Adding, editing, or copying a product

SECURITY  Security level with Admin permission to configure Products, Services, & Inventory. Refer to Admin security settings.

NAVIGATION   > Admin > Features & Settings > Products, Services, & Inventory > Products

NAVIGATION   > Inventory > Inventory > Products. This option requires custom security permission assigned at the Inventory level. Refer to Creating or editing a custom security level.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN  Unless you import a product list and your material codes are created during the import, you must set up material codes first. Refer to Material codes.

Standard products and billing products

The Product pages contain two types of items that don't have much in common and are intended for use in two completely different ways: regular products and billing products.

The two kinds of products are distinguishable by their billing type.

  • All products that were created before the 2019.2 release are regular products and are associated with the Standard billing type. They are available for selection when you create a device or a ticket, project or contract charge.
  • The second and third billing types are for use with rule based billing. Products with this billing type act more like a service. They are associated with a contact or device for the sole purpose of getting them counted by a billing rule for the same billing product.
    • Per Contact Billing Rules only: You are setting up a product that can be selected in contract billing rules to create charges to bill by the contact.
    • Per Device Billing Rules only: You are setting up a product that can be selected in contract billing rules to create charges to bill by the device.

NOTE  Devices are always the association of a regular product with an organization Your Autotask instance may be configured to use one of the following terms instead: Account, Business Unit, Client Company, Customer, Site.. A Lenovo laptop associated with ACME Corp is a device.

IMPORTANT  If you are billing by the device, you associate a Per Device Billing Rules only type product with the already existing device. Doing so will tag it to be counted by a billing rule. Billing rules can replace the billing mechanism for services or products, such as recurring services or subscriptions. They do not replace the standard products the devices are based on.

Unique features of billing products

Billing products don't function like a product in the traditional sense. It may be easier to think of them as service billing items. That's why they can't be serialized or require procurement. For the same reason, the entire Vendor section is hidden as soon as you select a rule based billing type.

On the other hand, you can set up volume based or tiered pricing for billing products.

How to...

  1. To open the page, use the path(s) in the Security and navigation section above.
  2. Click New, or select Edit Product or Copy Product from the context menu. The New Product, Edit Product, or Copy Product page opens.
  3. Populate or modify the following fields.

NOTE  Text fields in Autotask allow the entry of a finite number of characters. For more information on those limits, refer to Character limits of text fields.

Field Name Description

Summary tab

Product Name (required)

 

The Product Name appears on quotes, the Devices list, and on the customer invoice. The field size is 1,000 characters.

Product names do not have to be unique. You can use data in other fields to differentiate them.

Depending on how you are planning to use products, you can set up your products with generic names such as "printer" or "server," or use individual model names and numbers and track unit cost and price.
Product Category Select a Product Category name. The use of product categories is optional, but doing so helps you organize a long product list. Refer to Adding product categories for more information.
Billing Type

The Billing Type field determines when the product you are creating is available for selection. You have the following options:

  • Standard: This value is the default. You are setting up a regular product that is available for selection when you create a device or a ticket, project, or contract cost. Products with a Standard billing type are not available for creating contract billing rules.
  • Per Contact Billing Rules only: You are setting up a product that is selectable in contract billing rules to create charges to bill by the contact.
  • Per Device Billing Rules only: You are setting up a product that can be selected in contract billing rules to create charges to bill by the device.

Once a product has been created, this field cannot be edited. You can have up to 100 products of type Per Contact Billing Rules only or Per Device Billing Rules only.

Refer to Standard products and billing products.
Product Description The Product Description will appear on quotes and invoices. You can enter up to 8000 characters, or you can leave it blank.
Active New products are active by default. Inactive products cannot be put on a quote or installed to a customer.

Serialized

 

This check box appears if the Inventory module is enabled. If you enable serialization for a product, you must enter specific serial numbers when you receive inventory items or install devices at a customer site based on the product.

This field is cleared and disabled for the Per Contact and Per Device billing types.

NOTE  Once inventory exists for a product, the Serialized status cannot be changed.
Does not require Procurement

This field appears only when the Procurement module is enabled. When this box is cleared (default setting), quote items or charges based on the product will require procurement. When selected, the items will not be subject to approval or appear on the Purchasing & Fulfillment page. Refer to Introduction to Inventory.

This field is cleared and disabled for Per Contact and Per Device billing types.
Eligible for RMA

This check box determines if devices can be repaired, replaced, or returned. Refer to Requesting an RMA for a device.

Select this check box to make the product eligible for Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA).

Default Device Type

Device types allow you to classify and organize devices. For example, for workstations you may want to use Device Type to clarify if it is a laptop or a desktop, or if it is company property or personally owned. Device Type is also used by the IT Glue integration to determine what to sync and how to label devices in IT Glue.

Select an Device Type from the drop-down list.

Default Device Category

IMPORTANT  Datto has changed the default term from Asset to Device, and the online help has made this change as well. If you would like to do the same in your Autotask instance, refer to Selecting a currency and local terms and symbols.

The device's category controls the fields that appear on the Device, the New Device, and the Edit Device pages. If you are creating devices using the Domain or SSL Certificate categories, additional components will appear. Refer to Creating and updating a Domain device and Creating an SSL Certificate device.

Select a Device Category from the drop-down list.

