Products and stock

#The product list

Products in the sidebar opens your catalogue: the goods and services you sell or buy, with their prices, GST rate and stock. Save an item here once, and on every invoice you just type a few letters of its name to fill in the HSN, rate, unit and GST.

The buttons at the top of the screen:

Search by name, category, HSN, barcode or SKU... narrows the list as you type, and finds a product by its search words too. The cross clears it. Beside the search box, the category list shows only one category, or only the products with no category; each choice shows how many products it holds. See Categories.

Deleting many products at once: tick the box at the start of each row (the box in the header ticks every product the list shows), then click Delete selected and confirm. Only ticked products the list shows are deleted; invoices that used them keep their lines. Clear unticks them all.

The Products & Services table:

Products are shared by all your businesses, so each business sees the same list and the same stock.

#Categories

A category is a word that groups products, such as Stationery, Electricals, Services or Packing. Categories help you find a product and limit the list to one group, for example when pricing a wholesale order or printing labels for one shelf.

1. Create the categoriesClick Categories at the top of the Products screen, type a name such as Stationery and click Add. It is on the product form's dropdown straight away, before any product uses it.
2. Give a product its categoryOn the product form, pick one from the Category dropdown, or choose + New category… and type a name to add it on the spot. Add Product has the same box. A product can have one category, or none.
3. Filter the listThe list beside the search box starts on All categories and shows each category with how many products it holds. Choose one to see just those; products with no category are under Uncategorised. Search and the category filter work together.
4. Rename or remove oneIn the Categories window, each category shows how many products use it. Change a name and click Save on that row: every product in the category is updated at once.

Renaming onto a name that already exists merges the two: the products of both categories end up in one, and nothing is deleted. The bin beside a category clears it from its products, after asking; the products, their prices and their stock stay exactly as they were. A category you created stays in the list with 0 products until you remove it, so you can keep it ready for next season.

The product stores its category; the Categories window is the menu the form picks from. To move one product to another category, change it in the product form; to move a whole category, rename it here. A category typed into a spreadsheet import joins the list too.

Spelling: "Stationary" and "Stationery" are two different categories until you rename one onto the other, which merges them. When importing, a Category, Group or Item Group column fills the category, and Tally's stock group arrives as one. See Importing products.

#Printing or exporting the list

Print / PDF, Excel and CSV beside the table title save the products shown, with name, category, type (Goods or Service), HSN/SAC, purchase price, selling price, MRP, GST %, unit and stock. Search first to save only some. Print / PDF opens the print window, where you can choose a printer or Save as PDF. The buttons are hidden during a bulk edit.

A CSV saved here can be opened in Excel, and is a handy way to send your price list to an accountant. It can also be brought back in with Import CSV, or into another copy of the app.

#Deleting a product

The bin asks Delete this product? first. Deleting removes it from your catalogue only: invoices and purchase bills that used it keep their lines unchanged. If it is a raw material of a product made here, the message names those products: remove it from their raw materials list too.

A product deleted here is not in the Trash; to get it back, add it again.

#Adding a product or service

1. Open the formClick Add Product. To change a product, click its pencil instead; the form opens as Edit Product.
2. Name itType the name as you want it printed on the invoice, such as "A4 Paper Ream 75 GSM" or "Website Maintenance".
3. Goods or serviceUnder This is a, leave Goods (stock counted) for things you keep on a shelf, or click Service (no stock) for work you do, such as printing, repairs or consulting. See Goods or service.
4. Group itOptionally pick a Category from the dropdown, such as Stationery, or choose + New category… to add one. It groups the product in the list; a product can go without one. See Categories.
5. Codes and pricesFill in the HSN or SAC code, the purchase price, the selling price, the printed MRP and the GST %.
6. Unit and stockChoose the unit and, for goods, type how many you have today. A service has no stock box.
7. Batches, serials and warrantyOnly if you need them: tick Track batches and expiry for medicines or food, or Track serial numbers for electronics, and give a warranty in months. See Batches and expiry and Serial numbers and warranty. Leave both unticked for ordinary goods.
8. SaveClick Save (or Update when editing). You see "Product added" or "Product updated", and it appears in the list.

