Categorization is one of the many ways Ascend helps you organize your inventory. With every product appropriately assigned to a Category your data and reporting is going to be a lot stronger and more useful to your business.

Category Structure

Categories can be:

This lets you get big picture reports that can be narrowed down without getting too confusing.

Category Naming Structure

Best Practice for category naming structure is: Top Parent - Parent - Child category (e.g.: Bikes - Mountain - Full Suspension).

In most reports in Ascend, selecting a Parent Category will also include that category's Child Categories in the report. Or you have the ability to drill down and run reports on just your child category of Bikes - Mountain - Full Suspension.

QuickBooks Account Assignments

If you are integrated with QuickBooks and create or edit categories, be sure to notify your Bookkeeper to ensure they are mapped to the correct QuickBooks Account(s).

Create a Category

1. From the Ascend desktop > View > Categories or Database Explorer > Categories.
2. Click Add.

1. Fill in the following fields:
   1. Name: Create a Name for your category that follows the suggested naming layout, such as Accessories - Helmets.
   2. Category Code: Not required.
   3. Parent Category: If this is a sub-category, select the Parent Category from the drop-down menu
      1. e.g.: Adding a Adult child category within Helmets, assign it to the Parent Category: Accessories - Helmets.
   4. Rental: 
   5. Serialized: If this is a serialized category, check the box for Serialized. Any item that is categorized within a Serialized Category will prompt for Serial Number during Receiving and at time of Sale.
   6. Allow Scheduling: Not active.
   7. Tax: If this category is taxed different, update the Category Tax column for Tax rates. 
      1. For example, a Labor category might have a tax rate of zero.
   8. QuickBooks Accounts: Connect the Category with your QuickBooks accounts as needed.
   9. Apply Settings to Child Categories: If this category will have its own child categories below it, you can check the box for Apply Settings to Child Categories, if needed.

3. Then click Save.
4. The new category appears in the list. If it has a parent category, you can see you selected the correct Parent Category based on how the new category is nested and the Parent Category selected.

Edit a Category

1. From the Ascend desktop > View > Categories or Database Explorer > Categories.
2. Select the Category you want to Edit (you must Edit categories one at a time).
3. Click Edit or double click on the Category Name.

4. This will open the Edit Category window and you can make your edits.
5. Once your Edits are complete, click Save.

Edit Category Tax

1. From the Ascend desktop > View > Categories or Database Explorer > Categories.
2. Select the Category you want to Edit (you must Edit categories one at a time).
3. Click Edit or double click on the Category Name.
4. Click in the Category Tax box and enter the Tax Rate for that specific category.
   1.  Note: If it is a Parent Category with additional Child Categories, and those Child Categories need to have the updated Category Tax individually. You will need to go into each of the Child Categories and manually update the Category Tax rate.
5. Click Save.

Category Reports

There are a variety of reports that can be run by category in the Ascend HQ and the Ascend database. Let's go over a few of them!

Ascend HQ

Sales by Category

Ascend HQ > Reports > Sales by Category

Note: Clicking Show SKUs will allow you to see the specific SKUs sold in the Date Range selected.

Category Analysis

Ascend HQ > Reports > Category Analysis

Check out our article, Ascend HQ - Category Analysis Metrics for more details.

Ascend Database/Client

Product Query

Check out our article, Reporting - Create Customer and Product Queries. This is a great reporting tool that allows you to create a custom report and export the results.

Ascend Reports

1. From the Ascend desktop, select the Reports tile from the Ascend desktop.

Activity Summary

Reports > End of Day folder opens on the left. In the first section of this report, sales are organized by Parent Category.

Inventory by Category Summary

Reports > Inventory folder > Inventory by Category Summary

This report summarizes all products currently in inventory by their Category, and includes the category’s average Unit Cost, the total Quantity of products for that category, and Total Cost.

Sales by Category Summary

Reports > Sales folder > Sales by Category Summary

This report summarizes all sales transactions in the date range by their Top-level category. For each top-level category, it includes Sales dollars, the Cost of Goods Sold, the Margin, any No-Tax Sales dollars, and the number of Units that were sold.

Edit the date range if needed and click Refresh.

Additional Resources

KB22-185