Creating a product involves defining its key attributes, such as SKU, price, and inventory details. This process helps organize your product catalog, manage stock levels, and ensure accurate inventory tracking.
Methods to create a product
Note: If the option to create/edit a product is unavailable, take a look at this article regarding user permissions.
There are four ways to create a product in Katana:
Global Create Button:
Click on the global + Create button and select + Product.
This will direct you to a product card where you can add the product information.
From a sales order (SO) or stock adjustment:
On an SO or stock adjustment card, type the name of a new product in the item field.
Select Create new "product name" from the dropdown.
A window will open where you can enter basic details of your product (Name, Unit of measure, Variant code/SKU, Sales price).
After clicking Done, the new product will be created and automatically added to the SO.
To enter more details about the product, go to the Items screen and click on this product from the Products table.
Import from E-commerce Platforms:
Import products from a Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce store.
You can import your entire product portfolio or only products appearing on imported sales orders.
Bulk Import via Spreadsheet:
Import products in bulk using our spreadsheet template. Read more.
Product card tabs
Each product card can contain four tabs where you can add general details, a product recipe/BOM, production operations, and supply details.
Note: The visibility of the tabs depends on whether you've selected Make and/or Buy under Usability.
General info
Product name: The unique name of a product.
Recommended example: "Chair"
Not recommended example: "White chair with black seat cover"
Tip: If a product has multiple variants, avoid including product attributes in the product name (color, size, etc.). Use our variants feature to create these kinds of variations.
Category: Group your products into distinct categories for better organization and analysis. Read more about categories, creating categories, editing categories, and deleting categories.
Example: Tables, Chairs
Unit of measure - The unit you're using to measure the quantity of your product (e.g. pcs, kg, m). You can manage the list of units (add, edit, and delete) in Settings.
Usability: Choose whether you sell this product, make it in your workshop, buy it from suppliers for resale, outsource the manufacturing, or bundle it.
Sell: Select to make a product usable on SOs and quotes.
Make: Select so you can add a product to MOs and create product recipes and production operations for the product.
Buy: Select this option to add a product to POs (check-marking both Buy and Make allows you to track ingredients on outsourced purchase orders).
Kit/Bundle: Select so that you can bundle the product.
Product tracking - Choose whether you want to track items (all variants) using batch /lot information, serial numbers, or no tracking at all. Tracking is a Standard or higher plan feature.
Custom field collection - Add custom fields to the product card's table by choosing a custom field collection. Custom fields are unavailable on the Starter plan.
Variants table:
Variants are groups of the same product, categorized by specific attributes.
Attributes could be color and size, for example. Using the variants feature (compared to creating separate product items for each variant) can save a lot of time, as it enables changing product recipes and production operations globally for all variants of the product.
Activating the variants for a product opens a Variants configuration, where you can enter Variant options (e.g. color, size) and Option values (e.g. red and blue for "Color" option). Variant options will appear as new columns in the table at the bottom of the product card, and Option values can be chosen from the drop-down menu in the text fields of those columns. Those columns and values also appear in the product recipe.
If you didn't enable multiple variants for a product, it's considered to have a single variant.
Variant code/SKU: The unique identifier for a product variant. If multiple variants aren't enabled, the product is considered to have a single variant. You can change it to create your own product identification system. Read more about Variant codes.
Default sales price: The sales price of your product for customers. Different sales prices can also be assigned to each product variant. This is the default price included in SOs and used in the "Product" list to calculate profitability.
Bin: The default storage bin for the product in your warehouse. It is shown on put-away and packing list PDF printouts. This is a Standard or higher plan feature. Read more about Storage bins.
Tip: Safety stock levels can be set in the Stock screen. They indicate the inventory level for a product that needs to be replenished and ensure that you always have sufficient stock to protect the business against spikes in demand.
Read more about safety stock levels and determining the appropriate level for safety stock.
Product recipe /BOM
*Visible if Make or Kit/bundle are enabled.
Define the bill of materials (BOM) – the materials or subassemblies needed to make the product.
Add components, specify quantities, and choose whether to backflush or manually track consumption.
Katana supports subassemblies, which means that you can add products to a recipe for another product. Read more about using subassemblies.
You can create different recipes for each product variant. Read more about creating variant-specific recipes.
Product recipe / BOM table:
Item - The raw material or subassembly used in creating a product. You can select existing materials and subassemblies or create new ones by inserting an ingredient name and selecting Create new "item name" from the drop-down menu. Then select whether you want to create a material or product (subassembly) and insert the basic information about the item. Read more about creating a material.
Quantity - The amount of a material or subassembly used in creating one unit of a product. The quantity is in the same Unit of measure that you have chosen for the associated material or subassembly.
Cost - The average cost of an item in stock x quantity. If In stock for an ingredient is zero, the default purchase price will be used for materials and manufacturing cost for subassemblies in cost calculations.
Production operations
*Also shown when Make is enabled.
Add production steps (operations) and assign them to resources.
Include costs and time for each operation (used for cost and lead time calculations).
Link operations with recipe components to auto-assign inputs to specific steps.
This helps streamline shop floor operations using Katana’s Shop Floor App or other integrations.
If you need operations done in a particular order, you can use product operations routing by turning the toggle on for Operations in sequence. Learn more about product operations routing.
Operation steps table:
Operation - The name of the operation you perform to produce your product. Examples: Cutting, Assembly, Quality control.
Resource - A workstation (e.g. cutting table, assembly machine) or a person (e.g. John), who is responsible for completing the Operation. Can be edited on each Manufacturing order if needed. Assigning Resources to Operations enables creating task lists for resources. Read more about managing tasks for resources
Cost per hour - The hourly cost of performing the operation. This typically consists of the salary cost of the employee performing this operation but can also include the workstation's average hourly maintenance and electricity costs, for example. This cost is used in calculating the total manufacturing cost for your product and, consequently, affects the product profit and margins. What to include in this cost ultimately depends on your preferences and your manufacturing cost calculation policy.
Time - The duration of an operation step to produce one unit of a product. Useful for calculating the manufacturing cost of a product. As this is input to manufacturing cost calculations, only include the duration of actions that are related to additional cost. For example, you shouldn't include the expected time the raw material or subassembly is waiting in the queue, but you may include the setup time of the operation, if relevant.
Cost = Cost per hour * Duration. This is an automatically calculated field that cannot be edited. It is the cost of completing an operation and is an input to the total manufacturing cost.
Supply details
*Visible if Buy is enabled.
Set the default supplier, purchase price, and preferred supplier lead time.
Can be used for both in-house purchases and outsourced manufacturing setups.
Variants table:
Variant - This column includes the names of the variants for this product
Supplier item code - Codes used to identify raw materials and purchasable products. Each variant can have multiple supplier item codes. Learn more about barcodes.
Default lead time - Lead times reflect the time it takes for an item to be delivered or produced. This time could vary based on supplier or production process.
MOQ - The supplier's specified minimum order quantity. This helps ensure that orders meet the minimum requirements. Learn more about lead time and MOQ.
Default purchase price - The purchase price of your product from suppliers or the fee paid for outsourced manufacturing. This is a default purchase price added to (outsourced) purchase orders, but can be changed manually on each (O)PO. Different purchase prices can be assigned to each product variant.
Your feedback is invaluable. Let us know your thoughts on this article or anything in Katana you'd like to see improved: [email protected]