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)
Go to the Items screen and select your product.
On the product card, check the box for Buy under Usability.
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.
Navigate to Settings → Data Import → Update existing products and safety stock levels.
Click Download data.
In the spreadsheet:
Set Buy? to
yesSet Make? to
no
Save and return to Settings → Data Import → Update existing products → Upload data.
Upload the updated file.
Option 3: Add new resale products in bulk
Go to Settings → Data Import → Add new products → Download template.
Open the template and:
Add your product details.
Set Buy? to
yesand Make? tonofor each.
Upload the file from Settings → Data Import → Add new products → Upload data.
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]