Categories Management - Organizing Your Products

Categories help you organize products for easier searching, reporting, and selection in invoices and point of sale. This guide explains how to create, edit, and manage categories in Tracksales.

1. What Are Categories?

Categories are labels you assign to products (e.g. “Electronics”, “Office Supplies”, “Beverages”). They do not change pricing or stock—they only help you:

• Filter and search products on the Products page
• Group items in reports (sales by category, inventory by category)
• Find products quickly when creating invoices, estimates, or processing sales

2. Viewing Your Categories

Go to Products or Inventory in the main menu, then open the Categories section or link. You’ll see a list of all categories. From here you can create new ones, edit names, and see which products belong to each category (depending on your setup).

3. Creating a New Category

To add a category:

1. Open the Categories management page (from Products or Settings, depending on your menu)
2. Click Create category or Add category
3. Enter a clear, descriptive name (e.g. “Beverages”, “Hardware”)
4. Optionally add a description or color for easier identification
5. Save the category

The new category will appear in the category list and in the category dropdown when you add or edit products.

4. Editing a Category

To change a category’s name or details:

• Open the category from the list (click the row or the edit action)
• Update the name or any other fields
• Save your changes

Products already assigned to that category will keep the assignment; they will now show the updated category name everywhere (Products list, reports, invoices, etc.).

5. Assigning Products to Categories

You assign a category to a product when adding or editing the product:

1. Go to Products
2. Create a new product or open an existing one for editing
3. In the product form, select the desired Category from the dropdown
4. Save the product

A product can belong to only one category. To move a product to another category, edit the product and choose a different category.

6. Deleting or Merging Categories

If your system allows deleting categories:

• You may need to reassign or remove products from the category first, or the system may prompt you to choose a new category for those products
• Some setups allow merging one category into another so all products move to the target category before the old one is removed

Check the Categories page for options such as “Delete” or “Merge”; follow any on-screen instructions to avoid leaving products without a category if required.

7. Using Categories in Reports

Once products are categorized, you can use categories in reports to see sales by category, inventory value by category, or product counts per category. Run the relevant report from the Reports section and filter or group by category when the option is available.