Help Center › Masters

Add and manage products and services

Create items you buy and sell: name, SKU, unit, HSN or SAC, GST rate, cess, rates, opening stock for a financial year, and barcode.

Every item you put on an invoice is a product. A product can be goods (kept in stock) or a service (no stock). The same form opens when you add a new item from inside an invoice.

Before you start

Create your financial years first. Opening stock is entered against a financial year.
The Barcode box appears only when Barcodes are switched on, and Item type and Reorder level appear only when Manufacturing is switched on. See Configuration.

Steps

Open Masters > Products.
Click New Product (on a phone the button says New).
Type the Product / Service Name. This is required.
Type a SKU (your own item code) if you use one.
Leave the Goods/Service switch on Goods.
Type the HSN Code. For a service, type its SAC here instead; see "Service items" below.
Choose the Unit of Measurement (UQC), for example NOS - NUMBERS, KGS - KILOGRAMS or BOX - BOX. This is required.
Under Tax Details, choose the Tax Category and the GST %. Fill Cess % only if cess applies.
Click Advanced — pricing & opening stock to fill in rates and opening stock (see below).
Click Save.

Service items

A service item (labour, repairs, transport, consultancy) carries a SAC code instead of an HSN code. SAC codes always start with 99.

Type the service's SAC in the code box (HSN Code).
Choose a unit such as NOS - NUMBERS or HRS - HOURS.
Set the GST % for the service and click Save.

Invoice lines copy the code from this box, and a code starting with 99 is treated as a service on e-invoices.

If you turn the switch to Service, the box is renamed SAC Code and the Opening Stock and Product group sections are hidden. A code typed in SAC Code is not copied onto invoice lines, so you would have to type it in the line's HSN box on every invoice.

To bill services through an income account instead of a product, see Service invoice.

Enter opening stock

Opening stock is the quantity you already had on the first day of a financial year, before you started using Arthlekha.

Open the product (new or existing) and click Advanced — pricing & opening stock.
In Opening Stock, choose the Financial Year this stock opens.
Type the Opening Qty and the Opening Rate (cost per unit, without GST).
Check Opening Value. It is worked out as quantity x rate.
Click Save (or Update).

The stock is posted as the opening balance of that year. It shows in the Product Register and in your Balance Sheet. If you leave Financial Year on -- None --, the app uses the opening date of your default financial year.

To correct opening stock later, open the product, change Opening Qty or Opening Rate, and click Update. The stock records are corrected to the new figure. Sales, purchases and production already entered are not changed.

Edit or delete a product

Search by name, SKU, HSN, SAC, unit or barcode in the search box.
Click the pencil icon on the card to edit, then click Update.
To delete, click the red bin icon and click OK at Delete this product?

A product that has stock entries or is used on any sales or purchase invoice cannot be deleted. Remove those entries first. Opening stock is itself a stock entry: delete its stock journal in Stock Journal before deleting the product.

Fields

Field	What to enter
Product / Service Name	The name that prints on invoices. Two products cannot have the same name.
Tax Category	Taxable for normal GST items. Exempt, NIL and Non GST set GST % and Cess % to 0 and lock them.
GST %	0, 0.25, 3, 5, 12, 18, 28 or 40. A new product starts at 18.
MRP (sticker price, incl. GST)	Selling price including GST. It is used by Print Labels and Scan-to-Bill.
Default Purchase Rate	Usual cost price. It fills the rate when you pick the item on a purchase bill.
Barcode (optional — auto-assigned if blank)	Scan or paste the EAN-13 from the packet. Left blank, the app gives the item its own `ARTH-` code. See Barcodes.
Item type	Trading (buy & sell), Raw material or Finished goods. Used by Manufacturing.
Reorder level	Stock quantity below which the item shows in Reorder Alerts. Optional.
Product group	Appears only when you have created product groups. Optional. See Product groups.

Common problems

Product name is required — type the name before saving.
Unit of Measurement is required — choose a unit from the Unit of Measurement (UQC) list.
Bad Request when saving — usually another product already has this name. Search for it and use it, or change the name.
Bad Request when deleting — the product has stock entries or is used on an invoice. Clear those first, as explained above.
The HSN/SAC is blank on the invoice line — the code was saved in SAC Code (Service switch on). Type it in the line, or move it to the HSN Code box on the product.

More in Masters

Add and manage customersAdd, edit, search and delete customers, verify a GSTIN to fill details, and set the bill-to and ship-to addresses.Add and manage suppliersAdd, edit, search and delete suppliers, verify a GSTIN to auto-fill name, address and state, and keep their address correct.Product groups and their stock ledgersCreate optional product groups so that the stock of raw material, finished goods or packing sits in its own ledger in your books.Chart of accounts: groups and ledgersSee all account groups and ledgers, create new groups and ledgers, set SAC and GST supply nature on income ledgers, and view a ledger's entries.Track returnable cratesSwitch on Crates, create crate types, record crates given and received on invoices and challans, and see each customer's crate balance.