The catalog
The catalog is your price book: the products, services and subscriptions you sell, with their prices, picked into quote and invoice lines.
The catalog in Combdex is your price book: every product, service and subscription you sell, with its price, its category and its photos. A quote or an invoice takes its lines from it, so a price is typed once and used on every job.
Available on web and the mobile app, on every plan. The route on web is /catalog.
What is in the catalog?
Every item marked Show in catalog. Each item has one of three types, chosen when you add it:
| Type | What it is |
|---|---|
| Product | A physical good: parts, hardware, materials |
| Service | Work you charge a set price for |
| Subscription | A recurring plan billed on a schedule |
The type sets which fields the editor shows. Only a product has stock, cost, SKU and images by default; a service and a subscription do not track stock. An item you hide from the catalog stays in inventory, so its history and its lines on past quotes stay intact.
How do I browse the catalog?
The catalog opens on Grid: one card per item, grouped by category, with the items that have no category under Uncategorized. The List tab shows the same items as a table with the columns Image, Item, Category, Type and Price, plus Stock when the company tracks it.
- Type in the search box to find an item by name, SKU or description.
- Filter by Category from the toolbar.
- Press a card or a row to open the item in the side panel. Expand the panel to open the full item page.
How do I add an item?
- Open Catalog and press New product.
- Choose the item type: Product, Service or Subscription.
- Enter the name and the price. Add a category, a description, a SKU, a unit of measure and photos as you need them.
- Save the item.
Super admins and Admins add and edit items. Every other user browses and picks. Items are edited the same way from Inventory, which has the full list; see Inventory. Fields your trade needs and the item does not have are added as custom fields.
How does an item get onto a quote?
On a quote or an invoice line, search your catalog and pick the item. The line takes the item's name, description and selling price, and you can change the quantity or the price on that line without changing the catalog. A technician at the door prices a job this way from the phone. The steps are in Writing a quote and Invoices and statuses.
Who sees the price and who sees the cost?
Every user sees the selling price, because a line cannot be picked without it. Cost and margin are a separate rule:
| Who | Selling price | Cost and margin |
|---|---|---|
| Super admin | Yes | Yes |
| Admin | Yes | Only when given "costs and margins" |
| User | Yes | No |
Cost and margin on the catalog are not on the entry plan; the plan that adds them is in Plans, seats and limits. The full rule is in Money visibility.
Which fields does an item have?
The fields come from the field registry, so the same labels print in the table, the editor and the side panel. The common ones are Item, Category, Type, Price, Cost, Margin (calculated from price and cost), SKU, Description, Unit of measure, Billing frequency, Taxable and Show in catalog. Identity fields such as Manufacturer, Manufacturer part number, Model and Barcode are in the editor for a company that needs them. A sale price shows the regular price struck through beside it.
Does the catalog connect to my CRM?
Yes, through the CRM connection. From the plan that adds the CRM connection, you search the CRM's product library and push an item you edited in Combdex back to it.
What Combdex does not do yet
- There is no import of a supplier price list into the catalog.
- A price change in the catalog does not change the lines of a quote or an invoice that already uses the item. Each line keeps the price it was written with.
Questions people ask
Who can add an item to the catalog?
Super admins and Admins. Every user can browse the catalog and pick its items into a quote or invoice line at the selling price.
Can a technician see what an item cost us?
No. A User sees the selling price only. Cost, margin and stock valuation show to the Super admin, and to an Admin who has been given costs and margins.
What is the difference between the catalog and inventory?
They are two views of the same items. The catalog shows the items marked Show in catalog, to read and pick. Inventory is the full item list with stock, where items are edited.
Does the catalog work on the phone?
Yes. The phone has the catalog with search and item details. It reads from the phone's own store, so it opens with no signal.