1. What is this module about
Catalog items are all the objects that can be used in other modules, but are not physically available at the customer’s location, as opposed to assets, which are all the objects that are physically present. Therefore, as the name suggested, catalog items are part of a catalog of potential objects. These catalog items can be used for multiple purposes:
Reservable items: Catalog items can be used as ‘Services/Catering’ in reservations. The lunch, coffee, etc are not already present/created when you select to reserve. You select them from a catalog
Work order items: Catalog items can be used as ‘fixed tasks/price’ options in work orders. For instance, create a catalog item with the name ‘Empty garbage container’ and a fixed price (negotiated with a contractor). This item can be added to work orders instead of adding a free text description and manually adding a price every time, making it easier and less error-prone to specify certain tasks in work orders. The same also applies to contracts and therefore catalog items can also be linked to contract items.
Orderable items: Catalog items can be used as a list of products that can be purchased at a supplier via a purchase order. having a fixed list of catalog items with fixed prices, it becomes less error-prone and more clear to users which products can be purchased and at what prices
Meter type: Catalog items can also be used to register different meter types (gas, water and energy) and link these to the energy meters. For more information, see: Energy meters module
Since catalog items are only relevant in relation to some of the other modules, the catalog module is automatically enabled if a relevant module (Reservations, Work orders, Contracts, Purchase orders, Energy meters) is enabled.
Most of the core concepts of this module can be managed by key users (Catalog item editors). Therefore, most concepts are described in the user manual, which can be found here: User manual: Catalog items
The next parts will go into more detail on some of the core concepts of this module that are mostly relevant for administrators:
1.1.1 Categories
Each catalog item that is created is created in a category. For more general information about categories, see: Categories
The following default categories are available for this module:
2. Additional information on this module
More information on the Asset module can be found via the following related articles:
For an (end) user manual, see: User manual: Catalog items
For more detailed implementation information (including which system groups are involved, data imports, and more information on the startboard and navigation menu options), see the module activation articles for some of the related modules mentioned above: Module activations