Inventory Classes & Transaction Categories

There are two pick-lists that you should set up before adding your inventory items.  These allow you to split up inventory reporting and accounting two separate ways.  These pick lists can be configured through Maintenance / Pick Lists -- see that section for general information about editing pick lists.

Inventory Class

This pick list is used only for inventory items.  It can be used to logically separate your inventory however you like, whether it's broad classes like food, supplies, etc., or very specific classes like sewer hoses, propane accessories, and light bulbs.  Classes can be selected for filtering inventory for reports or finding item details, and for grouping sales transactions by class.

Every inventory item must have a specific class assigned.  So even if you have no need for detailed reporting, you should have a few broad classes that you can assign to your items.

Transaction Category

This pick list is shared with the rest of the system, so it also includes entries for all of your other charges like daily rent, extra people, taxes, etc.  Every inventory item must also be assigned to a specific transaction category, so that when an item is sold, it knows what category to credit that too (similar to general ledger entries).

This is often a more broad categorization than Inventory Class, simply because it's a shared list.  You might not want 200 different transaction categories for inventory items to overshadow the few needed for your reservation charges, especially since it would make the selection list a lot longer.  In some cases, a single Transaction Category called "Merchandise" or "Gift shop" is sufficient, since additional transaction reports by Inventory Class can be done when more detail is needed.  However there may be cases where you do need very detailed categories for accounting, especially if you export the data to QuickBooks and have many items/accounts for your inventory sales.