Cancel closes the form without saving. So does clicking outside it, so finish and save before you click elsewhere.

Changing a product's price or GST % does not change invoices already made. New invoices use the new figures.

#Barcodes, MRP and labels

A USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner works like a keyboard: it types the code and presses Enter. Nothing needs pairing or setting up in the app. Scan into the search box on Products, POS or a Purchase Bill and the right product is found.

The Barcode, MRP and label part of the product form holds:

The barcode, SKU and search words all work in the Products search and at the POS counter.

#Goods or service

Every product is either Goods, things you buy, keep and sell, whose stock is counted, or a Service, work you do, such as printing, repairs, design, consulting or transport, which has no stock.

Products you already have stay Goods. To switch one, click its pencil, choose Service (no stock) and click Update; any stock it had is dropped. To switch back, choose Goods and type its stock.

On an invoice, picking a service from your products fills in that line's SAC, unit, rate and GST; other lines are not touched. For a service billed as one fixed fee, with no quantity on the invoice, see Goods, services or both.

When importing products from a spreadsheet, a Type column with Service makes the row a service. See Importing products.

#HSN and SAC codes

HSN (Harmonised System of Nomenclature) codes classify goods, such as 4802 for paper or 8471 for computers. SAC (Services Accounting Code) codes classify services and start with 99, such as 998314 for IT services. The code decides the GST rate and is reported in your GSTR-1, in the HSN summary.

• Businesses with a turnover up to ₹5 crore must show at least a 4-digit HSN on invoices to registered buyers; above ₹5 crore, 6 digits on every invoice.
• Find your code on your supplier's bill, from your accountant, or with the HSN search on the GST portal.
• On the invoice, the app knows the usual GST rate of common codes and shows it under the HSN box. See Line items.

See also the glossary.

#Bulk edit: changing many products at once

Use it when prices go up across the board, after a GST rate change, or to correct stock after counting your shelves. Bulk edit turns the table into a grid of boxes: Name, Category, HSN/SAC, Purchase price, Selling price, MRP, GST %, Unit and Stock.

1. Narrow the list (optional)Search first, for example by an HSN code, or pick a category, to edit only those products. The search box and the category list are locked while you edit.
2. StartClick Bulk edit.
3. Type the changesChange any boxes, in any rows. Each changed row turns blue, and the bar at the top counts them: "3 products changed".
4. Save onceClick Save changes (3). You see "3 products updated" and the normal list comes back.

Cancel drops every change. Only the boxes you changed are saved: if an invoice in another window sold some stock meanwhile, that is not undone (unless you changed that product's stock yourself).

The same rules as the product form apply: every product needs a name, GST % must be 0 to 100, and prices, MRP and stock must be numbers. If one row breaks a rule, nothing is saved and you are told which product to fix, such as "Not saved: Tea: GST % must be 0 to 100". Make and the export buttons wait until you save or cancel.

To give many products the same category, type it in the Category column of each. Emptying a category or an MRP box removes that detail from the product; the other details stay.

#How stock is counted

Stock is counted for a line only when it is linked to a product: picked from your products on the invoice or bill, not just typed in.

• Selling: saving a Tax Invoice, Bill of Supply, Composition bill or Delivery Challan takes the quantity out. Change the quantity later and save, and only the difference moves. With godowns on, it comes out of the godown picked on the sale.
• Returns: a Credit Note puts the quantity back.
• Quotations and proformas move no stock. The invoice you convert them into does.
• Buying: saving a purchase bill adds the quantity in, and adds any new item to your products.
• Cancelling an invoice puts its stock back where it came from; un-cancelling takes it out again. Deleting an invoice puts its stock back too.
• Making: a production entry uses up raw materials and adds the finished product.

