A product is anything you sell or buy: a stocked item, a non-stocked item you still trade, or a service. The product record holds its name, code, prices, tax and discount defaults, and the ledger accounts its transactions post to. It is the line you pick on every sales and purchasing document, from a Quotation and an Invoice through to a Purchase Order and a GRN. The bookkeeper or accountant creates products once, and everyone selects from the list when they raise a document.
This is the largest master file in ZyncLedger, because a product decides three things at once: what the reader picks and prices on a document, whether ZyncLedger tracks its stock, and which accounts its sales and costs land in. Setting a product up correctly once means every document for it starts with the right price, the right tax, and the right ledger effect.
The inventory type decides how a product behaves
The single most important choice on a product is its Inventory Type. It sets whether ZyncLedger tracks stock for the item and how its cost reaches the ledger. There are three options, and you choose one when you create the product.
| Inventory Type | Tracks stock? | Inventory account | How its cost is treated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory | Yes. ZyncLedger keeps an on-hand quantity per location and a moving average cost. | Required. | The cost is held as stock value when received, and released to the expense (cost of sales) account when the item is sold or issued. |
| Non-Inventory | No. It is bought and sold, but no on-hand quantity is kept. | Not used. | The cost goes straight to the expense account when the item is purchased. |
| Service | No. There is no physical item. | Not used. | Used for labour and services. No stock, and no SKU field. |
Inventory Type is locked once the product is saved
You choose the Inventory Type when you create the product, and it cannot be changed afterwards. The same is true of the three account links on the Accounts tab. If you pick the wrong type, create a new product with the correct type and deactivate the old one. Choose carefully before you save.
Before you start
A new business starts with no products. Add them as you take on each one, or import them in bulk.
Several fields point at other master files. You do not have to set them up first, but the product form only prefills or offers them if they already exist:
- A Product Type and a Product Category to classify the item.
- Accounts from the Chart of Accounts for the Sales Account, Expense Account, and (for Inventory items) the Inventory Account.
You need the create products permission to add one, the edit products permission to change one, the approve products permission to approve it, and the delete products permission to remove one. These are set per user under Users, seats & permissions.
Defaults prefill from your workspace
When you open a new product, ZyncLedger prefills the three account links from your workspace system accounts: the Sales Account from your sales revenue account, the Expense Account from your cost of goods sold account, and, for Inventory items, the Inventory Account from your inventory asset account. These are the accounts seeded with your Chart of Accounts. You can change any of them before you save.
Create a product
The product form opens as a drawer with tabs. Most of the work is on the Product Details tab, the account links are on the Accounts tab, and images sit on the Gallery tab. Fill them in the order below.
Open the Products list
Go to Inventory → Products. The list shows every product with its SKU, Inventory Type, price, on-hand quantity, Re-Order Point, and Status (Active or Inactive, and Approved or Pending).
Start a new product
Select Add Product. The Create New Product drawer opens from the right on its Product Details tab.
Choose the inventory type
Set the Inventory Type to Inventory, Non-Inventory, or Service. It defaults to Inventory. This choice drives the rest of the form, so set it first. It is locked once you save the product.
Enter the name and code
Type the Product Name (required). A name must be unique within its inventory type.
The Product Code identifies the product. If your workspace generates product codes automatically, this field reads Auto-generated and fills itself on save. If it is set to manual, type a unique code (required). You set this mode under Document numbering.
Set the SKU
For an Inventory or Non-Inventory product, the SKU is the stock-keeping code you scan or search on. It is optional and must be unique if you set one. Leave Same as code ticked (the default) to reuse the product code as the SKU, or clear it to type a separate SKU. Service products have no SKU field.
Add a description (optional)
Use Description for any detail you want on the product, for example its specification. Optional.
Set a parent product (optional)
Use Parent Product to nest this product under another, for example a variant under its base product. You can only pick a parent of the same inventory type. If the parent carries a product type, category, or description that differ from this product, ZyncLedger asks whether to copy them onto the new product. Leave it blank for a top-level product.
Classify the product (optional)
Use Product Type and Product Category to group the product for filtering and reporting. Both are optional and independent of each other. See Product types & categories.
Set the prices
Three price fields set what the product costs and sells for. All are in LKR.
