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Product Catalog and Inventory Management

15-20 minutes

Tutorial 7.2: Product Catalog and Inventory Management

Introduction

Managing product inventory helps you track retail items sold to clients and professional supplies used in services. Luminate's inventory system tracks stock levels, displays low stock alerts, calculates profit margins, and records adjustments when stock changes.

Who this is for: Owner, Admin What you'll learn:

  • Add products to your catalogue
  • Assign a brand to each product
  • Set up pricing, SKUs, and barcodes
  • Track stock levels and low stock alerts
  • Adjust stock for deliveries and discrepancies
  • Use the Colour tab to add and stock-take gram-tracked colour products
  • Activate and deactivate products

Time to complete: 15-20 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Logged in as Owner or Admin with manage-products permission
  • Complete Tutorial 1.1 (Initial Salon Setup)
  • List of products with pricing information
  • Optional: colour formula mode set to Formulas or Full (Tutorial 20.2) — required before the Colour tab appears

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Access Product Management

  1. Click Products in the sidebar
  2. The Products page displays your current inventory
  3. Click Add Product in the top-right corner

Page header buttons: The Products tab also exposes Manage Categories and Manage Brands in the top-right, so you can jump straight to those catalogues without leaving the Products area.

Low Stock Alert: If any products are below their low stock threshold, a yellow alert card appears above the filter section. Click View Low Stock to filter to those products.

Step 2: Enter Basic Information

The first form section captures product identification:

Product Name (required): Enter the full product name as it appears on packaging.

Example: "Olaplex No. 3 Hair Perfector 100ml"

SKU (optional): Enter a unique stock keeping unit code.

Example: "OLAP-003-100"

Barcode (optional): Enter the product barcode from packaging. If you have a barcode scanner connected, scan the product to auto-fill this field.

Categories: Type to search existing categories or create new ones. Categories help filter and organise products. See Tutorial 7.3 for category management.

Brand (optional): Select a brand from the dropdown. Type to search the existing brands, or start typing a new name and click Create "{name}" to add it on the fly. Brands are managed as their own catalogue so they can be reused across products and colour supplies — see Tutorial 20.3 for full brand management.

Example: "Olaplex"

Description (optional): Add details about the product for staff reference.

Product Color (optional): Select a colour for the product. This colour appears as a visual indicator on the product list and in the QuickPOS screen, helping you quickly identify products. Click the colour picker to choose from preset colours or enter a custom hex code.

Step 3: Set Pricing

The Pricing section captures cost and sale information:

Cost Price (optional): Enter what you pay your supplier for this product. Leave blank if you don't track cost prices — margin reports will simply omit the cost figure for that product until it's filled in.

Retail Price (required): Enter the price you charge customers.

Commission Rate (optional): Enter the percentage staff earn when selling this product. Leave blank to use the staff member's default commission rate.

The system automatically calculates profit margin (displayed on the product list and detail pages).

Step 4: Configure Stock Management

The Stock Management section tracks inventory:

Current Stock: Enter the number of units currently in stock. Default is 0.

Low Stock Alert: Enter the threshold at which you want a low stock warning. When stock falls below this number, the product shows a "Low" badge.

Example: 5 (warn when fewer than 5 remain)

Reorder Quantity: Enter the typical quantity you order from suppliers. This is for reference when reordering.

Unit of Measure: Enter how the product is measured (e.g., "unit", "bottle", "box"). Default is "unit".

Expiry Date (optional): Select a date if the product expires. Expired products show an "Expired" badge.

Step 5: Configure Settings

The Settings section contains two checkboxes:

Product is active:

  • Checked (default): Product appears in transactions and lists
  • Unchecked: Product hidden from new transactions

Product is taxable:

  • Checked (default): VAT/tax applies to this product
  • Unchecked: Product is tax-exempt

Step 6: Save the Product

  1. Review all entered information
  2. Click Create Product
  3. You're redirected to the Products list
  4. A success message confirms the product was created

Managing Existing Products

View Product Details

Each product row on the index page displays a coloured bar on its left edge, matching the product's assigned colour. This makes it easy to visually identify products at a glance.

