About item types

In the Type field on the Item Card page, you can select what the item is used for in your business, which affects the degree to which you can manage the item in inventory. The following table lists and describes the three types of items that are available.

Option	Typical Purpose
Inventory	Physical things, such as bicycles, telephones, and desks, for which you want to be able to use all inventory processes. Inventory items can also include nonphysical items, such as software licenses and subscriptions, if the items have identification numbers, such as serial numbers. You can fully track item values and availability in inventory.
Non-Inventory	Typically, noninventory items are physical things, such as bolts or pens, that your business consumes but doesn't fully track in inventory. For example, because they're low-cost items and only used internally.
Service	A labor time unit, such as a consultancy hour, for limited business support.

Note

The Service and Non-Inventory types don't let you track inventory quantities and values. Only selected item transaction types and features are supported. The following table lists the features that the three item types support.

Item Type	Sales	Purchasing	Job Consumption	Service Consumption	Assembly Consumption	Production Consumption	Assembly Output	Production Output	Location Transfer	Physical Counting	Inventory Revaluation	Inventory Costing	Item Tracking	Reservation	Warehousing	Planning	Order Planning
Inventory	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Non-Inventory	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Service	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes

Costing methods for types of items

When you post inventory transactions, the quantity and value changes to the inventory are recorded in the item ledger entries and the value entries, respectively.

You record the cost of inventory items in the Cost Amount (Actual) field on the Value Entries page. When you reconcile the entry to the general ledger, the cost shows in the Cost Posted to G/L field. To learn more about inventory costing, go to Design Details: Inventory Costing.

For noninventory and service items, cost is recorded in the Cost Amount (Non-Invtbl.) field on the Value Entries page. For noninventory and service items, specify cost on sales, assembly, and production documents and journals. Specify the default cost in the Unit Cost field on the Item Card and Stockkeeping Unit pages. Costs for these types of items aren't reconciled to the general ledger.

Catalog and service items

You can set up items that you offer to your customers but you don't manage in until you sell them as catalog items. Although catalog items are similar to regular items of the type Non-Inventory in this respect, don't confuse the two because there are differences. To learn more, go to Work with Catalog Items.

Customer items that you service, such as a printer, are called service items. Service items have nothing to do with regular or catalog items. However, service components can be regular items. To learn more, go to Set Up Service Items and Service Item Components.

Resources

In addition to the item type Item, sales and purchase documents also allow you to use the item type Resource. Like items, resources support dimensions, price lists, and units of measure.

See also

Register New Items
Setting Up Inventory
Managing Inventory Costs
Inventory
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