Items
The master data behind everything you sell, buy, make, or expense.
Items are the foundation of Operations. Every line on a sales invoice, every line on a purchase bill, every production input, and every stock movement references an item. Before any operational workflow can run, items must exist and must be correctly configured — especially their ledger account mappings.
Four Item Types
Trabalance supports four item types. The type determines what the item can do: whether it tracks inventory, what accounts it posts to, and which workflows it participates in.
| Type | Purpose | Sub-Types Available | Tracks Inventory | Primary Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Physical goods you sell to customers | Make or Buy: Buy, Make | Yes | Sales invoices, delivery notes, stock management |
| Service | Intangible work sold to customers | Service Type: In-house, Outsourced | No | Service invoices, project billing |
| Material | Inputs used in production or internal operations | Make or Buy: Buy, Make | Yes | Cost cards, production inputs, internal consumption |
| Expense | Cost categories for purchases that go directly to the P&L | Expense Type: Direct, Indirect | No | Purchase bills, expense claims, overhead allocation |
Inventory Tracking
Only Product and Material items track inventory. When a Product is sold, COGS is recognized and inventory decreases. When a Material is used in production, inventory decreases and the cost transfers to the production batch. Service and Expense items have no stock count — they post directly to revenue or expense accounts on each transaction.
Ledger Account Mapping
Every item type uses a specific set of ledger slots. These determine where the money goes when the item is bought, sold, adjusted, or used in production. Each slot is optional on the form — a blank slot means the business's default account for that role is used when the item posts.
| Item Type | Income Slot | Expense Slot | Inventory Slot | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Sales Account (default: Sales) | Cost of Sales Account (default: Cost of Sales) | Inventory Account (default: Inventory) | All three slots. COGS posts on delivery, not invoice. |
| Service | Service Revenue Account (default: Sales) | Service Cost Account (default: Cost of Sales) | None | Two slots. |
| Material | None (not sold) | Material Cost of Sales Account (default: Cost of Sales) | Material Inventory Account (default: Inventory) | Two slots. No income slot. |
| Expense | None (not sold) | Purchases / Expense Account (default: Purchases) | None | One slot: the expense it posts to on purchase. |
Each picker offers only accounts of the matching element (income, expense, or asset). If a mismatched account is submitted anyway, the save is rejected with a clear message — for example "Item inventory account must be an Asset ledger account" — and the item is not created. Set the mappings when creating the item; the item page's Ledger Accounts card flags any slot still reading "Not set".
The Items Page
Navigate to: Operations → Items
The Items page is the master list of active items. The page provides:
- Sub-tabs — Items | Categories (administrators) | Price List
- Search box — searches by item name, SKU, or barcode on the server
- Filter — a sheet with one facet, Type: All types | Product | Material | Service | Expense
- Categories and Types selects — on the summary strip above the table
- View switcher — table, grid, or kanban
- Export — CSV or PDF, with a location selector
- Columns — show or hide columns (Name cannot be hidden)
- Import — bulk upload via CSV or Excel
- New button — opens the Create Item form
- Table columns — Name (with SKU beneath), Type, Sub Type, Category, Rate, Status
Selecting rows shows a bar with Mark Inactive, Mark Active, and Delete. Clicking any row opens the item page, which has three tabs: Overview, Pricing (Product and Service), and Transactions (labelled History for Service and Expense, Usage for Material).
Creating an Item
Click New to open the Create Item form. Fields vary by item type — fields that do not apply to the selected type are hidden automatically.
| Field | Required? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Image | No | JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP, up to 5 MB. Not shown for Expense items. |
| Type | Yes | Product, Service, Material, or Expense. Determines which other fields appear. |
| Name | Yes | The display name used on invoices, bills, and stock reports. Must be unique — a duplicate name or SKU is refused with "Item name already exist". |
| SKU | No | Stock Keeping Unit — your internal code for the item. Product and Material only. Must be unique if provided; used in imports and barcode scanning. |
| Sub Type | Yes | Make or Buy (Product, Material): Buy or Make. Service Type: In-house or Outsourced. Expense Type: Direct or Indirect. |
| Valuation Method | Product, Material | Weighted Average is the default and the only one the costing engine implements. FIFO, LIFO and Latest Purchase can be selected and are stored, but stock is still valued at weighted average. Shown read-only on the item's Overview. |
| Category | No | Groups items for reporting and filtering. Shown only once at least one category exists. Categories are managed under Items → Categories. |
| Ledger Accounts | No | A collapsible section holding the type's slots (see Ledger Account Mapping). Each slot is optional; blank means the business default. |
Selling and cost prices are not on the create form. Set them afterwards on the item page's Pricing tab (Selling Price and Cost Price; Service items show Service Rate and Service Cost; Material shows Unit Cost). A barcode is generated automatically for Product and Material items; a specific barcode can be supplied only through import.
Categories
Categories let you group items for reporting and filtering. A product might belong to "Beverages" or "Electronics." An expense item might belong to "Travel & Entertainment."
Categories are managed at Operations → Items → Categories. Each category has a name, an optional description, a colour, and an optional parent category. There is no limit on the number of categories. An item can belong to only one category.
Categories appear in:
- The Categories select on the Items page
- The category chip on each item page
- The category page, with its items, stock and sales metrics
Barcode and Label Printing
Trabalance generates a barcode for every Product and Material item and prints labels for physical labelling of stock.
| Setting | Options | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Label Type | QR Code | Encodes a link to the item page ("Scan to open page"). The default. |
| Label Type | Barcode | Encodes the item's barcode as CODE128. |
| Label Size | Small (38mm x 19mm) | Shelf-edge labels and small packaging. |
| Label Size | Medium (50mm x 25mm) | The default size for most retail and warehouse use. |
| Label Size | Large (70mm x 35mm) | Cartons or items needing larger text. |
| Number of Copies | 1 to 100 | Identical labels printed in one job. Default is 1. |
The item name and SKU always print above the code. To print labels, open the item under Operations → Inventories, click Print Label, choose the label type, size, and number of copies, then click Print — a print window opens with the labels laid out for your printer's own dialog.
Once an item has a barcode, staff can scan it at the sales counter or during goods receipt to auto-populate the item line on an invoice or GRN. This eliminates manual item search and reduces keying errors.
Importing Items
To bulk-create items, click Import on the Items page, choose a location, and upload a spreadsheet using the columns shown in the dialog:
Name, Type, SKU, Category, Selling Price, Cost Price, Description, Is Update, Barcode
Name is required; Type must be one of Product, Material, Service, Expense (default Product); prices must be non-negative numbers. Set Is Update to TRUE on a row to update an existing item by name or SKU. Leave Barcode blank to have one generated. The file is validated as a whole before anything is written — if any row fails, nothing is imported and the errors are listed. Opening stock quantities are not part of item import; load them from Inventories → Import (opening balances).
Deactivating vs. Deleting Items
Select one or more items on the Items page and use Mark Inactive to take them out of use, or Delete to remove them. Inactive items do not appear in the Items list or in transaction line dropdowns but remain on historical documents and can be reactivated at any time with Mark Active.