  1. Click any row in the Products table
  2. The product detail page shows the brand name as the page subtitle (under the product title) along with status, category and stock badges, and three info cards:
    • Pricing & Margin card (retail, cost, margin %, commission)
    • Stock Information card (current stock, threshold, reorder qty, expiry)
    • Product Details card (SKU, barcode, colour, taxable status, created date)

Edit a Product

  1. From the Products list, click Edit next to the product
  2. Or from the product detail page, click Edit
  3. Make your changes
  4. Click Update Product

Adjust Stock

When stock levels change (deliveries, stock takes, damage):

  1. From the product detail page, click Adjust Stock
  2. In the dialog, select:
    • Increase (for deliveries or corrections up)
    • Decrease (for damage, loss, or corrections down)
  3. Enter the Quantity to add or remove
  4. Enter an optional Reason (e.g., "Stock delivery invoice #123")
  5. Click Adjust Stock

The stock level updates immediately.

Deactivate a Product

To hide a product from new transactions without deleting it:

  1. From the Products list, click Deactivate next to the product
  2. Or from the product detail page, click Deactivate
  3. A confirmation dialog asks you to confirm — click Deactivate in the dialog to proceed, or Cancel to back out

Deactivated products don't appear in transaction product selections but remain in historical records. After deactivation a toast confirms the action and reminds you that the product is now hidden from the default view — switch the status filter to All to find it again.

Activate a Product

To restore a deactivated product:

  1. Switch the status filter at the top of the Products list from Active Only to All Products (or Inactive Only) to show inactive products in the list
  2. Click Activate next to the product

The Colour Tab — Gram-Tracked Colour Products

When your salon's colour formula mode is set to Formulas or Full (see Tutorial 20.2), the Products page gains a second tab labelled Colour. Regular retail and professional products live on the Products tab; colour products (tubes, bottles, developer etc. that are measured by weight) live on the Colour tab and are tracked in grams instead of units.

Why a separate catalogue? Colour formulas need exact gram-level stock tracking, cost-per-gram calculations, and an append-only stock movement log. The Colour tab is purpose-built for that — regular products keep their simple unit-based flow.

The page subtitle switches to "Manage gram stock levels for colour products." while you're on this tab. The header buttons reduce to Manage Brands and Add Colour Product.

Add a colour product

  1. Open the Colour tab on the Products page

  2. Click Add Colour Product in the top-right

  3. Fill in the dialog:

    Field Notes
    Product name Full product name (required)
    Brand Searchable dropdown with inline create — pick an existing brand or type a new one and press Create "{name}"
    Barcode Scan or type (optional); used by the Colour Bar's barcode capture
    SKU Optional
    Tube weight (g) The full container weight — e.g. 60 for a 60g tube, 1000 for a litre bottle (required)
    Cost price What you pay for one full container (required)
    Initial stock (g) Grams on hand right now (required — enter 0 if you're starting empty, or the full tube weight if it's a fresh container)

  4. Click Add Product — the product is created, tracked in grams from here on, and appears in the Colour tab list.

Cost per gram is calculated automatically as cost price ÷ tube weight and is displayed read-only on the row.

Inline stock edit (rapid stock take)

The Colour tab's Stock (g) column is an always-editable input so you can work through a physical stock take without navigating between pages:

  1. Click into the stock input for any product
  2. Type the new grams remaining
  3. Press Enter (or click out of the cell) to save; press Esc to cancel without saving
  4. A green Saved indicator confirms the save; tab to the next row to keep going

Each inline edit writes an audit row to the product stock movement log, so your history shows who adjusted what and when. See Tutorial 20.5 for the full stock-take workflow.

Edit or deactivate a colour product

Use the Edit and Deactivate buttons on each row. Edit opens a dialog where you can change name, brand, barcode, SKU, tube weight and cost. Deactivate zeroes the product's stock and hides it from new formula search in the Colour Bar, but it stays on historic formulas for record-keeping.

Sorting and filtering

The Colour tab supports:

  • Search by product name or brand (Search & Filter card above the table)
  • Sort by clicking the column headers — Product, Brand, Tube Size, Cost/g, Stock (g)
  • Filter by brand using the All Brands dropdown next to the search field

Filtering and Searching Products

Use the filters at the top of the Products page:

Search: Type to search by product name, brand, SKU, or barcode

Status filter: By default the list shows active products only. Use the status dropdown next to the search field to switch the view:

  • Active Only (default) — hides deactivated products
  • Inactive Only — shows only deactivated products (useful when looking for something to reactivate)
  • All Products — shows both active and inactive together

Categories: Select one or more categories to filter by

Additional Filters (checkboxes):

  • Low Stock Only: Show products below their low stock threshold
  • Out of Stock Only: Show products with zero stock

The table can be sorted by clicking column headers:

  • Product name
  • SKU
  • Retail price
  • Stock quantity

Understanding Stock Indicators

Indicator Meaning
Low (yellow badge) Stock is below the low stock threshold
Out (red badge) Stock is zero
Expired (red badge) Product has passed its expiry date

Stock count shows in the Stock column. Products flagged as low stock appear with yellow text highlighting.