Material Code (required) The Material Code is required. It categorizes product sales for reporting purposes, determines the tax category of a product, and allows exported billing items to be mapped to the proper general ledger account in an external accounting software package. Refer to Setting up billing codes and Autotask to QuickBooks Mapping.
Price/Cost Method

Product:

Select the pricing policy for this product from the following options:

  • Standard (Flat): When you select Standard (Flat), the Unit Cost, Unit Price, and Markup % fields are visible.
  • Tiered or Volume: When you select Tiered or Volume and click Edit, the Edit Cost/Price page opens. These are available for Per Contact and Per Device products only.

Refer to Setting up volume-based and tiered pricing.

Billing Rules:

The product's Price/Cost Method cannot be overridden. If the product is tiered then the billing rule will also be tiered, but the unit breakpoints, price, and cost can be overridden on the billing rule.

Period Type The Period Type determines the billing frequency of the product.

When the billing type is Per Contact or Per Device, the period type is set to Monthly and is not editable.
Unit Cost

Unit Cost is the internal cost of the item, or the amount the vendor charges you. This field appears on entities that are part of the billing workflow, but it is hidden from users who do not have permission to view internal cost data.

When you select the Item Name, the Unit Cost is populated from the source list (if available), but it can be edited.

Markup %

Unit Cost, Markup %, and Unit Price are linked. Populate any two, and the remaining field is calculated. This field is grayed out until either the Unit Cost or Unit Price field are populated.

NOTE  If you do not have permission to view internal cost data, this field is not visible.
Unit Price

The amount you charge your customer for the product. The difference between Unit Cost and Unit Price is the Product Revenue, which appears in the Financials calculations.
MSRP

The manufacturer's suggested retail price. This field appears on quote items, but it is hidden from users who do not have permission to view internal cost data. This field is read-only.

Internal Product ID This value represents an internal ID code, if used. This field appears on the printed purchase order.
Manufacturer

The company responsible for making a product.

Select or view the name of the product's manufacturer.

External Product ID Use to cross-reference an external product list.
Manufacturer Product Number Use this field to reference a manufacturer product number.
Product Link Enter a URL, for example to a manufacturer's product web site. This URL is added to the product description on a quote and can be clicked by your customer to learn more about the product. After entering the URL, click Preview to test the link. On the page that opens, click the Web Page link.
Product SKU Enter an SKU code, if available.
Product Photo

Click Upload to upload a photo of the product. A product photo will appear on the product insight and is useful to technicians in the field when it is visible on a service desk ticket.
Vendors Table 

A table list that allows you to associate one or more vendors with the product. From the table, you can add, edit, delete, activate, and deactivate vendors. If your company is using the Inventory module, you must add at least one vendor or you cannot add this product to an Inventory purchase order. Refer to the following section on Associate a product with vendors.

The Vendors table is hidden for Per Contact/Device Billing Rules only billing types.
User Defined Tab
Product User-Defined Fields Complete the fields on the UDF tab as needed. This tab contains any UDFs your Autotask administrator has created for products.
Inventory Tab (displayed if Inventory is enabled)
New Inventory Product

The Inventory tab is disabled for Per Contact and Per Device billing types.

Click New to create an inventory item for this product. Refer to Adding or editing inventory products and stocked items.
Notes Tab (displayed if Inventory is enabled)
New Note (Edit Product page only) Refer to Product notes.

Products may be associated with one or more vendors.

NOTE  Products of type Per Contact and Per Device do not allow you to select a vendor.

  • If your company uses Inventory in Autotask, but does not use Procurement, you must add at least one vendor to the list so the product can be added to purchase orders. You cannot associate a product with a vendor when you create a purchase order from the Purchase Orders page.
  • If your company uses Inventory and Procurement, when you create a new purchase order from the Purchasing & Fulfillment page, you can specify a vendor when the purchase order is created. But, if your company also creates purchase orders directly from the Purchase Orders page, products must have an associated vendor.
  • If your Autotask instance has Multi-currency enabled, the Cost field will display the currency indicator. It defaults to your internal currency. When you select a vendor account associated with a different currency, the indicator changes to the vendor currency. The value you enter into the Cost field is assumed to be in the vendor currency.

To associate a vendor with this product:

  1. In the Vendors table of the New or Edit Product page, click New.
  2. In the Vendor Name field, begin to type a name and select the correct name from the list of matching vendors, or click the selector icon next to the Vendor Name field and select a vendor.
  1. In the Cost field, enter your cost when ordering this item from this vendor.
    If your Autotask instance has Multi-currency enabled, the Cost field will display the currency indicator. It defaults to your internal currency. When you select a vendor account associated with a different currency, the indicator changes to the vendor currency. The value you enter into the Cost field is assumed to be in the vendor currency.

    2. NOTE  If you do not have permission to view internal cost data, this field is not visible.

  2. Enter a Vendor Part Number if available.
  3. If you are adding the first vendor, the Active and Default check boxes are selected by default. You do not need to select either box.
  1. If you are adding an additional vendor:

The Active check box is selected by default but you can clear the check box and make the vendor inactive.

The Default check box is clear. Click to designate the vendor as the default vendor for this product.

NOTE   A product can have only one default vendor.

  1. Click OK.
  2. Add additional vendors as needed, or click Save & Close.

NOTE   To edit or delete a line item, right-click it and select an option.