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What is a material?

Understand what materials are in Katana, including their roles in inventory and production processes.

Dayvid Lorbiecke avatar
Written by Dayvid Lorbiecke
Updated this week

In Katana, a material is any raw component or resource used in your manufacturing operations. Materials are essential building blocks in your product recipes and production workflows.

Materials are consumed as part of the production process and are not sold directly to customers (unless configured otherwise).


Overview of materials

Materials represent raw goods or parts that are transformed into finished products during manufacturing. These can include:

  • Fabric, metal, wood, plastic

  • Screws, bolts, components

  • Packaging materials

  • Any physical item not sold directly but used in production

Unlike products, materials are not manufactured within Katana.

They are either:

  • Purchased from suppliers

  • Added to stock manually

  • Imported via CSV or integrations

Note: If you need to track an intermediate item that is made in-house, use a subassembly, which is treated as a product.

Key attributes

Preview of a typical Material card with all of the different options

Each material has a material card, where you can manage:

  • Name: Descriptive title

  • SKU: Stock Keeping Unit for inventory tracking

  • Variants: Different sizes, colors, types of the same material

  • Category: Optional grouping to help with organization

  • Default supplier: Preferred vendor (Under Supply details)

  • Purchase price: Cost of acquiring the material (Under Supply details)

  • Barcode: Optional field for scanning

  • Stock levels: In stock, committed to production, and expected from suppliers

  • Custom fields: Additional attributes specific to your business needs

One material can have multiple variants (e.g., color, size). If multiple variants aren't enabled for a material, it is considered to have a single variant.

If multiple variants aren't enabled, there is only a single variant code. If a material has multiple variants, each variant can have a unique code.


Managing materials

To manage materials in Katana:

  1. Go to the Items screen.

    Where the Items screen can be found

  2. Click on the Materials table.

    Materials table inside the Items screen

  3. Create a new material or click on an existing one.

    Where to create or click on a material

  4. Set up item and supply details.

You can also:

  • Add materials directly into product recipes

  • Import multiple materials using a CSV template

  • Adjust inventory manually or via stock adjustments

  • Make materials sellable by checking Sell under Usability

    Sell option on a material card

Tip: Use variants to manage multiple types of the same base material, such as different colors or sizes of packaging.


Materials vs. Subassemblies

Feature

Materials

Subassemblies (Products)

Can it be manufactured?

❌ No

✅ Yes

Can it be purchased?

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Used in recipes?

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Treated as a product?

❌ No

✅ Yes (full item card & recipe)


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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