Out of Stock shows in red at zero or below. Purchases and deletions never take stock below zero; selling more than you have does, so you notice.

A service is never counted. Goods whose stock box was left blank are not counted either until stock first moves: a purchase bill adds to them from zero, and a sale takes them below zero, so you notice.

The stock report shows each product's stock and value on any date.

#Correcting stock by hand

There is no separate stock adjustment screen. After counting your shelves, or for breakage, a free sample or opening stock:

1. One productClick its pencil, type the real count in Stock Quantity, and click Update.
2. Many productsClick Bulk edit, type the counts in the Stock column, and click Save changes.

Stock typed in by hand has no date, so the stock report counts it as if it changed today. Write the reason in the product's description if you want to remember it.

#Batches and expiry

For medicines, food, cosmetics and anything else that goes bad, turn on Track batches and expiry in the product form. The product keeps its one stock number, and its batches say how much of that number is in each batch and when each expires.

1. Turn it onOpen the product's pencil, tick Track batches and expiry under Batches, serials and warranty, and click Update.
2. List what you holdThe Batches editor takes a batch number, an expiry date, a quantity and the cost per unit for each batch; Add batch adds a row and the bin removes one. A summary shows In batches, Not in any batch and the value of the stock. Batches cannot add up to more than the stock; leave the rest unbatched and the app shows it.
3. Buy into a batchOn a purchase bill or goods receipt, a tracked line gets Batch and Expiry boxes beside it. Fill them in and the quantity joins that batch; the same batch number and expiry is added to, not duplicated. Later the shop can be told which lot a complaint came from.
4. Sell the oldest firstOn an invoice or POS line the Batch box starts on the earliest-expiring batch that still has stock (first expiry, first out). Change it to sell a different batch: the line shows that batch's expiry, and saving takes the quantity out of the batch you picked. Goods already sold stay in the batch they left.

The Not in any batch figure is the stock that no batch explains: opening stock typed in by hand, or a sale from a batch nobody named. It can go negative when a batch says it holds more than the product's stock; that shows in red, and adding the missing batch or correcting the product's stock clears it. Batches are a split of the product, so nothing is counted twice in stock, in the stock report, in godowns or in the total value.

Editing a purchase bill or goods receipt moves only the difference: change a line from 10 to 6 and 4 leave its batch; change the batch number and the quantity moves from the old batch to the new one. Deleting or removing the line takes its quantity back out. A return, a credit note or a correction that names no batch leaves the stock unbatched rather than guessing which lot it was.

Expiry: the stock report lists every batch that has expired or expires in the next 90 days, with its quantity and value. An expired batch still counts in stock and in the total until you write it off: reduce the batch quantity in the product's batch editor, and the product's stock with it.

#Serial numbers and warranty

For electronics, machines and anything sold with a warranty, tick Track serial numbers on the product and give a Warranty (months). The app then keeps a register of every serial sold and when its warranty ends, built from your invoices so it can never drift from them.

Selling: pick the product on an invoice or in POS and the line gains a Serial numbers box. Type or scan the numbers in, separated by commas, semicolons or one per line; a note under the box says how many you have entered and, if it does not match the quantity, that you have a different number than you are selling. The mismatch is a warning, not a block: one serial for two units is sometimes right for a kit. The line also copies the product's warranty months, and that copy is what the invoice and the register use.

On the printed invoice, the batch, expiry, serial numbers and warranty of a tracked line print under the item name, in both the A4 and the thermal layouts, so the client sees exactly which unit they bought and until when it is covered.

The register: Serials & warranty at the top of the Products screen opens a list with one row per serial sold: the serial, product, invoice, date sold, client, warranty months, the date the warranty ends, and its status — In warranty, Ending soon (within 30 days), Expired or No warranty. Search by serial, product, invoice or client, filter by status (each choice shows its count), and export with Print / PDF, Excel or CSV.

