Catalog overview

The rest of Complaia works from the catalog. Orders sell from it, the warehouse stores it, production builds from it, and invoices bill it. A mistake in the catalog shows up later in orders, stock, production and invoices, so set it up carefully.

This page explains how the parts of the catalog fit together. Read it before the pages about each part.

Two pages to read first

The catalog uses three warehouse terms: on hand, reserved and available. If you do not know them, read the Glossary. How work flows shows where the catalog fits among the other parts of Complaia.

The four menu items

The Catalog section of the menu has four entries:

Menu item	What it holds	Example
Components	What products are made from: materials, parts and semi-finished products. See Components.	Screws, a cable, a welded frame
Products	What you sell and ship. See Products.	A thermal mug, a mug with a spare lid sold together
Attributes	Your own fields that describe products, grouped into sections. See Attributes.	Material, colour, warranty
Categories	One tree that organises both products and components. See Categories.	Kitchen → Mugs

Components and Products each open into two entries: the list (Component list, Product list) and the form for a new record (New component, New product / set).

The main difference: a component is never sold, a product is. A component is used up to make a product. It never appears on an order or an invoice. Products and components have separate lists and separate stock.

A product can also be used inside another product. For example, a spare part that you also sell on its own can be an item in the recipe of a larger product. See Recipe & production.

How a product is put together

A product answers several questions. The product form has one step for each:

                    ┌─ What is it?          → name, category, codes, photos     (Basics)
                    ├─ How is it sold?      → price, currency, VAT rate, unit   (Price & stock)
   PRODUCT ─────────┼─ What describes it?   → your own attributes               (Attributes)
                    ├─ How is it moved?     → parcels, order product mappings   (Logistics)
                    ├─ How is it made?      → recipe, or the set contents       (Recipe / Set contents)
                    └─ Does it have versions? → variants                        (Variants)

Each step is explained field by field in The product record.

Three choices that shape a product

Three decisions change what the rest of Complaia can do with a product. All three are explained in Product types & structure.

1. Is it one item, or a set?

• A Simple product is one item. It has its own stock, its own parcels and its own labels. If you make it, it can have a recipe.
• A Product set is several other products sold together as one order line. A set has no stock, no parcels and no labels of its own. The warehouse works with the products inside it. Complaia shows how many full sets you can put together from their stock.

2. Do you make it, or buy it to resell?

This choice exists only for a simple product.

• Manufactured products can have a recipe, and production orders can be raised for them.
• Non-manufactured products are resale goods: no recipe and no production orders.

A set has no production of its own. Each product inside the set decides this on its own card.

3. Does it come in variants?

A product can have variants, for example sizes, colours or capacities. From the first variant on, the product becomes a template. You sell, produce and stock only the variants.

A recipe and the set contents are different things

The two lists look alike on screen, but they mean different things:

• A recipe says what one unit is made of. It lists components and, if needed, other products that come in a single parcel. Production uses it.
• The set contents list the products that are sold together. The warehouse picks, packs and ships each of them.

A simple manufactured product can have a recipe. A set has contents. Each product inside a set has its own recipe, if it has one.

How the catalog feeds the rest of Complaia

• Orders sell products. Lines that arrive from a connected shop are matched to your products automatically. See Order product mappings.
• Warehouse stores products and components. It scans product labels and component labels to book goods in and out.
• Production reads a product's recipe to know what to make and what to use up.
• Invoicing usually starts from an order, which already carries the product's price and VAT rate.
• On orders, production orders, shipments, invoices and warehouse screens, you can click a product's name to see it in a preview window. See Preview a product from another screen.

Where to start

1. Build your categories and attributes first. Adding them later, to a catalog that is already full, is much more work.
2. Add your components if you manufacture.
3. Add your products, one at a time or in bulk from a file. See Importing products.