Category Overview
Categories let you organize products, services, and bundles into logical groups. This makes browsing, searching, and checkout faster for your staff and your customers.
What this covers
A category is a group of related items. Use categories to:
- Organize items in the POS for faster checkout.
- Structure digital menus and your online store.
- Nest groups, such as Drinks, then Coffee, then Iced Coffee.
- Apply colors and images for quick recognition.
- Filter and report on sales by category.
- Decide which items appear in which sales channel.
Examples: Drinks, Snacks, and Main Courses for food; Apparel and Accessories for retail; Haircut, Massage, and Car Wash for services.
Field explanations
The Image appears at the top of the form. Upload an image or icon, or take a photo on a phone or tablet.
| Field | Description | Required | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enable | Keep this category active and visible in the app. | Yes | Yes |
| Show on | Where the category shows: Register tab adds a tab on the register, Online store lists it on your online menu. Both off is allowed. | No | Both on |
| Image | An image or icon, up to 2 MB. | No | |
| Name | The name shown in the app and menus. | Yes | Massage Therapy |
| Code | A short internal code: lowercase letters, numbers, dashes, and underscores only. | No | massage-therapy |
| Description | A note about what the category holds. | No | Relaxing massages for stress relief |
| Color | A hex color to organize or highlight the category. | No | #FF5733 |
| Parent Category | Set a parent if this is a sub-category. | No | Massage |
The Products tab
The form has two tabs. General holds the fields above. Products lists every product and service in the category.
- Attach products/services opens a searchable picker of your whole catalog. Tap an item to add it and tap it again to take it out. Items already in the category show as selected.
- Detach on a row takes the item out.
- Filters narrows a long list by name, SKU, or barcode, kind (product or service), where it sells, status, or simple or bundle. Filters change only what you see: saving keeps every attached item, including filtered-out ones.
- Nothing changes until you press Save.
You can also assign categories from the product form. Both places edit the same links. If your role cannot view products, the Products tab shows a notice and saving leaves the items as they are.
Categories show in name order on the register and the public menu. You cannot set the order by hand.
Works with
| Add-on or plan | What changes |
|---|---|
| Any plan | Categories are free on every plan. The total number of items is limited by plan, not the number of categories. |
| Online store | A category with Online store off hides items that are only in it from your online menu, item pages, and online orders. See Share Your Store Online. |
| Organization add-on | Categories can be matched across branches through catalog sync. See Catalog Sync. |