Products
Overview#
The product catalogis the shared library of everything you sell or price. It is the foundation for the rest of the Accounting tools — Price Books read from it, Pricing Models calculate against it, and Quotes pull line items from it. You'll find it under Accounting → Products.
A product can play one of three roles, and choosing the right role is the key decision when you create one:
- Fixed-price product— a simple catalog item with a set price (e.g. “Annual License — $1,200”).
- Configurable product — its cost is calculated by a Pricing Model from inputs like size or material (e.g. a custom sign).
- Rate item— a raw cost input (a material or labor rate, e.g. “Acrylic — $33.09/sq ft”) that appears in Price Books and is referenced by Pricing Models.
Creating a product#
- 1Go to Accounting → Products and click New product.
- 2Enter a Product Name (required). Optionally add a SKU, Category, and Product Family — Category and Family are select-or-type, so you can reuse an existing value or create a new one on the fly.
- 3Choose the product's role: leave Pricing Model as None for a fixed-price item, pick a Pricing Model to make it configurable, or turn on Is rate item to make it a rate input.
- 4Set the initial Price, Currency, and Effective From date (for fixed-price products).
- 5Leave Active on so the product is available for quoting, then Save.
Fields#
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Product Name* | The display name shown across the catalog, price books, and quotes. |
| SKU | Optional stock-keeping unit / internal code. |
| External ID | An identifier in an external system, e.g. a NetSuite or QuickBooks item ID, used when syncing. |
| Category / Product Family | Optional grouping. Both are select-or-type — pick an existing value or type a new one. |
| Description | Free-text notes about the product. |
| Active | When on, the product is available for quoting. Turn off to retire a product without deleting it. |
| Pricing Model | Assign a calculator to make this a configurable product. Leave as None for a fixed price. |
| Is addable | Whether this product can be added as a standalone line. |
| Is rate item | Marks the product as a rate input that shows up in price-book rate grids and can be referenced by Pricing Models. |
| Price / Currency / Effective From* | The product's standard price and the date it takes effect (fixed-price products). |
Pricing model vs. rate item — pick one#
A product can be a configurable product (it has a Pricing Model) or a rate item, but never both. A rate item is a leaf cost — a number a price book holds. A configurable product is computed from those rates. Mixing the two would be circular.
A quick way to decide: if you would type a per-unit rate for it in a price book (e.g. $/sq ft, $/hour), it's a rate item. If its cost is built up from a formula over other inputs, it's a configurable product with a Pricing Model.
How products connect#
Once your catalog is in place, the next two steps build on it:
- Mark your materials/labor as rate items, then set their rates in a Price Book.
- Author a Pricing Model that calculates cost from inputs and those rates, and assign it to your configurable products.