🗂️ Item Catalog Management

The Item Catalog Management page is where you define and maintain the "source of truth" for items: codes, barcodes, names/descriptions, prices, suppliers, categories and more. Without an organized catalog – item identification during counting will be partial, and some capabilities (price-based summaries, ERP export, smart duplicate warnings) will be impaired.

🏁 How to Access

• On phone (Mobile): Click the menu button ☰ at the top right → select Catalog.
• On computer (Desktop): Hover over the menu on the left → click Catalog.

Why This Page Exists

• Reliable identification during counting – when scanning a barcode, the system knows "who it is" and what its description/price is.
• Financial summaries – cost/selling prices come from the catalog.
• ERP alignment – saving relevant fields (like sort code, supplier, category, ERP location).
• Full flexibility – you can work with Excel/CSV, manually add individual items, or update an existing catalog.

Important: The Catalog is Shared Across All Stores

• The item catalog is shared across all business stores – meaning item code, barcode, description, prices etc. are the same across all stores.

• However, there are two fields that are logically per-store:

  1. Location by ERP system – because the same item might be at "123" in Store A and "Shelf 556" in Store B.
  2. Quantity by ERP system – historical/reference balance from the ERP is usually saved for a specific store (different balances between stores).

• Therefore at the top of the page you'll see store selection – it is intended only to display/manage these two fields in the context of the selected store. All other fields are cross-store.

💡 Tip: If you don't work with "ERP Location"/"ERP Quantity" fields, store selection won't change the other columns.

✨ Main Actions (Action Bar)

• Import Catalog – upload an Excel/CSV catalog file (see full details below).
• Add New Item to Catalog – manual addition (code/barcode/name/prices…). Useful for quickly adding a missing item.
• Delete Item Catalog Permanently (red button, dangerous action) – empties the database. Intended only for exceptional situations of complete replacement; backup recommended first.
• Select Store – for setting the display context of "ERP location/quantity" fields.

⬇️ Import Catalog (Gray Button – Live Integration)

When is the button shown? The button appears only if an integration is configured that supports catalog import. If there is no suitable integration – the button will not appear at all.

What happens when clicked?In real time, the entire item list is pulled from the ERP/external system, without needing to upload a file. The system will:

• Update existing items (descriptions/prices/barcodes/attributes).
• Add new items that weren't in the catalog.
• Per-store fields (if the ERP provides them): Location by ERP and Quantity by ERP will be imported according to the received data.

Prerequisite The integration connection is configured in My Integrations (including required permissions and mappings). After configuration – the button will appear automatically on the screen.

When to use

• When the catalog is managed in ERP and you want full and fast alignment without Excel files.
• For frequent updates of prices/names/barcodes.

Explanation of the "Load New Item Catalog File" Button

Uploading a Catalog File – Instructions Window (Before Mapping)

In the "Upload Item Catalog File" window you'll see the guidelines and requirements:

Required format

• File extension: .xlsx or .csv
• Column order doesn't matter
• The item catalog is shared across all stores
• If duplicate items (identical to existing codes/barcodes) are uploaded – the system will update the existing item data (will not create duplicates).

Column names the system recognizes (recommended to use):

• Required:
  • "Item Code" and/or "Barcode" (at least one is needed)
  • "Item Description"
• Not required (supported if present):
  • "Buying Price", "Selling Price"
  • "Supplier Name", "Category", "Sort Code"
  • "Color", "Size", "Model"
  • "Inventory Balance" (= ERP Quantity)
  • "Location" (= ERP Location)
  • "Package Quantity" (how many units per package/carton)
  • "Image" / "Image URL" (URL address for item image)

If your column names are different – no worry. The next step has a column mapping screen with flexibility for alternative names.

Clicking Continue to Upload Catalog File will take you to the Column Mapping screen.

Column Mapping – How It Works

What is mapping?

In a CSV/Excel file, the first row contains column headers. The system reads the headers and tries to automatically guess what each column belongs to (barcode? item name? price?).

Automatic Recognition + Alternative Names

• The recognition engine supports various names. For example:
  • "Item name" will also be recognized if written "Name", "Description", "Product Name", "Item Description", etc.
  • "Barcode" will also be recognized if written "Barcode", "bar-code", "Additional Item Code/Barcode" (depending on the file).
• A successfully identified column will appear in green; an unidentified/unsupported column will appear in gray.

Manual Change and Save for Next Time

• You can click on a column name in the mapping table and select a different target field – manually.
• After confirmation, the system remembers your preferences – next time you upload a file with similar headers, identification will already be automatic based on your settings.

Selecting Store During Upload – When Will It Appear?

• If a "Location" (ERP) or "Inventory Balance/ERP Quantity" column is identified, a store selection field will appear: Because these values belong to a specific store in your ERP.
• If there are no such columns – you won't need to select a store and can upload without store context.