Field What it does Cost The buying or standard cost, used as a reference and as the starting cost of Inventory items. Defaults to 0. Price The normal selling price that prefills a sales line. Defaults to 0. Wholesale Price An alternative selling price used for customers marked Apply Wholesale Price. Optional. Set the re-order point (Inventory only)
For an Inventory product, enter the Re-Order Point: the on-hand quantity at or below which the item is treated as low on stock. Leave it at 0 for no threshold. This field does not appear for Non-Inventory or Service products. See the low-stock note below for how the alert works.
Set the tax and discount defaults
These prefill onto a sales line so you type less on each document.
Field What it does Default Tax % The tax rate that prefills on the product's lines, from 0 to 100. Tax Inclusive When ticked, the Price is treated as already including tax. Off by default. Default Discount % A line discount that prefills on the product's sales, from 0 to 100. A customer's own default discount applies where the product has none. Set the status flags
Two checkboxes finish the details tab:
Field What it does Active On by default. An inactive product stays for history but is not offered when you pick a product on a document. Approved Off by default. A product is only offered for selection once it is both Active and Approved. Ticking this needs the approve permission, and once approved the box is locked. Set the account links
Open the Accounts tab and confirm the ledger accounts this product posts to. Each prefills from your workspace defaults; you can change them before saving, but not after.
Field Required for What it does Sales Account All products The revenue account this product's sales post to. Expense Account All products The cost of sales or expense account this product's cost posts to. Inventory Account Inventory products only The asset account that holds this item's stock value. It appears only when the inventory type is Inventory, and it is required there. Add images (optional)
Open the Gallery tab to upload a Main Product Image and additional gallery images. Images are optional and print on the product's documents where the template shows them.
Save
Select Create and Close to save and close the drawer, or Create and New to save and start another product. Once the product is approved, it appears in the Product search on sales and purchasing screens.
Custom fields appear as their own tab
If your workspace has defined custom fields for products, the drawer shows an extra Custom Fields tab where you fill them in. Products are one of the entities that support custom fields. If you do not see the tab, no product custom fields have been set up. See Custom fields.
How the low-stock alert works
The Re-Order Point does not block a sale. Instead, when an Inventory item's on-hand quantity drops from above its re-order point to at or below it (or goes negative), ZyncLedger sends an in-app low-stock notification. Two things must be in place: the product needs a Re-Order Point above 0, and a user must have turned on Notify me on low stock in their notification settings (available to admin users). The alert fires once on the crossing, not repeatedly while stock stays low.
Opening stock is entered separately
This form does not capture what you already have on hand at go-live. A new Inventory product starts with zero stock. Enter your starting quantities with the Import Opening Balance action on the Products list, which creates an inventory adjustment per product, or as part of your opening balances setup. Only Inventory-type products can carry an opening stock balance.
Approval gates availability
A new product is created as Pending until someone with the approve permission approves it. Until then it will not appear when you pick a product on a document. If a product you created is not showing up, check that it is both Active and Approved on this screen.
Serial-tracked products
Gated featureSerial tracking is a separate module
When the Serial Tracking module is enabled for your workspace, the product form shows extra fields to mark an Inventory product as serial-tracked and set its serial format. These fields do not appear unless the module is on, and only Inventory products can be serial-tracked. See Serial number tracking.
Edit, deactivate, or delete
Select the edit icon on any product row to change its name, prices, classification, or flags. The Inventory Type and the three account links are fixed once the product exists, so those fields are read-only when you edit.
To stop a product being used without losing its history, clear the Active flag rather than deleting the record.
Heads up
ZyncLedger blocks deleting a product that has child products beneath it, or that has any inventory movement or ledger posting behind it, such as a GRN, an invoice, or an adjustment. Removing it would break that history and the link between your stock and your accounts. Deactivate the product instead, or remove its children first.
Related
- Product types & categories — classify products for grouping and reporting.
- Chart of Accounts — the sales, expense, and inventory accounts a product posts to.
- Document numbering — whether product codes are generated automatically or typed by hand.
- Customers and Suppliers — the parties you sell and buy products from.
- Invoice — where a product's price, tax, and discount defaults prefill the sale.
- GRN — where you receive Inventory products into stock.
- Inventory adjustment — how opening stock and stock corrections are recorded.