A cancelled invoice and a credit note add no warranty. The warranty months come from the line when it was written, so changing the product's warranty later does not rewrite sales already made. Serials are not stock: they are a record of units sold, and stock still moves by quantity.

#Godowns: stock in more than one place

A godown is any place you keep stock: the main shop, a second branch, a warehouse, a godown behind the shop. Each product still has one total; the godowns say where that total sits. Turning this on never changes a stock number you already know.

Turn it on in Settings → Features: tick Godowns (branches) and save. It is off to start. On the Products screen, Godowns then opens the godown screen, with a Products button to come back.

1. Add the godownsClick Add godown, give it a name (Main shop, Warehouse 2), and optionally an address, contact person and phone. Tick default for the one new bills and receipts should start on.
2. Say what is whereIn Stock by godown, type how much of each product a godown holds. The total never changes: whatever you have not placed stays in Not in a godown, and Put the rest in moves it into one godown in a click.
3. Pick a godown on documentsInvoices, POS sales, purchase bills and goods receipts have a godown box. New ones start on the default godown; change it on the document when the goods came from, or went to, another one.
4. Move stockWhen you carry goods from one place to another, record a stock transfer so each godown stays right.

What a godown changes:

A product never placed in a godown keeps all its stock in Not in a godown until it is placed by hand or billed from a godown; the first document with a godown takes its whole stock there before moving the quantity. A service has no stock, so godowns never apply to it.

Switching a godown off hides it from new bills but keeps its stock and history. A godown holding stock must stay active, and one used on a transfer must have that transfer deleted before it can be deleted.

The stock report adds a Stock by godown today table beside closing stock, and the Godowns screen itself always shows where each product's total is.

#Low-stock alerts

A product at or below your threshold shows its stock in amber here, is listed on the Dashboard, and adds to the notification bell. The threshold is 5 to start; change it, or turn alerts off, in Settings. It is one threshold for every product. With alerts off, stock is still counted and Out of Stock still shows in red.

#Importing products from a spreadsheet

Have your price list in Excel, or moving from another program? Import CSV adds all the products and services at once.

1. Open the windowClick Import CSV on the Products screen. The window Import products opens.
2. Get the sample fileClick Download sample file. Products-sample.csv lands in your Downloads folder, with the right column headings and two demo rows: a product (Goods) and a service.
3. Fill it inOpen it in Excel or Google Sheets. Replace the two demo rows with your own, one product or service per row. Keep the first row (the headings) as it is.
4. Save as CSVIn Excel, File → Save As → CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) or CSV (Comma delimited). In Google Sheets, File → Download → Comma-separated values.
5. Choose the fileClick Choose file. Nothing is saved yet: the window shows how many are new, how many saved products will get their empty details filled in, how many are already in your list (skipped), and every row with a problem.
6. ImportClick Import (it shows the number, such as Import 40). You see "Imported 40 products", and they appear in the list.

From Excel or Vyapar: you can choose an Excel file (.xlsx) instead of a CSV, such as the item list Vyapar exports. If the file has several sheets, pick the one with your items under Sheet.

From Tally: in Tally, go to Gateway of Tally → Export → Masters, choose format XML and export. Choose that .xml file here. Your stock items come in with their HSN, GST rate, unit and price, their opening stock quantity and value, and their stock group as the product category (items directly under the reserved parent group get none). Check the quantities against your shelves after the import; if you import the same file into a business that already counted its stock, the opening quantity is not added again for products already saved.

Importing again fills in blanks. A product already in your list is never added twice. If it has empty details (no HSN, no price, 0% GST with no HSN, no unit or stock), they are filled in from the file. A detail that already has a value is never changed.

