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A quick guide to purchasing products

Streamline the management of purchased products for resale in Katana.

Written by David Lorbiecke

Easily manage products for resale in Katana — whether you're a manufacturer expanding your offering or a pure reseller.


Buy vs Make: Understanding product types in Katana

Katana supports:

  • Manufacturing products in-house.

  • Outsourcing production to a contractor.

  • Purchasing finished products from suppliers for resale.

Many businesses mix these approaches. For resellers, you can fully operate from the Sell, Buy, and Stock screens — no need to use the Make screen.


How to indicate a product can be purchased

You can mark products as purchased either manually or in bulk.

Option 1: Set it manually (one-by-one)

Screenshot highlighting the Buy option on a product card
  1. Go to the Items screen and select your product.

  2. On the product card, check the box for Buy under Usability.

  3. Uncheck Make if the item isn’t manufactured in-house.

By selecting Buy, you’ll be able to add the product to purchase orders (POs).


Option 2: Update in bulk (existing products)

Use this method if you’ve already created products and want to convert them to resale items.

  1. Navigate to Settings → Import and more → Data Import → Products.

    1. Here you can update via AI assisted import or through a template.

  2. In the spreadsheet (if using the template import):

    • Set Buy? to yes

    • Set Make? to no

      Screenshot of an excel sheet, showing how to update columns


Option 3: Add new resale products in bulk

  1. Go to Settings → Import and more → Data Import → Products

    1. Choose if you want to add new products via AI assisted import or template

  2. If using the template import, open the template and:

    • Add your product details.

    • Set Buy? to yes and Make? to no for each.

  3. Re-upload the file (if template).


Outsourcing tip

If you buy products but still want to track ingredients and production, enable both:

  • Make

  • Buy

Then, create an outsourced purchase order to reflect subcontracted manufacturing.


Your feedback is invaluable. Let us know your thoughts on this article or anything in Katana you'd like to see improved: [email protected]

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