Zoho Inventory

Help Docs

Creation of Items & Item Groups

Here is an overview of managing Items


Creating a New Item Group with multiple items

You can create a new item group using different methods.

The buttons to create a new item group

On using any one of the above mentioned methods, a new item group page opens up.

Adopt these steps to create an Item Group with multiple items.

New item group page

Recording primary information

Multiple image upload

Adding attributes & options

choice pop-up

Important Note: You can add up to 3 attributes to classify your items in an item group.

Image of the multiple items section of the new item group page

Configuring items of the group

Note: The opening stock of an item refers to the stock you have on hand at the moment of creating that item. The opening stock value refers to the average purchase price of your opening stock. This will be used for FIFO Cost Lot Tracking.

Add opening stock to item group

To view the distribution of opening stock amongst the warehouses, click the Opening Stock option in the item group page.

Opening stock distribution

Generating SKUs for an Item Group

Sometimes, an item group can have N number of variants and entering the SKU for each item is likely to be time consuming. Instead, you can create a pattern for the SKU with your choice of attributes and apply it across all variants in the item group. This will help you save time from manual entry and also create meaningful SKUs for your item group.

To generate SKUs for your item group:

Generating SKU for item groups

Field Description
SKU Preview This section gives you a preview of the changes you make to the SKU structure. This is a read-only field. You cannot directly edit this text. 
Separated By Choose the appropriate delimiter with which you want to separate the SKU texts.
Case Used Choose a suitable case for your SKU text.

SKU preview in pop-up

Configuring SKU pattern

Custom text for SKU

Note: You can select the attributes in any order. We have demonstrated with an example of Item Group Name followed by Color and Size. However, you can also select the Size attribute first followed by Color, Item Group Name and so on. 

SKU Generated for items

Note: An SKU generator is applicable only for that particular item group. You’ll have to generate the SKUs once again for new item groups.


Configuring the accounts associated with item groups

Accounts of an item group

Click Save to create an item group with multiple inventory tracked items.


Removing or moving items to other groups

To remove an item from a group or to move a variant from one group to another:

Move item to another group

Move item to another group 2


Cloning an Item from a Group

Cloning helps you create an item quickly without having to enter all the details from scratch. This feature comes in handy when you want to:

An item group as a whole cannot be cloned, but you can clone the variants in the group.

To clone an item from a group:

Clone option in item details page for variants

Note: When you clone an item from a group, it’ll be created as an individual item and not as part of the group. Learn how you can move an existing item into a group.


Importing Item Groups

To import item groups into your Zoho Inventory account:

screen shot of the menu icon and drop down highlighting import variants option

Learn in detail the steps to import a file Zoho Inventory.

Note: The variant names in the item group will be formed as a combination of the Product Name and Attribute Options. For example, as given in the sample downloadable file, if your product name is iPhone and its variants are 6S and 6SPlus, then the variants in the item group will be created as iPhone-6S and iPhone-6SPlus.


Creating a New Item

In Zoho Inventory, you will be able to create a new item using different methods. Let’s see how…

Creating a non-inventory item

To create a new non-inventory item in Zoho Inventory,

Item creation buttons

New Item page

Primary Information

Multiple image upload

Product Codes
Selecting the item type
Sales Information

Under Sales Information,

Purchase Information

Under Purchase Information,

Finalizing item creation

Creating an inventory tracked item

To create a new inventory tracked item in Zoho Inventory,

Item creation buttons

New Item page top

Primary Information

Multiple image upload

Product Codes

Note: The UPC and EAN fields are numeric fields. The MPN and ISBN are alphanumeric fields that support alphabets, numbers, spaces and even hyphens.

Selecting the item type

Note: A non-inventory item can also be created with only sales information or purchase information.

Sales Information

Under Sales Information,

Purchase Information

Under Purchase Information,

New Item page bottom

Inventory Tracking Information

Under the Track inventory for this item option,

Opening Stock refers to the quantity of the item on hand before you start tracking inventory for the item in Zoho inventory.

Add opening stock to item
Finalizing item creation

Creating a Service Item

You can also create Service Items or Service Goods in Zoho Inventory. To do so:

Item creation buttons

Service Item Creation

NOTE: Service items can be used for adding your labor costs and other services. These items will not be displayed in Packages and Shipments.

Creating an item with serial numbers

You can also create new items with serial numbers in Zoho Inventory. To do so:

Item creation buttons

Serial number item creation

Add serial numbers to the opening stock of an item

Note: You can enter upto 200 serial numbers for an opening stock.

