How the catalogue is organised

The shape of the tree

A Department is the top level — a broad area of the shop, like "Department A". Inside a department you can go two ways:

• Straight to Families — the level a product actually belongs to.
• Via a Sub-department first, if the department is big enough to need a middle layer, and families sit inside that instead.

So a family always lives directly under a department, or under a sub-department that itself lives under a department. A product is only ever attached to a family, never directly to a department or sub-department.

Departments

Departments are where the shop's structure starts. You reach them from Catalogue → Departments, which lists every department with its state and its sales. Opening one shows its own families (and sub-departments, if it has any).

To create one, press Create Department and fill in:

• Code — a short internal reference.
• Name — the department's full name.

Sub-departments

A sub-department is an optional middle shelf inside a department, for when "Department A" needs splitting further before you get down to families. You create one from inside its department, giving it the same Code and Name as a department. Everything below a sub-department works exactly like a department's own families — the extra layer only affects where things sit, not how they behave.

Families

A family is the level products actually sit in — the drawer, not the cabinet. You reach the full list from Catalogue → Families, or browse to one through its department (and sub-department, if it has one).

To create a family, press Create Family and fill in:

• Code
• Name
• Description (optional)

Once a family exists, its own Products screen lists everything filed there, and that is where new products are normally added underneath it.

Products

Products are the individual things you sell — one row per sellable item. A product's own page shows its code, name and other detail; the Products list under Catalogue → Products shows every product in the shop.

Most products arrive already built — brought in from the wider product library rather than typed in by hand family by family — and simply need to land in the right family. When one hasn't been given a family yet, it shows up as an Orphan Product. The Catalogue dashboard has an Orphan Products tile with a running count; opening it lists every family-less product with a tick box next to each row. Tick the ones that belong together, press Add … to Family, pick the family from the search box that appears, and press Submit — every ticked product moves there in one go. That screen is currently the way to move a product into a family from the Catalogue side; there is no separate "move" button on an individual product's own page.

Product states

Every product carries a state that tracks its life in the catalogue:

• In Process — still being set up, not yet ready.
• Active — normal, sellable.
• Discontinuing — being phased out; stock may still be in the warehouse, but it is on its way out.
• Discontinued — fully retired; will not be used again.

A product also carries a separate status that reflects whether it can actually be bought right now: For Sale, Not For Sale, Out of Stock, Coming Soon, or Discontinued (alongside In Process while it's still being built). State is about the product's lifecycle in the catalogue; status is closer to what a shopper would see.

Collections

A Collection is a separate grouping, alongside the department/family tree rather than inside it — a themed shelf you build for merchandising, that can pull products in from any family. You reach collections from Catalogue → Collections, and can also create one from inside a specific department or sub-department if you want it scoped that way.

To create a collection, press Create Collection and fill in:

• Code
• Name
• Description (optional)
• Image (optional)

A product being in a collection has no bearing on which family it belongs to — a product keeps its one family regardless of how many collections it also appears in.