Master Data · Daily operations · 9 min read

Publish products and manage item codes and substitutes

Publish products to a web, POS or sales catalogue, register barcodes, keep customers' and suppliers' own item codes, and approve substitute products.

Before you begin

Catalogues, item codes and substitutes are each a feature switch (Applications > Master Data > Features). If a feature is off, its screen is not offered and its API answers '<Feature> is disabled for this company.'

Publish to a catalogue

1. Open Master Data > Products > Catalogues and press New catalogue.
2. Enter a Code (WEB, up to 20 characters), a Name and the Channel: web, POS or sales.
3. Open the catalogue. The assortment dialog shows its public read address.
4. Choose a Product and press Publish. Only an active product that is sold can be published: 'Only an active product that is sold can be published.' Variants of an unreleased template are not published.

The row is published at version 1 with the product's price at that moment. The public address returns the code, names, unit, price, tax rate, barcode, description and channel pictures. It never returns cost, supplier, accounts or bank data. It needs no sign-in; the catalogue key is the access. An unknown key answers 'Catalogue not found.'

The published payload is a snapshot. If the price is 50.00 when you publish and you later change the product to 60.00, the channel still shows 50.00 (v1) until you press Publish again, which publishes 60.00 as v2.

Worked example. Two published products: P-A at AED 10.50 and P-B at AED 5.00. A checkout of 2 × P-A and 1 × P-B gives a subtotal of 2 × 10.50 + 5.00 = AED 26.00. After you press Withdraw on P-B, a checkout with it is refused: 'P-B is not available in this catalogue.' and the product address answers 404 'Product not found.'

Register a barcode

1. Open Master Data > Products > Barcodes and press Register barcode.
2. Choose the Product, the Symbology (EAN13, EAN8, UPCA, GTIN14, CODE128, QR or INTERNAL), the Code and an optional Pack unit.
3. Save.

EAN13 is 13 digits, EAN8 is 8, UPCA is 12 and GTIN14 is 14, each with a correct check digit. The check digit is the weighted sum of the digits (3 and 1 alternately from the right): check = (10 minus total mod 10) mod 10. Refusals: 'An EAN13 code is 13 digits.' and 'The check digit is wrong.' CODE128, QR and INTERNAL accept any text. The code must be unique among product, packaging and registered barcodes: '6291000000013 already identifies TSHIRT-M-RED.' (6291000000013 is a test code.)

Customer and supplier item codes

A customer or supplier often uses its own code for your product.

1. Open Master Data > Products > Customer item codes (or Supplier item codes) and press New code.
2. Choose the Customer (or Supplier) and the Product.
3. Enter Their code (up to 60 characters), their description and the pack.
4. Save.

A code must be unique per customer, but two customers may use the same code for different products. A repeat is refused: '<customer code> already uses CUST-SKU-001 for a product.' A supplier-only contact cannot be chosen for a customer code: 'That partner does not have this role.' Codes cannot be edited or archived on screen.

Substitutes

1. Open Master Data > Products > Substitutes and press New substitute.
2. Choose Instead of and Use, two different products.
3. Enter How many replace one (above zero) and the Direction: One way or Both ways. Add a reason.
4. Save as a draft.
5. A steward other than the proposer presses Approve: 'Somebody other than the person who prepared this substitute must decide it.'

An approved substitute can be used on a confirmed order through the API. If line A has 10 units at AED 50.00 and 4 are delivered, the open 6 units become 12 units of B at AED 25.00 (50 divided by ratio 2). That raises a change order in Sales that another person approves. A substitute that is not approved, or has expired, is refused: 'This substitute is not approved for that product today; it cannot be used.'

Good to know

• To see what each channel publishes, open Master Data > Reports > Product catalogue.
• Imported or newly created products need to be active and sold before they can be published.