1. What is this module about

Catalog items are all the objects that can be used in other modules but are often not physically available at the customer’s location or only represent certain consumables in general (e.g. a ‘Coffee’ does not mean a specific cup of coffee already waiting to be reserved, but the general concept of a cup of coffee, which will be created just ahead of time), 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 named ‘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 applies to contracts; 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 makes it less error-prone and makes it clearer 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:

Open

Catalog item categories

2. Additional information on this module

More information on the Catalog Item 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.