Business logic: One item can appear in the same catalog for all stores, but location and balance are state tied to a specific location/store. Therefore when loading a file containing such fields – you need to tell the system "which store this is about now".

Completing the Mapping

• When all required fields are identified (at least item code/barcode + item description), click Confirm Column Mapping.
• The system will handle updates/additions: existing items will be updated; new ones will be added.

Highlights, Scenarios and Tips

🧪 Common Scenarios

• Quarterly price update: Upload a file with item code + new prices → the system updates existing items without duplicates.
• Adding attributes: Add "category/supplier/sort code" fields – even if they didn't exist before, after mapping they are updated.
• Importing ERP locations/balances: Upload a file per store separately (or select store during loading) to associate correctly.

✅ Recommended

• Keep one agreed Excel template in the organization, with clear header names.
• Use manual mapping once – then enjoy automatic recognition on every subsequent upload.
• Before full deletion of the catalog – always download a backup (export to Excel).

⚠️ Mistakes to Avoid

• File without item code and without barcode – will not be imported (at least one is needed).
• Uploading a file with locations/balances without selecting a store – will cause rejection or incorrect association.
• "Too creative" column names without manual mapping – some fields will remain gray and won't be imported.

🧠 "Error-Proof" in Item Catalog Import – How We Compensate for Imperfect Files

So you don't get stuck because of a less-organized Excel, OpticCount's import mechanism knows how to handle various common situations:

• Headers not on the first row: If there are several empty rows/irrelevant text at the top of the file – we automatically locate the actual header row and start from it. No manual cleanup needed.
• Smart mapping even when names are only "similar": We don't require exact one-to-one matching. For example:
  • "Item Description", "Item Name", "Product Name" → will be mapped to the item name/description field
  • "Bar codes", "Barcode", "bar-code", barcode → will be mapped to the barcode field
  • "SKU", "Item Code", SKU → will be mapped to the item code field If a column was not identified with certainty – it will be marked gray in the mapping screen and you can choose manually (and the choice will be saved for next time).
• One barcode to many? No problem: If a barcode column cell contains multiple barcodes separated by commas (or semicolons/new lines), we perform smart splitting: we create a separate row per barcode with the same data (same item code, name, prices etc.), so each barcode becomes an independent record in the catalog. Example: 7290000000000,1234567890123 → two identical rows, each with a different barcode.
• Automatic normalization and cleanup (behind the scenes): Removing extra spaces, preserving leading zeros in barcodes (won't convert to number), and unifying common separator characters.

💡 Tip: Even when we fix a lot automatically, it's always worth checking the Column Mapping screen before confirmation – that's where you verify everything is aligned exactly to how you want the catalog to behave in counting.

Summary of Actions Area

• The catalog belongs to the entire business; store selection at the top of the page is only used to display/manage ERP Location and ERP Quantity which are per-store.
• The upload process is simple: CSV/XLSX file → instructions → column mapping (auto/manual) → select store if required → confirm.

🔎 Search Bar and Item Table

Table Control Bar (Search/Sort/Filter)

• Search – free text by item code/barcode/name/supplier/category and more.
• Sort by – e.g. item code, barcode, item name, price, category.
• Order – ascending/descending.
• Show Results – applies selections and refreshes the table.

The Table – What Columns You'll See

• Item Code, Barcode, Item Description/Name
• Supplier Name, Category, Sort Code
• Buying Price, Selling Price
• Location by ERP System (based on selected store)
• Quantity by ERP System (based on selected store)
• Color / Size / Model (if present)
• Package Quantity – if defined
• Image – icon/preview of item image (if URL was entered)
• Manually Added (flag for items manually added in OpticCount)
• Row actions (usually on the side): Edit / Delete item.

📦 New Fields in the Catalog

Package Quantity

A field defining how many units are in each package (carton, pack, kit). The idea: when scanning an item in "package scan" mode, the system multiplies the entered quantity by the Package Quantity to calculate units.

Example: Package Quantity = 12. Employee scans and enters quantity 2 packages → the system calculates 24 units in total.

Useful when:

• Goods arrive/are counted at carton level but need to be reported in units.
• The employee can choose "scan as package" when counting full cartons, and "scan as unit" when there are partial/open packages.

How to configure: In item editing → "Package Quantity" field → enter a whole number. Value 1 (default) = counting as a single unit (no multiplication).

Item Image (Image URL)

You can save an image URL for each item. The image is displayed:

• In the Identify Item dialog and in the Item Details dialog during counting.
• In the extended item details view.

Limitation: The URL must be accessible from the internet (not a local image).

Extended Barcode Format Support

• Danacode – a unique barcode format. The system automatically recognizes and normalizes barcodes in this format during scanning.
• UPC-A / EAN-13 – the system normalizes EAN-13 barcodes to UPC-A (and vice versa) to resolve common mismatches between the product barcode and the catalog. Can be enabled/disabled in count settings.