Categories
Category hierarchy, admin table, management dialog (5 tabs), feature groups, bulk edit, delete/reallocate, and storefront display.
Written By Victor Raessen
Last updated 4 days ago
Categories organize your product catalog into a browsable hierarchy. They drive how products appear in the catalog, product picker, and storefront — and they carry their own pricing rules, add-ons, content, and settings.
Category hierarchy
Categories follow a strict 2-level hierarchy:
- Root categories sit at the top level and contain subcategories (e.g., "Microsoft", "Hardware", "Services")
- Subcategories belong to a single root category — there is no third level
Products can be assigned to multiple categories, each with its own feature selections. One category is marked as the primary.
Root categories have unique properties: a color indicator, tax/VAT settings, and a category overview display mode (list or tiles). Subcategories carry markup, RRP discount, add-ons, and product specifications.
The admin categories page
Navigate to Products > Categories (requires the product.manage permission) to manage your category structure.
Toolbar
- Create new root category — Requires a PSA connection to be configured
- Manage dropdown — Bulk edit selected / Bulk delete selected
- Search — Filter across root and subcategory names
- Filter — Listed / Unlisted / All
- Sort — As Configured (manual order) / Name A→Z / Name Z→A
Category table
Each root category expands to show its subcategories. The table columns:
Root category rows also have: Add subcategory (+), Alphabetic sort for child ordering, and Delete (disabled if the root still has children).
The category storefront page
Navigate to the customer-facing category page (requires the Storefront feature). Two view modes:
- Tiles — Card grid with image, name, description, product count, and color indicator
- List — Compact table with name and product count
The view mode is set globally at Admin > Site > Storefront and can be overridden per root category.
Browsing a root category shows its subcategories. Browsing a subcategory shows its products.
Note: Non-admin users see a "Not Found" page if the category tree is empty.
Managing a category
Click a category (or click Create New) to open the category management dialog. The dialog has five tabs. Some fields only apply to root categories, others only to subcategories.
General Info
Add-ons (subcategories only)
Configure product add-ons at the category level. When a sales rep adds a product from this category to a quote, they are prompted with the configured add-on products.
Category-level add-ons apply to all products in the category. Individual products can also have their own add-ons on the product detail page.
Content
Configure marketing content displayed on the category page in the storefront. Toggle Show content to enable.
This lets you build a branded category landing page for your storefront without editing code.
Product specifications (subcategories only, when editing)
Lists all product specifications present across the category's products. For each specification:
- Toggle it as a visible filter on the storefront page
- Preview the top values for that specification
When specifications are enabled as filters, customers browsing the storefront can narrow products by technical attributes (e.g., RAM, storage, screen size).
Note: This tab only appears when editing an existing subcategory, not when creating a new one.
Settings
Feature groups
Categories can define feature groups — custom attribute groups that structure how products are tagged within a category. Each group has:
- A group name (e.g., "Technical specs", "Compatibility")
- A list of feature values (sortable chips)
When a product is assigned to a category, the user selects which features from that category's groups apply to the product. These features are used for:
- Product comparison — the comparison page shows feature checkmarks per product
- Filtering — customers can filter by features on the storefront
Bulk editing categories
Select multiple subcategories within a single root category and click Bulk Edit. Cross-root bulk selection is not supported.
Available bulk fields (each must be toggled on to be included):
Deleting a category
Two scenarios when deleting a category:
- Empty category (no products) — Simple confirmation dialog
- Category has products that exist only in this category — A warning appears with a reallocate picker, prompting you to select a new category for those products before deletion
Additional rules:
- Root categories cannot be deleted while they still have subcategories — remove all children first
- Deletion is a soft delete — the category is marked as deleted with a timestamp
- Products assigned to multiple categories only lose the deleted category assignment; they remain in their other categories
PSA integration mapping
The admin categories table shows PSA mapping tags inline for each category:
These mappings control how products in each category are synced to your PSA. Configure them via the PSA integration admin pages (see Integrations).
Storefront settings
Global category display is configured at Admin > Site > Storefront:
Categories marked as Listed appear on the storefront. Use Company whitelist and Classification whitelist on individual categories to control which customers see which product categories.
See also
Comparison — Products
Importing Products — Products
Marketplace — Products
Quotes — Admin
Shipping — Post-Sale