How to create your first product catalog

The product catalog is what staff actually tap on the POS. Build it bottom-up only after you've decided the top — Main Category → Category → Product. The instinct to import 500 SKUs first and organize later is wrong; you'll end up with an unsearchable grid. Add a few items, ring up a real order, see what's awkward, then keep building.

The three layers

Main Category is the top tab on the POS grid — color-coded so the eye finds it. Category is the sub-group under that tab. Product is the actual item with price and tax. Example for a beach restaurant: Drinks (main, blue) → Beers, Cocktails, Wines, Soft (categories) → Heineken, Mojito, Pinot Grigio, Coke (products).

Step 1 — create one Main Category

1. Go to POS → Product Main Categories and Create.
2. Name ("Drinks"), Color (pick one — distinct from your other mains so the grid is scannable).
3. Leave Categories empty for now — you'll add them in Step 2.
4. Save.

Step 2 — create a Category and link it

1. Go to POS → Product Categories and Create.
2. Name ("Beers"), optional description. Save.
3. Reopen the Main Category from Step 1 and add this Category to its list. (Or: edit the Main Category and pick the new Category from the multi-select.)

Step 3 — create a Product

1. Go to POS → Products and Create.
2. Name ("Heineken 0.33"), Category (the one you just made), Price (e.g. 250).
3. Tax: pick the right rate (Albania: typically 20% standard, 10% reduced, 6% lodging). Tick isIncluded if the price already contains the tax (most restaurant menu prices are tax-inclusive).
4. Warehouse: pick where stock comes from. Set initial inventory if you want stock to start at a number > 0.
5. Save. The product appears on the POS grid under its category and main category, in the color you chose.

Optional but useful product fields

• Code / barcode / alphacode: barcode is for scanner workflows; alphacode is a short typed shortcut ("HEI" → Heineken).
• Cost: what you pay your supplier. Doesn't print, but reports use it for margin calculations.
• Pospoints: per-POS-Point price overrides. Bar 250, Restaurant 280.
• Posplaces: which kitchen/bar prepares this product. Drives where the kitchen ticket prints.
• ignoreStock: true for items that don't deplete (a cover charge, a service line). The POS won't deduct or warn at zero.
• productType: standard for most items; composed (recipe-based) for drinks/dishes that deplete multiple ingredients (a Mojito = rum + mint + sugar + lime).
• isVariant + parentProduct: for size variants. Pizza Margherita Small / Medium / Large = three variants of the same parent.

Step 4 — test on the POS, then expand

1. Open the POS app, find your one product on the grid, ring up an order on the test cash method, finalize.
2. Verify: the price is right, the tax line is right, the receipt prints, and Reports → Sales shows it.
3. Now go back and bulk-add the rest. Once one product works end-to-end, the others are just data entry.