Creating an Item
You have a new product and it needs to exist in BigLedger before anybody can sell it, buy it or count it. This page takes you from nothing to an item that works, first time. Ten minutes, and about half of that is the decisions.
Read choosing an item type first if you have not. Three of the fields on the create form cannot be changed afterwards, and the type is one of them.
Meet GadgetSphere
GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd is adding a new flagship smartphone: serialised, sold in all 22 branches and online, SST applies, and it needs a Malaysian e-Invoice classification.
Where to create it — and where not to
Doc Item Maintenance > Items > Create
Create items here. Every tradeable item has two records — the commercial one here, and a stock-keeping one in Inventory Item Maintenance. Creating a Basic Item on this side makes both and links them.
Step 1: The three fields you cannot take back
| Field | Why it is permanent |
|---|---|
| Item Code | Immutable after save unless your company has specifically enabled editing it. It must be unique among live items; a duplicate is refused. It is what everybody will search by for the next decade |
| Item Type | Immutable, full stop. Basic Item for a physical product; see choosing an item type for the rest |
| Sub Item Type | How quantity is tracked — plain quantity, batch, serial, bin or unity. Changeable later only with a specific permission |
For the smartphone: a Basic Item, sub item type Serial Number, code SP-FLAG-256 under whatever convention your company uses.
Serialise deliberately. Every receipt, sale, transfer and count of a serialised item has to name the serials. That is right for a RM 4,000 phone and wrong for a RM 12 cable.
Step 2: The rest of the create form
- Item Name — required, and editable later. Write it the way somebody will search for it.
- Base UOM — the unit stock is counted in. Defaults to PCS. Alternative units come later, on the Multi UOM tab.
- Currency — defaults to MYR. The item will not save without one.
- Inventory — leave it ticked for anything stock-tracked. Un-ticking it also disables the serialised option.
- GL Code — optional in general; required in practice for account-code items.
- EAN Code — the barcode. Your company may make it mandatory.
- Description, remarks, product manager, default supplier — optional, and some appear only if your company has enabled them.
Click Create.
Step 3: Finish it before anybody sells it
The item now exists and is incomplete. Four things to do straight away, on the edit screen:
Tax tab. Tick Tax applicable and set the input tax code (what you pay when you buy it) and the output tax code (what you charge when you sell it). The rate comes from the code. Get this wrong and the item posts to the wrong tax account on every document until a filing deadline finds it.
E-Invoice tab. Item classification, taxable type code and e-Invoice UOM. Your tenant has defaults, but a default classification is a generic classification. An item without this does not stop you selling it — it stops the e-Invoice going through, later, in a different applet, to somebody else.
Category tab. Put it in its categories. Price-book rules match on these; an uncategorised item silently misses every category promotion.
Pricing Scheme tab. A price in each of your schemes — retail, member, wholesale. See setting up pricing schemes.
Then, as needed: Multi UOM for alternative units, branch and company linking for where it can be used, Dimension for shipping, images, and — on the inventory record — per-location minimum and maximum quantities.
Adding many at once
Doc Item Maintenance > Import Item
A CSV import that carries items with their links, pricing and categories. For a catalogue migration this is the only sane route. Export Item gives you the current shape to work from — export, edit, re-import is the safe pattern for any bulk change.
What success looks like
Three minutes on the item you just created:
- Open the Main tab. Inv Item Code is populated — the inventory twin exists and is linked.
- Raise a draft sales invoice line for it. It is findable, the price fills in from its scheme, and tax is calculated. (Then discard the draft.)
- Open the E-Invoice tab. The classification is something specific, not the tenant default.
If all three pass, nobody downstream will be surprised by this item.
Common mistakes
| What goes wrong | What you see | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Created in the Inventory applet | It exists in stock reports but cannot go on a document; FI Item Code is blank | Create items in Doc Item Maintenance |
| Wrong Item Type | It cannot be changed | Make it obsolete and create a replacement; decide before you save |
| Serialising by default | Every movement now needs serial entry | Serialise what genuinely has unit identity |
| Item saved without a currency | Please select currency, and it will not save | Set the currency on the create form |
| Tax codes left blank | Documents post with no tax or the wrong tax | Set input and output codes on the Tax tab |
| E-Invoice tab skipped | Sales work; e-Invoice submissions fail weeks later | Fill it at creation |
| No category | Category-based price rules never match, with no error | Set the Category tab |
| A code chosen carelessly | Immutable, and unreadable for a decade | Agree a convention before the first item |