Note:

  • Serial number tracking is available only for items that have inventory tracking enabled.
  • You can also create composite items with serial numbers. Learn how.

Creating a batch tracked item

Batch tracked item creation

Add batch numbers to the opening stock of an item

Note: You can enter upto 100 batch numbers for an opening stock.

Field Name Description
Batch Reference# A unique number which will serve as a reference for you to save and track your batches in Zoho Inventory. This is not the manufacturer batch number.
Manufacturer Batch# Batch number provided by your manufacturer.
Manufactured Date The date on which the item was manufactured.
Expiry Date The date until which the item is consumable.
Quantity in Quantity of the item that you wish to add in each batch.

Insight: You can enter decimal quantity (up to 6 decimal places) for batches. For instance, a certain quantity of milk has to be divided into batches. In Zoho Inventory, you will be able to add 1.91L in batch 1 and 3.560L in batch 2 and so on.


Creating an item from transactions

You can also create a new item while creating an order or an invoice. To do so:

Item creation from an order

New Item pop-up


Cloning an Item

Cloning helps you create an item quickly without having to enter all the details from scratch. This feature comes in handy when you want to:

To clone an item:

Clone option in item details page


Adding items to an existing item group

You can add more variants later by following these steps:

Screen shot of add variant button highlighted

image of the new variant creation page


Importing items

To import items into your Zoho Inventory account:

screen shot of the menu icon and drop down highlighting import variants option

To update the details of all your items at one go, you can choose the overwrite option while importing. Learn how.

To overwrite duplicate records, you must choose a unique field (Item Name, Item ID or SKU) which will be mapped with the equivalent field from the import file. If the values match, then its corresponding records will be overwritten with the data in the import file. For example, if you want to update item names, you can choose Item ID or SKU as the unique field. If the SKU/Item ID that you’re trying to import exists, then its corresponding item name and other details will get updated.

Zoho Inventory web page

Learn in detail, the steps to import a file Zoho Inventory.


Adding your items from Zoho Books to Zoho Inventory

Through the seamless integration between Zoho Books and Zoho Inventory, all your items are automatically reflected in both the apps.

In this section, we are going to understand the prerequisites and the preparation needed to make it a success.

Prerequisites
Enabling inventory tracking for your untracked items

In order to enable inventory for your untracked items in Zoho Inventory, please make sure that all these items have both sales and purchase information inside Zoho Books.

Enabling Inventory for items without transactions

Henceforth inventory will be tracked for this item.

Enabling Inventory for items that have transactions

Henceforth inventory will be tracked for all these items and this change will also be reflected inside Zoho Inventory.

Ease of access

All your items from Zoho Books can be accessed from the Items module of Zoho Inventory. You can also apply the ungrouped items filter and create item groups inside Zoho Inventory for your inventory tracked items from Zoho Books.


Adding your products in Zoho CRM to Zoho Inventory

Upon integrating with Zoho CRM, you have the option of obtaining your items by syncing the Products from Zoho CRM. To learn more about Zoho CRM Integration, click here.

To learn how to configure your product sync, click here.

To learn how to perform an instant sync between Zoho Inventory and Zoho CRM, click here

Important Note: The items brought in from Zoho CRM will contain only sales information. To enable inventory tracking for these items inside Zoho Inventory, kindly edit the them here.


Grouping of ungrouped Items

Why grouping?

In Zoho Inventory, we normally have all our items neatly classified under different item groups. But in some cases, we also have deal with items that are not a part of any item group.

The most common case of ungrouped items is because of the integration between Zoho Books and Zoho Inventory where, the items(Zoho Books does not support Item groups) created in Zoho Books are reflected in Zoho Inventory.

This may add clutter to your inventory. Hence to resolve this case, we have introduced a feature that allows you to group all the ungrouped items in your inventory by defining new item groups or adding them to the existing ones.

Creating a new item group for your ungrouped items

Before we begin please note that only your inventory tracked items can be grouped together.

grouping step 1

grouping step 2

grouping step 3

grouping step 4

Grouped items

Adding ungrouped items to an existing group

grouping step 1

grouping step 2

grouping step 3

grouping step 4

option 2


Multi-warehouse Operations related to items

If you’ve enabled multiple warehouse management for your organization, you’ll have additional capabilities related to Items in Zoho Inventory. To know more, click here.


Curate your own kits and sell them in special prices with item grouping
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