Categories give your catalog a hierarchy, tags add free-form labels that cut across it, and manufacturers track brands. All three power the register grid, price rules, reports and ecommerce sync.

A catalog is only as useful as its structure. PHP Point Of Sale gives you three ways to organize items — categories, tags and manufacturers — and each one shows up throughout the app: on the register grid, in price rules, in reports and in ecommerce sync. All three are managed from the Inventory menu (Categories, Tags and Manufacturers entries) and assigned on each item when creating items.

Set up your basic categories before adding items in bulk: every item requires a category, and a well-planned tree saves renaming later.

Categories

Categories are hierarchical: a root category stands on its own (Bags), a child category sits under a parent (Bags → Leather), and children can nest further. On the register, tapping a category button shows its items and its child categories.

Create and manage categories

1. Click Inventory in the left menu and select Categories (requires the Manage categories permission).
2. The page shows your category tree with a search box to filter it. Click [Add root category] to create a top-level category, or the add child action next to an existing category to create one beneath it.
3. Fill out the category fields (below) and click Save.
4. Use Edit next to any category to change its fields, and Delete to remove it. Deleting cannot be undone — the category is removed from every item that used it (the items themselves survive).

You can also create categories without leaving an item: click Add Category under the item's category dropdown, or simply type a new name into the category field.

Category fields

• Parent Category — None makes it a root category; picking a parent makes it a child of that category.
• Category Name — the title shown everywhere.
• Category Description — free text describing the category.
• Category Color — tints the category's button on the register grid; pick from the palette or enter a hex code. By default buttons are white.
• Category Image — replaces the plain tile on the register grid with a picture; Choose file to upload, a preview appears, and Delete Image removes it. The image also syncs to ecommerce.
• Exclude From E-Commerce — keeps this category from exporting to WooCommerce or Shopify as a product category.
• Hide From Grid (one checkbox per location) — hides the category from that location's register grid; its items can still be scanned and searched.
• Information Popup When Adding to Sale — a notice shown to the cashier whenever any item in this category is added to a sale — handy for disclaimers or handling instructions that apply to a whole department.
• Require customer for items in category when being sold — any sale containing an item from this category has to have a customer attached before it can complete. Use it for age-restricted goods, prescriptions, warranty-tracked equipment or anything else you need a name against, without forcing a customer on every sale in the store. It applies to this category only — a sibling category that merely shares a distant parent is unaffected. See ringing up a sale.
• Price tiers — per-category tier pricing: for each tier, choose a flat price, percent off, cost plus percent, or cost plus fixed amount that applies to the category's items.
• Custom fields — up to 10 custom fields can be defined for categories and filled per category.

Categories on items

Every item must have one main Category — the dropdown shows root categories flush left and child categories indented beneath them. Add Secondary Category places the item in additional categories, so a purse can appear under both Bags and Clothing. Item kits carry categories the same way.

A Store Config setting, Include child categories when searching or reporting (default on), makes a search or report on a parent category automatically include its children.

Tags

Tags are free-form labels with no hierarchy. Put the same tag on fifty items and you have an instant group that cuts across categories — ideal for "clearance", "gluten-free", "summer" or a promotion list. A red baseball hat and a blue purse never share a category, but both can carry a "Promotion Product" tag, and one price rule targeting that tag discounts them together.

Create and manage tags

1. Click Inventory in the left menu and select Tags (requires the Manage tags permission).
2. Click [Add tag], enter the tag name, and save. Each tag also offers two per-location controls:
   • Do NOT sell at locations — checking a location bans every item carrying this tag from being sold there.
   • Hide From Grid (per location) — keeps tagged items off that location's register grid while leaving them scannable and searchable.
3. Edit renames a tag — the new name updates automatically on every item that carries it.
4. Delete removes the tag from all items that had it. This cannot be undone.

Tags on items

On the item's Item Info tab, start typing in the Tags field and pick from the dropdown of existing tags; the selected tag fills in with a grey chip. Click into the white space of the field to add more — an item can carry any number of tags. Typing a name that does not exist yet offers Add new tag so you can create it inline, and the Manage tags button jumps to the tag manager. Tags do not show in the item list's quick view; open the item with Edit to see them.

Manufacturers

Manufacturers record who makes the product — the brand. Enter them whenever possible: they are useful for warranty questions and give you brand-level reporting on what sells and what sits.

1. Click Inventory in the left menu and select Manufacturers (requires the Manage Manufacturers permission).
2. Click [Add Manufacturer], type the name in the popup, and confirm. A manufacturer is just a name — there are no other fields.
3. Edit renames a manufacturer and updates every linked item automatically; Delete clears the manufacturer from any item that had it.
4. Click Done to return to the items page.

On the item form, pick the brand in the Manufacturer dropdown; the Manage Manufacturers button opens the list above. Item kits can carry a manufacturer too.

On the register grid

The item grid on the register — the tappable grid of buttons cashiers use instead of scanning — is built from this structure. The Default type for Grid setting in Store Config → Sales chooses what the grid's top level shows: Categories (the default), Tags, Suppliers, Favorites, or Items and Kits. Category colors and images carry through to the tiles, and the per-location Hide From Grid flags on categories, tags and individual items control what each store sees. See ringing up a sale.

Reports and searches

Each structure has matching reports under Reports: the Categories Summary Report (with a graphical version and a top-level-only option), the Tag Summary Report, and the Manufacturers Report plus a sales summary by manufacturer. The item list can be searched and filtered by category, tag and manufacturer, and bulk edits applied to the filtered set — so having items properly categorized is what makes "raise every Tablet price 5%" a two-minute job. See running reports.

Ecommerce sync

Categories (with images) and tags sync to WooCommerce and Shopify as product categories/collections and tags, in both directions on the sync schedule. Exclude From E-Commerce on a category keeps it local. See how ecommerce sync works, connecting WooCommerce and connecting Shopify.

Permissions

Three separate item-module actions gate these features, assignable per employee in permissions and templates: Manage categories, Manage tags and Manage Manufacturers. An employee without one of them does not see that entry in the Inventory menu and cannot open its management page — but can still assign existing categories or manufacturers when editing an item (creating new tags inline requires the tags permission).

Keep the structure honest

Use categories for the permanent shape of your store, tags for anything temporary or cross-cutting, and manufacturers strictly for brands. When each structure does one job, the register grid stays tidy, price rules stay simple, and every report answers the question you actually asked.

Common questions

Do I have to assign a category to every item? Yes — the main category is a required field on the item form. Secondary categories are optional.

What happens to items when I delete a category or tag? The items survive; only the assignment is removed from them. Deleting a category or tag cannot be undone, so with categories consider moving items first with a bulk edit.

How deep can the category tree go? Child categories can nest under other child categories, so the tree can go beyond two levels. On the register, cashiers drill down level by level.

Why doesn't a category show on my register grid? Either Hide From Grid is checked for your location in that category's settings, or the grid's Default type for Grid in Store Config → Sales is set to something other than Categories.

Can I stop a group of items from being sold at one store? Yes — put a tag on those items and check that location under the tag's Do NOT sell at locations option. For a single item, use Do Not Sell At This Location on the item's Locations tab instead.

How do I discount everything with a certain tag? Create a price rule whose condition is the tag. One rule then covers every tagged item, present and future.

Why is my category not appearing in my online store? Check that Exclude From E-Commerce is not ticked on the category, then review the sync in how ecommerce sync works.

Does renaming a tag or manufacturer break my items? No. Renaming either one updates every item that carries it automatically.