CONTENTS

How complex should I make my category tree?

Do I have to set up my entire category tree now? Can I change it later?

Pre-requisites for Products

Whenever you enter details of a product into Cybertill, as well as entering the obvious things (e.g. name and price), there are other less-obvious fields that it will probably be beneficial to fill in, if you’re to get the best out of the system later on.

For example, every product can have a Brand assigned to it.

This means that before you save any product details, you should probably enter a list of brands into the system first.

Were you to try and create a product before entering a list of brands, you’d come across a box prompting you to “Please select a brand” – but there aren’t any brands available to select! And although you would be allowed to leave this box blank if you really wanted to, chances are you’d regret it later, because you won’t be able to use certain areas of Cybertill at all without having this kind of information saved. (For example, without assigning a brand to each of your products, you won’t be able to report on “best-selling brands”.)

This principle applies to a number of ‘important fields’:

Suppliers
Brands
Seasons
VAT Codes
Categories
Stock Refs

This manual will take you through setting up each of these.

We’d recommend that you take the time to enter all of the above in one big go (with the possible exception of Categories, which are a bit more convenient to enter ‘on the fly’ than the others). Were you to try enter your brands (for example) as and when you need them, you’d end up having to flit back and forth between the “create new product” and “create new brand” pages to do it – and it usually takes more time that way.

Why do I need a Category Tree?

Creating a Category Tree will make it a lot easier to manage your products. If you’ve ever used a PC before, this analogy should be a good one:

You know how your PC’s ‘My Documents’ folder is divided up into subfolders, such as ‘My Music’, ‘My Pictures’, ‘My Videos’ etc? Well, imagine if you didn’t have those subfolders, and all of your files were lumped together in a single massive list. If you needed to find a specific file in that list, it might be quite tricky to find.

The same principle applies in Cybertill too. If you categorise your products, it makes it much easier for you to find them later (meaning it’ll be easier to sell them and/or change their prices, amongst other things).

Also, when you run sales and stock reports later, you’ll have the option to see reports about specific categories. For example, the clothing shop described previously would be able to very easily find out which of the Ladies, Mens or Childrens departments was generating the most sales, or see exactly which Mens Formal products they had in stock (to describe but a few).

How complex should I make my category tree?

This answer all depends on what types of products, and how many different products, you sell.

There are a couple of general guidelines, though:

If you only have a handful of Categories, each containing thousands of products, then you’d probably benefit from creating some Subcategories to break those thousands down into several smaller lists. If the aforementioned large clothing shop had different floors for Ladies, Mens and Childrens, but each of those floors was not further broken down into Formal, Casual etc – i.e. it was different types of clothes muddled up all over the place, then you’d have a hard time shopping there!

On the other hand, if you have endless Categories within Categories within Categories (sub-sub-sub-subcategories), all containing just one or two products each, you’ve probably gone too far; you probably don’t need that deep a category tree. (It’s analogous to having a sub-folder in your PC’s ‘My Music’ area for every single song. Wouldn’t it be much more sensible to create folders for every album, or every artist?) It’s rare (albeit not unheard of) for a retailer’s category tree to go further than three or four levels.

Let’s run with the clothing store example a little further. Let’s say the store sells about 3000 products that fall under the umbrella term of Menswear. You could divide Menswear into subcategories of Formal, Casual, Underwear and Nightwear, for example. (That takes us to “level 2” in our category tree. At this level, we’re looking at roughly 1000 products per category.) You might then go on to divide Casual into sub-sub-categories of Jeans, Shirts, Shoes and so on. (That’s taken us to ‘level 3’, where we’re probably down to no more than a few hundred products per category at most.)

Sticking with the same example, if you sold hundreds of different types of Jeans, it might then be prudent to create another level of subcategories to organize them, For example: Boot-cut, Straight, Loose fit, and so forth. (That’s ‘level 4’ – and by now we’re almost certainly at a point where there’s no more than a few dozen products per subcategory at most.)

