Setting Up Item List & Inventory

Add services and products to your FieldPulse catalog by import, accounting sync, or by hand, so every estimate and invoice pulls from the same list.

Who uses this: Admins and Founding Users have full access; Team Managers and Service Agents need the Ability to View Item List permission. Availability: All regions.

The item list is your catalog of everything you sell — services, products you track, and products you do not track. When you build an estimate or invoice, every line item on it comes from the item list. You build the item list three ways — a mass import, an accounting sync, or adding items by hand — and inventory is the slice of that same list you have chosen to track by quantity, value, and location.

Overview

The item list and inventory are two views of the same catalog, and keeping the two terms straight makes the rest of this page simple.

The item list holds every product and service you offer — service, product - inventory, and product - non inventory items — along with relevant information such as quantity, value, and other attributes. Line items on estimates and invoices are added from the item list.

Inventory is the catalog of only the line items you have designated as product - inventory, along with relevant information such as quantity, value, location, and other attributes. Every inventory item is an item-list item, but not every item-list item is inventory.

The item type you choose on each item is what decides which of the two views it lands in:

Item type	What it is	Examples
Service	A non-physical item.	Labor, equipment hire, overhead
Product - inventory	A material you track.	Pipe, hot water unit
Product - non inventory	A material you do not track — a material you order from a supplier as needed.	Water softener system

Video walkthrough

Video walkthrough: setting up the item list and inventory

Before you begin

• Decide which materials you track as product - inventory and which you offer without tracking stock as service or product - non inventory. The item type is set on each item as you create it.

• Set up your Inventory Hubs Overview first if you want stock counted by location, so you can assign quantities to a hub while you add each item.

• Confirm the user has the Ability to View Item List permission turned on. See Setting Up Inventory Permissions.

Step-by-step setup

Choose how to add your items

You can add line items to the item list three ways. Pick the one that matches where your items live today.

Method	Use it when	Where to start
Mass import	Your catalog is already in a spreadsheet and you want to bring it in all at once.	How to Import Your Item List
Accounting integration	Your line items already live in QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, or Xero, and you want them synced.	QuickBooks Online Overview, QuickBooks Desktop Overview, or Xero Overview
Manual add	You are building the catalog a few items at a time.	The steps below

Add a line item on web

1. Select Invoices in the left-side menu, then select the Item List tab in the header.

2. Select Create Item.

   

3. Enter the Item Name.

4. Choose the Item Type — a service, a product you track in inventory, or a product you do not track in inventory.

5. Enter an Item #/SKU if you use one.

6. Optionally set the Unit Cost, Unit Price, Default Quantity, Taxed, and Description. None of these are required, because price, quantity, and taxation can be modified after the item is inserted into an invoice. If you do fill them out, they automatically populate the line item with default values in all of your invoices, and those values can still be modified after they are added.

   

7. Optionally add a markup percentage. See How to Use Markups & Margins.

8. Under Advanced, add Item Tags and a UPC (Barcode) for the item if you use them.

9. Link a Supplier if the item type is product - non inventory or product - inventory.

10. For a product - inventory item, turn on Track by Serialized Inventory to give each unit a serial number. See Serialized Inventory Overview.

11. For a product - inventory item, add inventory to different hubs and set up auto-replenishment. See Inventory Hubs Overview and How to Manage Purchase Orders.

    

12. Select Save Item. The new line item is saved in the item list and you can now use it on estimates and invoices.

Add or update items by barcode on mobile

The mobile barcode scanner adds new items and updates existing ones without searching by name, and it lets you update cost, pricing, inventory, and inventory location quickly.

1. In the mobile app, select Full Menu, then select Item List.

2. Select the barcode Scan icon.

   

   

3. Point your device camera at the barcode.

4. If the barcode does not exist in your system, the screen reads No Results Found. Select Create New Item to add it.

5. If the barcode is already in your system, adjust the item name, unit cost, and unit price on the scan screen.

   

6. Select Open Full Item to edit the rest of the item. From there you can make edits on the Main Info, Advanced, and Pricing Options tabs, and adjust the count for each inventory hub in the Inventory section below.

Settings reference

Every field on an item-list item, and what it is for:

Field	What it means	Example
Item Name	A descriptive name for the item.	Copper Pipe - 1/2 inch x 10 feet
Item Type	Whether the item is a service, a material you track, or a material you do not track.	Service, Product - Inventory, or Product - Non-Inventory
Item #/SKU	A unique identifier or stock-keeping unit for tracking the item.	CP125-10FT
Unit Cost	The cost incurred per unit for the item.	$5.00 per unit
Unit Price	The price at which the item is sold per unit.	$10.00 per unit
Default Quantity	The default quantity on hand for the item.	100 units
Taxed	Whether the item is subject to taxes.	Yes or No
Item Tag	A label or tag for additional categorization or grouping.	”High-Demand”, “Special Order”
UPC (Barcode)	The Universal Product Code or barcode for the item.	012345678912
Supplier	The company or entity the item is sourced from.	Plumbing Supply Co.
Track by Serialized Inventory	Whether each item has a unique serial number for tracking.	Yes or No
Hub Selection	Selects from your current hubs and adds inventory levels to a specific hub.	”Office”, “Brice’s Truck”

Related articles

• Serialized Inventory Overview
• Inventory Hubs Overview
• How to Deduct and Count Inventory
• Setting Up Inventory Permissions
• Setting Up Item Custom Fields
• How to Import Your Item List

Your setup is working when the Item List tab shows the items you added, each one pulls onto an estimate or invoice as a line item, and the items you saved as product - inventory appear under Inventory with a quantity against them.