The columns (headings in small or capital letters, in any order; spaces and % do not matter):

The sample file looks like this:

Name,Type,Category,HSN/SAC,Unit,Purchase Price,Selling Price,MRP,GST %,Opening Stock,Opening Value,Barcode,SKU,Batch,Expiry,Description
Demo A4 Paper Ream 75 GSM,Goods,Stationery,4802,Nos,220,280,320,18,50,11000,2000000000015,A4-75,,,Sample goods row - replace with your own
Demo Printing service,Service,Services,998912,Page,,5,,18,,,,PRINT-A4,,,Sample service row - a service has no stock

Products you already have (same name, any capitals) are skipped, and so are repeats inside the file, so importing the same file twice is safe. The CSV saved by the CSV button above the list uses the same columns, so you can export, edit in Excel and import into another copy of the app.

#Manufacturing: making products from raw materials

If you make what you sell (furniture, sweets, garments, printed boxes), the app can use up the raw materials and add the finished product to stock in one step, and tell you what each unit costs you to make.

Turn it on first: Settings → Features, tick Manufacturing (bill of materials) and save. It is off to start, and turning it off again hides it without deleting anything. Once on, you get:

• a Made here (from raw materials) tick in the product form, for its bill of materials;
• a Make button at the top of Products, to record production;
• a Production list under the product table.

#1. Give the product its raw materials (bill of materials)

A bill of materials is the recipe: which raw materials, and how much of each, go into one unit of the finished product.

1. Add the raw materialsAdd each raw material as a normal product, with its purchase price and stock (or buy it in on a purchase bill).
2. Open the finished productClick its pencil (or Add Product for a new one).
3. Tick Made hereTick Made here (from raw materials). A box opens: Raw materials used to make 1 unit of this product.
4. List the materialsOn each line, choose the material under Choose a product… and type the quantity for one unit made; its unit shows beside the box. Add material adds a line; the cross removes one.
5. Check the costCost per unit shows the materials' purchase prices times those quantities.
6. SaveClick Update (or Save). The list now shows Made here · cost under the name.

Rules, checked when you save: at least one material; a product chosen on every line; every quantity more than 0; no product listed twice (add the quantities together on one line); a product cannot be in its own list; and two products cannot use each other (chair uses seat, seat uses chair). The message says which, and nothing is saved.

A raw material can itself be made here (a seat made from wood and foam). If it has no purchase price, its cost comes from its own raw materials.

Unticking Made here and saving stops the product being made; production already recorded stays.

#2. Make: record what you made

Each time a batch is finished, record it so stock stays right.

1. Open MakeClick Make at the top of Products. The window is Make (record production).
2. Product madeChoose the product. Only products with a raw materials list are offered.
3. Quantity madeHow many you made, in the product's unit.
4. DateToday to start. Change it if you are recording a batch made earlier.
5. Note (optional)Anything to remember, such as "Batch 12".
6. Check the tableEach raw material shows Per unit, Will use, In stock and Left after; the last row is the finished product with its stock after. Below it, Cost of materials for this batch, at today's purchase prices.
7. SaveClick Save production. You see "Production saved: 10 Nos of Chair", the stock changes, and the entry is added to the Production list.

If a raw material would go below zero, it is shown in red with a warning, and saving asks Not enough raw materials in stock; Save anyway goes ahead. That is fine when you record production late and have not entered the purchase bill yet.

#Worked example

Sharma Furniture makes chairs. One chair takes 4 chair legs (₹50 each), 1 seat (₹300) and 0.2 kg screws (₹400 a kg), so the cost per unit is 4 × 50 + 300 + 0.2 × 400 = ₹580. Stock before: 100 legs, 20 seats, 5 kg screws, 3 chairs.

The entry's cost of materials is 10 × ₹580 = ₹5,800.

#3. The production list

Under the product table, Production lists the entries of the business you have open, newest first: Date, Product, Qty made, Cost of materials and Note.

An entry cannot be edited: to change one, delete it and enter it again. The stock report counts production by its date.

#Viewing a production entry

The eye opens Made 10 Nos of Chair (the quantity and product), with its date and note, and a table of each Raw material used with its Qty, Rate and Cost, and the Total cost of materials. The rates are the purchase prices on the day it was saved, so changing a price later does not change old entries. Delete deletes it as above; Close closes it.