Frequently Asked Questions

How should I divide my inventory into categories and sub-categories?

The most important part of dividing up your inventory into categories and sub-categories is ensuring it makes logical sense, and reflects how you want to view reports. There are several other ways to distinguish your inventory and sales from each other, including Divisions, and Revenue Centers, so generally, categories and sub-categories are more about the function of your inventory items than where they are sold.

Some sites might decide to use their menu as a starting point.

A menu like the one above might inspire the following categories and sub-categories.

Extend the same principles to come up with the categories and sub-categories for your site.  Below are some more examples of categories and sub-categories a single site might use:

Does everything in my inventory need to have a category and sub-category?

Yes, the minimum requirements for any inventory item are a Description, a Category, and a Sub-Category. Not all categories have to have multiple sub-categories. If you have items that don't really fit into a category or sub-category, you can create both a category and sub-category called "Default", or "Miscellaneous", but you should try to avoid generic category and sub-categories as much as possible.

What are too many or too few categories and sub-categories?

The number of categories and sub-categories a site has is very subjective to how varied and how large their inventory is.  You should have as many as you will use on a regular basis and avoid categories and sub-categories where an item might fit in more than one as much as possible. Decide how many items need to be in a category or sub-category to make a separate one worth it. Keep in mind, if you have too few for your facility, your reporting won't be specific enough.  Too many makes reports cluttered, and adding new inventory items confusing.

What is an example of a category or sub-category that doesn't work well?

Ones that don't work well are too vague, sound similar to another category or sub-category, or could in any way be confused for  another category or sub-category. Having a separate category for "Drinks" and "Alcohol" can cause confusion about where an item should be categorized. "Alcoholic Drinks" and "Non-Alcoholic Drinks" would better clarify what items should be in each.

Can one item have more than one category and/or sub-category?

No, each item can only have one category and one sub-category.  If you have variations of that item as separate inventory items, you could assign those to separate categories and sub-categories, but the simplest organization is usually best.

Why are categories and sub-categories important in reporting?

Sales reports in Advantage and the BI Tool have a number of ways to divide sales depending on what you want to look at, including by category and sub-category. For example, you could compare your Drink sales and your Food sales and determine if it makes sense to continue selling food at your location. Having the option to pull reports by category and/or sub-category eliminates a lot of information irrelevant to what you're looking for at any given time.