Organize Inventory

Organizing inventory makes it easy to identify and report on which kinds of items sell best, to view entire groups of items at once, and to set up items for ticket printing. After assigning items to departments, categories, and suppliers, you can manage these groups and use them to filter and search the Item List.

To learn how to organize item shortcuts on the register, visit our Item Shortcuts article.

Watch our Organize Inventory video:

Organize Inventory

Table of Contents

Departments and Categories

To understand how departments and categories in ShopKeep impact inventory management, let’s define what they are, look at a few examples, and review how they are used.

Departments are groups of items used for organizing inventory, reporting, and ticket printing.
Categories are subgroups within departments. Each department has a unique set of categories.
Note: Departments and categories cannot be renamed, only deleted.
Examples of departments and their categories:
Department Categories
Hot Drinks Coffee, Tea, Cocoa
Entrées Burgers, Pasta, Chicken
Men’s Clothing Pants, Dress Shirts, Sweaters
Organize inventory items into departments and categories to:
  • Quickly search the Item List for a specific set of items.
  • See which types of items are popular using the Sales by Department and Sales by Category reports.
  • Filter the Sales by Item report to only display certain types of items.
  • Assign collections of items to Printer Groups for ticket printing instead of doing so one item at a time.

    • If you have questions about departments and categories, visit our Inventory FAQ.

    Suppliers

    To understand how suppliers in ShopKeep impact inventory management, let’s define what they are, look at a few examples, and review how they are used.

    Suppliers are the vendors from whom the business gets its items.
    For businesses with multiple locations, each ShopKeep store uses, by default, a separate set of suppliers managed independently from the BackOffice of that location. If stores are linked, the same suppliers can be used across locations by enabling multi-store suppliers. Read our article on multi-store suppliers for more information.
    Examples of items and their suppliers:
    Item Supplier
    Bottled Water Grocery Supply Co.
    T-Shirt USA Shirts
    Sheet Set Bedding and More
    Assign suppliers to inventory items to:
  • Quickly search the Item List for items from a particular supplier.
  • See which specific suppliers’ products generate the most sales with the Sales by Supplier report.
  • View supplier details on the Inventory Reorder report, if inventory tracking is enabled.

    • Item Assignments

    Assign items to departments, categories, and suppliers to organize the inventory of the business from BackOffice or the ShopKeep Register app (employees with the relevant BackOffice permissions only). For large inventories (50+ items), we recommend using Bulk Management to create or modify items.

    1. Visit the Item List in BackOffice or from the ShopKeep Register app (employees with BackOffice permissions only).
      • In BackOffice, click ‘Items’ and select ‘Item List’.
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      iOS ShopKeep Register App

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      Android ShopKeep Register App

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    2. Click ‘Add New’ to create a new item or select an existing item to edit.
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      If adding a new item, visit one of the following articles for a complete item creation walkthrough:

    3. Choose a 'Department' or select ‘Add a new department’ from the drop-down to create a new one.
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    4. Choose a 'Category' or select ‘Add a new category' from the drop-down to create a new one.
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    5. Choose a ‘Supplier’ or select ‘Add a new supplier’ from the drop-down to create a new one.
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    6. (Optional) Enter the supplier’s item ID.

      This is any reorder code associated with the item.

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    7. Select a save option to finish editing or creating the item.
    8. If managing item assignments from BackOffice, get updates on the iOS or Android register to sync the changes to the register.

      Receiving an error while getting updates? Visit our troubleshooting guide for help.

    Manage Departments and Categories

    View all existing departments and categories, see how many items are assigned to each, and delete those that are empty all from the Departments & Categories page in BackOffice. Note that departments and categories cannot be renamed, only deleted.

    1. In BackOffice, click ‘Items’, then ‘Departments & Categories’.
    2. Scroll down to view information about each department and category.
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      Each section begins with the name of a department (e.g. ‘Bakery’) followed by:
      Category | Name of each category within the department.
      Item Count | Number of unique items assigned to each category. To view the specific items in each department or category, follow the steps here.

    3. To delete an empty department or category, click ‘Delete’, then 'Yes' to confirm the deletion.
      • If a department or category contains items, first follow the steps here to reassign the items.
      • The default ‘General’ department and ‘General’ category within each department cannot be deleted.

    Department and category names cannot be edited. Instead, assign all items to a different department or category, then delete the empty one.

    Manage Suppliers

    View a list of existing suppliers, add new suppliers, edit supplier names, and delete suppliers all from one BackOffice screen.

    For businesses with multiple locations, each ShopKeep store uses, by default, a separate set of suppliers managed independently from that location’s Suppliers screen. If stores are linked, the same suppliers can be used across locations by enabling multi-store suppliers. Read our article on multi-store suppliers for more information.

    1. In BackOffice, click ‘Items’, then ‘Supplier List’.

    Add a New Supplier

    1. Click 'Add New'.
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    2. Enter the name of the supplier and click ‘Continue’.
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    3. Assign the supplier to inventory items obtained from that vendor.
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    Rename a Supplier

    1. Click ‘Edit’ next to a supplier.
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    2. Enter the updated supplier name and click ‘Continue’.
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    Delete a Supplier

    1. Click ‘Edit’ next to a supplier.
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    2. Select ‘Delete supplier’.

      Note: If a supplier has items assigned to it, deleting it will automatically unassign the items. Follow the steps here to assign the items to a new supplier.

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    3. Click 'Delete' to confirm.
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    Item List

    The Item List shows every stock item added to inventory with details such as cost, margin, markup, and quantity on hand. From BackOffice or the ShopKeep Register app (employees with the relevant BackOffice permissions only), browse inventory, search and sort to find specific items, customize which item details are displayed, view details of individual variants, add new items, and edit existing ones.

    1. Visit the Item List in BackOffice or from the ShopKeep Register app (employees with BackOffice permissions only).
      • In BackOffice, click ‘Items’ and select ‘Item List’.
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      iOS ShopKeep Register App

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      Android ShopKeep Register App

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    Search & Sort the Item List

    1. Use the ‘Search’ field to filter the Item List.
      • Enter a department, category, or supplier to look up the items assigned to it.
      • To search for a specific item, enter the name, SKU, or UPC of an item.
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    2. Click any column with arrows to sort the Item List.
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    3. Adjust column width by dragging the separator between column headers.
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    Page Size and Navigation

    1. Choose a number of items to appear on each page of the Item List or select ‘All’ to view all items on a single page.
      • By default, 100 items appear on each page.
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    2. Use the navigation controls to move between pages.
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    View Variant Details

    1. Click the arrow icon next to an item to view its active variants and their details.

      Items with the arrow icon are items with variants and those without it are basic items.

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    2. To hide or show variants for all items on the list, click ‘Expand all’ or ‘Collapse all’.
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    Add a New Item

    1. Click ‘Add New’ to add a new item.

      For a full item creation walkthrough, visit:

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    Edit or Delete Item

    1. Click an existing item to edit or delete it.
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    2. If editing the item, make changes and select a save option.
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    3. To delete the item, click ‘Delete’, check the box to delete the item in all linked locations (optional for multi-location accounts), and select ‘Continue’.
      • If a deleted item is re-added later, labels printed for the original item must be reprinted. Deleted items appear on sales reports for dates prior to deletion but not on certain other reports. Visit our Inventory FAQ to learn which reports are not supported.
      • Deleting items in all linked locations is available for merchants with multiple linked locations and is only visible to the Business Owner in BackOffice.

    Need to download your inventory? Export stock items, then open the export in spreadsheet software. To view items by department, category, or supplier, manually sort the spreadsheet by the relevant column.

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