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The fields and toggles to decide on the Item doctype — item groups, UOM, batch/serial behaviour, purchase/sell/manufacture flags, pricing, defaults and tax — before you bulk-import.
35 checks · 7 sections
The Item master is the backbone of Stock, Buying, Selling and Manufacturing in ERPNext — and the one master that is painful to change once transactions exist against it. This is a reference for the decisions to settle before you import: which fields are genuinely mandatory, which toggles quietly change how a whole module behaves, and what belongs in child tables like Item Defaults and Taxes. Use it to build a clean import template once, rather than re-cleaning thousands of rows later. Field names below match the real ERPNext Item doctype; GST/HSN specifics are added by the India Compliance app and are flagged where relevant.
Design the Item Group tree first + 3 more
Fill the three mandatory fields + 4 more
Decide Maintain Stock (is_stock_item) per item + 5 more
Set Allow Purchase / Allow Sales correctly + 5 more
Fill the company-wise Item Defaults table + 4 more
Attach Item Tax Templates in the Taxes table + 3 more
Model variants with attributes, not duplicate items + 4 more
All 35 checks across 7 sections as a clean branded Excel — each item with the guidance for why it matters, ready to share with your team. Free, no email required.
Only three: Item Code, Item Group and Default Unit of Measure (stock UOM). Everything else — Maintain Stock, batch/serial toggles, purchase/sales flags, accounts and tax — is optional on the doctype, but setting sensible defaults before import saves manual entry on every transaction later.
Standard ERPNext handles tax through Item Tax Templates in the item's Taxes table. GST-specific fields — the GST HSN/SAC code, GST rate templates and e-invoice/e-way-bill readiness — are added by the India Compliance app, which most Indian ERPNext businesses install. Plan for it before importing your catalogue.
Yes. 'Maintain Stock' (is_stock_item) should be OFF for services, subscriptions and expense-only items so they don't create stock ledger entries. Changing this flag after transactions exist is difficult, so decide it correctly at import time.
Use variants: create a template with 'Has Variants' on and Variant Based On set to Item Attribute, define the attributes and their values, then generate variants — rather than creating dozens of near-duplicate standalone items. Review Item Variant Settings first so variants inherit the right fields.
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Kochi (Kadavanthra & Infopark) · Thiruvananthapuram · across India & overseas · In business since 2011