In a recent DIY post, I explained how to get the Openbravo point of sale (POS) up and running. Unfortunately, the process of entering inventory in the system is not as simple as you might imagine. Learn the steps you need to take before adding inventory in Openbravo POS, as well as instructions on entering inventory. (The process of creating products is the same for any platform.)

Taxes

Taxes are crucial for the selling of items, for the generation of reports, and for end of year taxes. It’s critical that you enter the necessary tax information before entering an inventory item in Openbravo POS. Follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Openbravo POS system.

2. Go to the Administrator section and click the Stock button to open the screen where you will do most of your inventory work (Figure A).
Figure A

Maintain and report on your inventory from one convenient location.

3. Click the Taxes button to open the Taxes section (Figure B), where you can create, edit, and delete new tax types.

4. To create a new tax, click the New button (the third icon from the right) and fill in the necessary information.

Figure B

You must enter a Valid From date in order to save a new tax rate.

5. Click the Save icon.

The new tax rate will be listed by name in the left navigation. You can create as many taxes as you need for your business.

Item Categories

Item Categories makes it easier to search and display your inventory. Here’s how to set up the feature.

1. From the Administrator screen, click the Stock button and then click Categories. From the resulting window (Figure C), you can create new categories.

2. Click the New button and give the category a name.

3. If the new category is a sub-category, select its parent from the Category drop-down.

4. If you want an image associated with the category, set that up now. You can resize a Category image by adjusting the Percentage Up or Down buttons.

5. Click Save to save the new category.

To create another category, be sure to click the New button; otherwise, you’ll overwrite the category you just created.

Figure C

Openbravo’s Categories window

Product Attributes

By adding attributes such as Size, Color, and Serial Number to inventory items, you can save a lot of time when entering a lot of inventory at once. Here’s how to create Product Attributes:

1. Click the Administrator button.

2. Go to Stock | Product Attributes (Figure D) and click the New button.

3. Give the attribute a name and click Save.

Figure D

The type of attributes you create will depend on your business.

Now you need to give the attributes values by going to Administrator | Stock | Attribute Values. The attributes will be in the form of XS, S, M, L, and so on (to further define the attributes). These values are created in the same way as you created the Attributes, except you select the Attribute from the top drop-down to which the values will belong. Once you select an Attribute, create all the values necessary.

You can also create Attribute Sets, which can combine two Attributes into one, such as Size and Color. Once you create Attribute Sets (and you’ve already created Attributes), you can go to Attribute Use and assign Attributes to Attribute Sets. You must assign an order for the Attribute in the Attribute Set; for example, in the Attribute Set “Size and Color,” you should assign the Attributes “Size” and “Color” with the respective values of “1” and “2.”

Inventory items

It’s finally time to add inventory in Openbravo POS by clicking the Administrator button and then going to Stock | Products. You should have all of your taxes, categories, and attributes set, so it’s just a matter of adding descriptions and costs and selecting various pieces of information from drop-downs (Figure E).
Figure E

There are drop-downs for all of the items we created earlier.

The process of adding inventory is simple yet time-consuming. In a future DIY post, I’ll dig into how to sell items from Openbravo POS.