You’d be struggling to break things down any further than that – and even if you somehow managed it, you’d probably only have a very small amount of products in each subcategory, and therefore it probably wouldn’t gain you anything.

Do I have to set up my entire category tree now? Can I change it later?

You don’t necessarily have to set up your entire category tree right this second. In fact, it’s probably best that you don’t! It’s worth taking some time to think it through. Also, it might be wise to try creating a few products first as well, so you’ve seen how it all comes together at the end. That way, you’ll get a broader understanding of how the system works, so you’ll be able to make more informed decisions about your category tree.

We’d suggest you try adding at least a few categories now, so that;

you get a feel for this part of the system
you’re able to have a go at creating Products later.

Note: you need to have created at least one Category before you can create any products.

You can amend your category tree later, so don’t worry too much about making a mess at this early stage. Your category tree will not be set in stone – you can alter it any time you like (as you’ll see in a short while).

Creating new categories

Start by logging into RetailStore/ CharityStore with your Username* & Password*.

Select the Admin menu.

From within the Products and Categories section,

select Products and Categories.

If you are yet to create any Categories, then you should be taken to a rather empty looking page.

To add your first Category,

type the Category’s name into the Name* field
then click the Add new sub-category button.

You should see your new category’s name appear at the top of the screen:

You’ve just created a category, and have automatically been taken inside it.

Note: In the above screenshot, we’re inside the ‘CDs’ category.

Let’s not do anything in there just yet, though. Let’s drop back a level and create another category.

To do this,

click the Primary link at the top left.

This’ll take you right back to the start point (or the ‘root’ or ‘primary category’, to use the correct term). Your screen should look something like this:

Try adding another category in exactly the same way as before by entering a Category name into the Name* field, and clicking the Add new sub-category button.

Again, you’ll be taken inside your new category.

Click Primary to drop back, and repeat the whole process until you’ve created all of your ‘level 1’ categories.

Once created, they should look similar to the image below:

Next, try entering into one of your categories. Do this by,

clicking on the name of your Category.

You will now be taken inside that category

Note the Primary > CDs line at the top of the screen. That’s where you can see which Category you are currently in.

Also note that you have an Add New sub-category button here, just like before.

If you wanted to create a Subcategory inside of ‘CDs’, you do it in much the same way as before, i.e. by typing the Subcategory’s name into the empty box, then clicking the Add new sub-category button.

You should have now been taken inside your new Subcategory.

Again, note the Primary > CDs > Classical line at the top, telling you where you currently are.

You could go on to create as many categories-within-categories if required.

To come back out of Classical,

click on either the Primary or CDs links at the top left.

Note: Clicking either of those would take you back to the relevant ‘level’.

Editing categories

Continuing with the examples depicted above, let’s say we wanted to edit the ‘Classical’ subcategory, so it was called something else.

First, locate to the preceding category (i.e. one ‘level’ back from the Category you wanted to amend).

Note: in the shown example, that’s the CDs category.

Here’s what CDs currently looks like:

Next,

click the little Edit link for that category.

The Edit Category page is where you can edit and delete categories from.

If you want to change the Category’s name,

simply edit the Name* field at the top accordingly, then Save.

You’ll be taken back out of that editing page, and you’ll see that your category’s new name has been saved.

Deleting categories

Category’s can only be completely removed as long as they don’t contain anything or have a history. If a category contains anything – i.e. products or subcategories, you won’t be allowed to delete it.

This has been designed to prevent users from accidentally wiping out half their system with a couple of erroneous clicks.

To remove an unwanted Category,

open up that category’s editing panel by clicking its Edit icon at the right:

At the very bottom left of the Edit Category page, you should see an option to Delete:

Select the Delete box to tick it
Select Save.

Can I cut and paste categories?

No. You can only create them, rename them, and delete them.

Categories AKA Departments

It’s worth mentioning that categories are occasionally referred to as ‘departments’ in some parts of Cybertill. In Cybertill, ‘Categories’ and ‘departments’ are interchangeable terms.

Categories User Manual