Stock groups and stock categories in Tally

Stock groups: the main tree

Every stock item can sit under a stock group, and groups can sit under other groups. An electrical distributor might build:

• Wires and Cables
  • House Wires
  • Flexible Cables
• Switches and Sockets
• Lighting
  • LED Panels
  • Bulbs
  • Tube Lights
• Fans

Stock summary reports roll up by group, so you can see total holding of Lighting and drill into LED Panels. A stock group can also be set to add up quantities of its items, which makes sense when the items share a unit, such as metres of wire, and not when they do not. The stock group glossary entry has a short definition.

Stock categories: a second view

Stock categories are enabled in the company's inventory features. They form a separate classification independent of groups. The same distributor might use categories for brands, so a single LED panel sits in group LED Panels and category Brand A. Now you can report by product type through groups, and by brand through categories, without duplicating items.

Groups or categories: which for what?

If your trade thinks brand-first, such as a paint dealer carrying three brands, make brands the groups and product types the categories. Choose whichever matches how your team talks about stock.

Designing them well

1. Keep the tree shallow. Two or three levels is enough for most traders.
2. Name groups the way staff speak. If everyone says "panels", do not call the group "LED Luminaires - Recessed".
3. Put every item in a group. Items left at the top level make summaries messy.
4. Set GST details at group level where they are common, if your setup uses that, and check them per item.
5. Agree on the design before creating hundreds of items. Moving items later is possible but tedious.

Using them in reports and pricing

Groups and categories are not only for neat summaries. They drive:

• Stock summary and movement by group, for reorder and dead-stock decisions; see inventory turnover and dead stock.
• Price lists: Tally's price lists are defined per stock group, so the group design affects how easily you can set rates.
• Sales analysis by group or category, to see which product lines grow.

A worked example: tile and sanitaryware dealer

A dealer selling tiles, sanitaryware and bath fittings from four brands sets up:

• Stock groups: Floor Tiles, Wall Tiles, Sanitaryware, Faucets, Accessories. Floor and Wall Tiles are set to add quantities because all items are counted in boxes; Faucets and Accessories are not, because units vary.
• Stock categories: the four brands, plus "Premium" and "Economy" if the dealer wants price-tier reports.

Now the owner can ask "how many boxes of floor tiles do we hold?" through groups, and "how much of Brand B's stock is lying unsold for six months?" through categories, from the same items. When a fifth brand is added, it is just a new category; no items move.

Common mistakes

• Creating a group for every item, which turns the tree into a list.
• Using groups for brand and also adding the brand to every item name, then renaming one and not the other.
• Mixing units inside a group set to add quantities, producing meaningless totals.
• Leaving a "Misc" group that ends up holding a third of the items.

Fixing an existing messy setup

1. Export the stock summary with groups and list every item's current group.
2. Design the new tree on paper and get the sales and godown team to agree.
3. Create the new groups, then alter items into them, one old group at a time.
4. Delete empty old groups only after checking nothing remains in them.
5. Recheck price lists that depended on the old groups.

Do this at a quiet time, ideally at the start of a month, so reports before and after are easy to explain.

Groups as catalogue categories in Cashflow OS

Cashflow OS uses your Tally stock groups as the categories for items in the app, the online catalogue and the store, so customers and salespeople browse the same structure you maintain in Tally. Once writing is switched on, stock groups and categories can be created and altered from the app and saved into Tally. Items can also carry photos, display names, brands and custom fields. See online catalogue.