Common Pitfalls

"Product doesn't appear when adding to transactions"

Check that the product is marked as Active. On the Products list, switch the status filter to All Products or Inactive Only to find and reactivate it.

"Stock level is incorrect"

Use Adjust Stock to correct the level. Enter the difference (not the final count) as an increase or decrease with a reason for the audit trail.

"Insufficient stock" error when decreasing

The Adjust Stock dialog will refuse a Decrease that would take the unit count below zero — it will show "Insufficient stock. Current stock: N" and leave the level unchanged. Either lower the quantity to match what's actually on hand, or do an Increase first if you've found more stock that wasn't recorded.

"Low stock alert isn't showing"

Verify the Low Stock Alert threshold is set. If the threshold is blank or 0, no alert will trigger.

"I can't scan barcodes"

Barcode scanning works automatically if you have a compatible USB barcode scanner connected. The scanner types the barcode into the active field. Place your cursor in the Barcode field before scanning.

Tips and Best Practices

  1. Set accurate thresholds - Calculate based on how quickly products sell and how long suppliers take to deliver
  2. Use consistent SKUs - Create a naming convention (e.g., BRAND-PRODUCT-SIZE)
  3. Check expiry dates - Set expiry dates for products that expire to avoid selling expired items
  4. Adjust stock promptly - Record deliveries and adjustments immediately to maintain accuracy
  5. Regular stock takes - Count physical inventory monthly and adjust any discrepancies
  6. Deactivate, don't delete - Deactivate discontinued products to preserve sales history

Related Tutorials

  • Tutorial 7.1: Creating and Managing Your Service Menu - Managing services
  • Tutorial 7.3: Using Tags to Organize Services and Products - Creating categories
  • Tutorial 20.3: Brands and Your Colour Catalogue - Manage brands as their own catalogue
  • Tutorial 20.4: Setting Up Colour Products - Deep dive on gram-tracked colour products
  • Tutorial 20.5: Colour Stock Take - Full stock take workflow with movement history

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I bulk import products from a spreadsheet?

Currently, products must be added individually through the form.

How do I handle products with multiple sizes?

Create separate product entries for each size (e.g., "Shampoo 300ml" and "Shampoo 500ml"). This allows accurate stock tracking per size.

What happens when I sell a product?

When a product is added to a completed transaction, the stock level decreases automatically.

Can I track professional products used in services?

Yes. Add them as products with the retail price set to your cost price (no markup). Use Adjust Stock to decrease when you use them, or estimate usage periodically.

How do I record a stock delivery?

Use Adjust Stock with Increase and enter the quantity received. Add the invoice number in the Reason field for reference.

Do price changes affect existing transactions?

No. Price changes only affect future transactions. Historical transactions retain their original prices.

What's the difference between Low Stock and Out of Stock?

Low Stock: Stock is below your threshold (time to reorder) Out of Stock: Stock is zero (no units available)

Can I use a regular product in a colour formula?

No — colour formulas need gram-level stock tracking, and regular products are counted by unit. Add colour supplies via the Colour tab's Add Colour Product dialog so they're tracked in grams from day one. If you have a product in the wrong catalogue, the cleanest fix is to deactivate the regular entry and re-create it on the Colour tab.

I'm in Notes mode — why don't I see a Colour tab?

The Colour tab only appears when your salon's colour formula mode is Formulas or Full. Change the mode via Settings > Colour (see Tutorial 20.2). If you'd rather stick to freeform colour notes, leave the mode on Notes and ignore this tab.

Will deleting a brand remove its products?

Brands and products are kept separate. Deleting a brand prompts you to reassign its products to another brand (or leave them brand-less). See Tutorial 20.3 for the full brand lifecycle.

Last Updated: May 2026