Products
Products can be created through the Sales and the Purchases Menus. Products can be exclusive to Sales Invoices or Purchase Invoices or used on both.
Products have Codes, a Product Name which is used internally and an External Product Description. The Codes and Product Name are searchable on Transactions, but it is the External Product Description that will be displayed on Sales documentation.
Products have some very useful defaults which both speed up both accuracy and improve analysis.
- Nominal Codes
- Tax Codes (for each Tax Treatment for example export vs domestic).
- Product Family
- Standard Cost
- Prices from different Price Lists (Sales or Purchases)
Invoice Accuracy
Invoices will be much more accurate and faster to produce if products are used, even though it is possible to create Invoices without them.
Invoices can have default Prices, Nominal Codes and Tax Codes (for each Tax Treatment for example export vs domestic).
Overheads Product Family
It is very useful to create an Overheads Product Family so that items such as Rent, Rates, Stationary, Software Costs, Bank Charges, etc can all be set up with default Nominal and Tax Codes.
Gross Profit
If you use the Standard Cost on the Product, you can calculate a Standard Gross Profit on all sales.
Default Products
Default Products can be set for both Customers and Suppliers, although suppliers is more common. Again this saves time and improves accuracy.
- From the Sales or Purchases Menu, select the Products Sub-Menu, and then click New.
- Enter the Product Name.
- Enter any other optional fields: Product Code, Product Family, Product type, Internal and External Product Description.
- Ensure that the Active checkbox is ticked else your product won’t be available for selection.
- Complete the standard costing information, these prices should be without VAT.
- Enter the Nominal Codes that the Product should be posted to depending upon whether it is a Sale or a Purchase.
- Click Save, or if you’re creating multiple products Save & New.
- Once the product(s) have been created there is still more to do, so we want to go the new record page you have just created.
- Click on the tab Tax Information.
- Click Edit.
- From here you will select the Tax Code that applies to the Product and note this for all Types and Tax Treatments.
- Click Save.
