Step 4 — Adding your first products and services

What this step does

Step 4 lets you add your first products and services to the system. These are the items you buy, sell, or provide to customers. By creating them now, you populate the dropdown lists in your sales and purchase forms, making daily work faster and preventing data-entry errors.

Before you start

• Gather a list of your top 5–10 products or services (you can add more later).
• For each item, have ready:
  • Product/service name
  • Whether it is a physical item (product/inventory) or a service
  • Unit of measure (pieces, kg, liters, hours, etc.)
  • Selling price (if you have a standard price)
  • Cost price (if known)
  • Any product categories or groupings (optional)
• Note: you do not need all items right now—Step 4 is introductory; you can add more in Products → New Product after setup.

Steps

1. Click "Add Item" or the "+" button to start entering your first product or service.

2. Enter the basic details:

   • Name (required): e.g., "Amoxicillin 500mg", "Installation Service", "Office Chair"
   • Type: choose "Product" (physical/inventory) or "Service" (non-inventory)
   • Unit of Measure: e.g., "Pieces", "Tablets", "kg", "Hours", "Box"

3. Enter pricing (optional at this stage, can be added later):

   • Selling Price: the standard price you charge customers
   • Cost Price: what you paid for the item (for inventory businesses)

4. Add more items: click "Add Item" again to create your next product or service. Repeat until you have 5–10 core items.

5. Review your list and select Continue to advance to Step 5.

Accounting impact

Products and services do not directly create journal entries at this stage. However, when you later create an invoice or purchase order using these items, the system will:

• Automatically post the cost to the appropriate expense or inventory account (if a cost price is set).
• Post the revenue to the revenue account (if the item is marked as revenue-bearing).

Setting accurate cost and selling prices now ensures your profit calculations are reliable from your first transaction.

Tips & common mistakes

• Do not add everything now: the wizard is meant for quick onboarding. You can add hundreds of products later from the Products menu after setup is complete.
• Unit of Measure matters: choose a unit that matches how you buy and sell. For example, if you buy amoxicillin in boxes of 100 but sell individually, use "Tablets" as the unit and track box conversions in your cost price.
• Services: if you sell labor (consulting, repair, delivery), mark these as "Service" type. Services do not have inventory tracking but still appear in invoices and POs.
• Categories: you can group items into categories (e.g., "Antibiotics", "Supplies", "Consulting") after setup. Do not worry about this during the wizard.
• Price changes: if you set a selling price now and your prices change later, you can update them anytime without re-entering products. The old price applies to old invoices; the new price applies going forward.