Set Up Products and Inventory

Last updated: 2026-06-06 Summary:

The catalog is a hard dependency: every invoice line and bill line comes from it. Build it before you transact.
Each product maps to GL accounts once, so every sale and purchase posts consistently afterward.
Plans that include inventory tracking add stock cards, adjustments, movements, and the BIR Inventory Book on top of the catalog.

Build the catalog

Go to Inventory → Products and create your products and services.
For each item, set the SKU, description, cost, and selling price.
Map the GL accounts — where its income, cost of goods sold, and asset value post. This is set once per product; every transaction that uses the product posts through it from then on.
Organize with categories. Categories aren’t just tidiness — on the AP side they inform which withholding code is suggested when you pay for things. See Pay a vendor and issue the 2307.

With inventory tracking enabled — see Pricing for what your plan includes — you also get:

Stock Card — the per-product movement history: every receipt, sale, and adjustment with running quantity.
Adjustments — correct counts after a physical count, with the GL posting handled.
Movements — the transaction-level inventory ledger.
Inventory Book — the BIR book of accounts format, generated from the same records. See Recordkeeping & audit.

Trying to invoice before the catalog exists. Invoice lines require a product or service. A minimal catalog — even one generic service item — unblocks invoicing; refine later.
Wrong GL mapping discovered late. A product mapped to the wrong income account posts every sale wrong until someone notices in a report. Sanity-check mappings with your accountant when you set them.
Service businesses overthinking this. If you sell services, you don’t need stock tracking — a catalog of your service items with prices and income accounts is the whole job.