worked out to the cent.

Margin is profit ÷ price: an item costing $10 and selling for $25 has a 60% margin. (Markup is profit ÷ cost: 150% on the same item.)

Price labels

Print price labels on a label printer, such as a Brother QL. Each label shows the item's price, its name, its SKU if it has one, and a barcode to scan at the point of sale.

• One item: open it and choose Print labels.
• Several: on the Prices tab, tick the items, set Labels each (for example 12 for a box of 12), and choose Print labels.

The print dialog opens straight away. Preview shows the labels first, and with one label, Download PNG saves it for printers that print from their own app (Niimbot, Phomemo).

The first time, in the print dialog: choose your label printer and the same paper size (for example 62 mm on a Brother QL), set Margins to None and Scale to 100%, and untick Headers and footers. Your browser remembers them, so after that it's Print and Enter. If no label sizes are offered, install the printer maker's own driver (for example Brother's).

An item without a barcode is given one of your own the first time its labels are printed: 13 digits starting with 20 (numbers no maker uses). It's kept on the item, under Barcodes, so scanning its label finds it.

Label size: open Settings, then Labels, and choose your printer's size (62 × 29 mm on a Brother QL to start), or another size in mm. A sample shows how a label looks.

Taxes

Each item is charged the taxes ticked on it. A new item starts with all of your taxes ticked; untick any it's exempt from. To see the items charged no tax, set the Taxes filter to No tax.

Change many items at once

Tick the items (or Choose all on this page, then Choose all for every item the list shows; it says how many), then choose Edit N items. For each of these, choose what to do, or leave it as is:

• Category: move them to one, or to none.
• Taxes: add a tax, remove one, or set exactly which they're charged (none ticked: no tax).
• Brands: add a brand, remove one, or set exactly which they're sold under (none ticked: every brand).
• Archive: archive them, or bring them back.

Choose Change N items. To change prices for many items, use the Prices tab.

Categories

Categories group your items, so you can find them, and browse them at the point of sale.

• Add a category: open Inventory, then Categories, and choose Add a category.
• A category's page: choose its name. Its Details tab has its name, what it's Under, its description and one photo, added, replaced and removed like an item's (the description and photo are shown with the category in your online store). Its Specifications tab has its specifications (below), and its Website tab how Google shows it (see Products and categories in search engines).
• Give many items a category at once: tick them and choose Edit (see Change many items at once).
• Archive a category you no longer use with Archive at the top of its page. Its items keep it. Show archived lists archived categories, each with Restore.

Subcategories

A category can go under another, up to three levels, such as Clothing › Shirts › Polos.

• Add one under a category: choose the + on that category's row. Or, on any category's page, choose the category it goes Under.
• Move a category: drag it up or down to put it in order, or onto the middle of another category to put it under that one. The categories under it move with it. On a phone, use its arrows: up, down, out a level, or under the category above.
• What it changes: pickers name a subcategory in full, such as Shirts › Polos. Showing a category in the Items, Stock, Counts or Prices list, or choosing it at the point of sale, includes its subcategories' items. Its count in the Categories list includes them too.
• On your online store: a category's page shows its subcategories' products as well, with a link to each subcategory, and the breadcrumbs follow them (Home › Shop › Shirts › Polos). Your store's own menu and the shop's home page list the top-level categories. Moving a category never changes its address.
• Archiving a category moves the categories under it up a level.

Specifications

Specifications describe what's in a category, such as Activity (Running, Hiking, Everyday) or Sleeve length (Short, Long) for shirts. Your online store will use them for its filters.

• Add them on the category's Specifications tab: a name, its choices, and whether each item takes One choice or Several choices. Put them in order with the arrows, then choose Save specifications.
• Subcategories have their parent's specifications as well as their own. They're shown at the top, with the category they come from.
• Copy from another category adds that category's specifications to this one, to save retyping. Any it already has are left out.
• Give an item its choices on its Specifications tab. Duplicate copies them. A product with options has them once, on its own Specifications tab, for all its variants.
• Set one on many items at once: show one category in the Items list, tick the items and choose Edit. Specification lists that category's, and sets the choice you pick on every item chosen whose category has it. Choosing nothing clears it.
• Find the items still to do: with one category shown, Specification not set shows the items without a choice for the one you pick.
• Rename a choice on the category's page and every item that has it changes too. Taking a choice or a specification off takes it off the items.
• Moving an item to another category that doesn't have some of its specifications asks first, since those choices are cleared. Choose Save again to move it.

An option (such as Size) differs between a product's variants. A specification is the same for the whole product.

After importing from Shopify, a quick way to start is to show No category and work down the list.

Stock at a glance

Wherever an item's stock shows, it's in colour against its low-stock level (set on its Low stock tab):

• Red: at or below the level ("3 on hand · low at 10").
• Amber: running low, within half again above it (low at 10: 11 to 15).

To see just those items, use the Stock filter in the items list: Low, or Running low (the low ones too).

Add to order

On a product's page, Add to order puts it on a draft purchase order for its usual supplier, or starts one, with enough to bring it back up to its low-stock level. If it has no usual supplier, IAPZ asks who you buy it from.

Once it's on a draft order, the button shows that order instead, like On order #1001: choose it to open the order. So you can filter the list to Running low, open the first item, and use › to go through them, adding each to an order.

Work through a list

Open an item from a filtered list (for example, the BBs category) and its page shows where it is, like 3 of 24, with ‹ and › for the item before and after. They open the same tab: from one item's Photos, › opens the next item's Photos, so you can add photos to a whole category without going back to the list each time.

← Items takes you back to the same filtered list. If you've typed something and not saved it, IAPZ asks before moving on.

Photos

An item can have up to 6 photos, on its Photos tab. The first is the cover: it shows beside the item's name, in the items list and at the point of sale.

Choose a photo to see it larger, over the page. Previous and Next (or the arrow keys, or a swipe on a phone) go through the others, and Close (or Esc) takes you back.

• Add: tap + and pick one or several, or drop them on the tab. On a phone you can take one with the camera.
• Arrange: drag a photo to a new place, or use the arrows under it. The star makes a photo the cover.
• Change: the photo button under a photo replaces it with a new one, in the same place. The ✕ on a photo removes it.

Removing, replacing and adding each have Undo for a few seconds afterwards.

Use JPEG, PNG, WebP or HEIC photos, up to 10 MB and at least 200 pixels each way. Each photo is resized and saved again, which removes hidden details such as where it was taken. Owners and Managers change photos; Staff see them.

Barcodes

Barcodes are optional. Add one by scanning the barcode printed on the product, once. From then on, scanning finds the item.

1. Open the item and choose the Barcodes tab.
2. Add the code in one of three ways:
   • choose Scan with camera and hold the barcode inside the frame;
   • with a barcode scanner plugged into the computer, click in Barcode and scan (the scanner types the code for you);
   • type the numbers printed under the bars and choose Add barcode.

A product can have more than one barcode, but each barcode belongs to only one item. The first time you scan, your browser asks whether IAPZ may use the camera: choose Allow.

Archive an item

Open the item and choose Archive. It leaves the list and isn't offered any more. Sales that sold it keep it. To bring it back, show Archived only, open it, and choose Restore.