Documentation/Master records and catalogues
Master records and catalogues
Masters and catalogues are the account's standing data: the products, the suppliers, the clients and how they are classified. Almost everything else depends on the state they are in, whether a line finds its item, whether an expense lands in the right account, whether a report adds up, and yet hardly anybody maintains them until something goes wrong.
The distinction that organises this section
The masters fill themselves from your documents. The catalogue you load yourself. A new supplier appears because their first invoice arrived; a product, because it was on a line. The external catalogue, on the other hand, holds your own trade references and stays empty until somebody fills it.
Which gives you the two maintenance jobs that keep coming back: filling in what arrives half done, categories, accounts, payment terms, and merging what has arrived twice.
What is on each screen
| Screen | What is in it | Fills itself |
|---|---|---|
| Product master | The items you buy | Yes |
| Supplier master | Who invoices you, with their accounts and contact details | Yes |
| Client master | Who you invoice | Yes |
| Product categories | Families, raw materials and cost centres | No |
| External product catalogue | Your own trade references | No |
| Recipe costings | The cost breakdown of each dish | No |
Where to start on a new account
- Categories. Families first, then raw materials, which hang off a family, then cost centres. Without them, the drop-downs on a product's record come up empty.
- Suppliers and clients. Import them from Excel, with their contact details and payment terms already in.
- Products. They build up from your documents. The work is classifying them and merging the duplicates.
- The external catalogue, only if you raise sales documents with references of your own.
What can be imported and exported
| List | Import | Export | Merge duplicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Products | No | Yes | Yes |
| Suppliers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Clients | Yes | Yes | No |
| Categories | Yes, with a template | Yes | No |
| External catalogue | No | Yes | No |
Pages in this section
Masters and catalogues: the difference
Where each list comes from and which one you have to maintain by hand.
The product master
The columns, the filters and the five actions on the screen.
Adding and editing a product
Every field on the record, with what is required and what depends on what.
Exporting products to Excel
Which rows go in depending on the selection, and which lists take an import.
Assigning categories in bulk
Changing family, raw material, cost centre or brand on many at once.
Merging duplicate products
The three steps and the five fields overwritten on the lines.
Families, raw materials, cost centres and brands
The classification tree and importing it from Excel.
The external product catalogue
Your own trade references and where they get used.
The supplier master
The full record, the two nominal accounts and the import.
Merging duplicate suppliers
Joining records for the same supplier and moving their documents.
Payment terms and due dates
Method, terms and payment date, and what they do to due dates.
Supplier contact details
Email addresses, phone numbers and the exact format for a WhatsApp number.
The client master
The recipient's record and how it differs from a supplier's.
Recipe costings: what they are and how to build them
Kinds of ingredient, waste, where the cost comes from and sub-recipes.
Recipe costings with AI
Paste in a recipe's text and get the lines broken out.
Cost per portion, margin and food cost
The four figures on a recipe costing and how to read them.