Items
Items are the products and services you sell or buy. Everything you put on an invoice, order, or stock movement starts with an Item record.
Add a new item
Item → New:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Item Code | Unique short ID — your internal SKU |
| Item Name | Customer-facing description |
| Item Group | Category (Raw Material, Finished Goods, Services, …) |
| Default Unit of Measure | Nos / Litre / Hour / etc. |
| Maintain Stock | Yes for physical goods, No for services |
| Is Sales Item | Yes if you sell it |
| Is Purchase Item | Yes if you buy it |
Setting prices
There are two ways:
- Standard Selling Rate / Standard Buying Rate on the Item — quick default, used when no Price List applies
- Item Price records linked to a Price List — for customer-specific or volume pricing
For most businesses, set the Standard rates on the Item and don't worry about Price Lists until you have negotiated customer-specific pricing.
Stock-tracked vs service items
| Stock-tracked (Maintain Stock = Yes) | Service (Maintain Stock = No) |
|---|---|
| Has quantity in warehouses | Doesn't appear in stock reports |
| Sales reduces stock | Sales generates revenue only |
| Purchase increases stock | Purchase generates expense only |
| Has reorder levels, valuation | Just price and category |
You can't change this setting after the Item has been used — pick correctly at creation.
Tax handling
Set the Item Tax Template if this specific item always uses a non-default BTW rate (e.g., books at 9%, exempt items). For most items, leave blank and let the default tax flow from the customer/supplier.
Adding images and details
Each Item form has tabs for:
- Description — long product description shown on PDFs
- Image — appears on Item lists, can show on Print Formats
- Variants — for products with size / color variations
- Suppliers — which suppliers carry this item (used for auto-matching incoming invoices)
Bulk import
For migrating many items: Data Import → New → Document Type: Item → upload CSV.
Item Groups
Item Group is more than just a label — it inherits defaults (tax, accounts, price list) down to child items. Plan your Item Group tree as part of setup.
Common situations
- Same physical item, different sizes — one Item Template with size as a variant
- Bundles — define as a Product Bundle: one Item that consists of others; when sold, ERPNext reduces stock of each component
- Custom-made / one-off — Item Group "Custom"; rate set per quote