Item Categories#

Item Categories are a simple hierarchical tree used to classify items. Every item is assigned to (at most) one category, and categories can nest to any depth:

Raw Materials
├─ Metals
│  ├─ Steel
│  │  ├─ Bars
│  │  └─ Sheets
│  └─ Aluminium
└─ Plastics

They exist purely to help you organise, filter, and report. Categories do not drive tax, pricing, or workflow behaviour — only classification.

Fields#

Creating categories#

1. Navigate to Inventory › Item Categories
2. Click + New Category (creates a root category)
3. Enter name, optional description
4. Click Save

To create a sub-category, open an existing category and click + Add Sub-Category. The new entry takes the current one as its parent.

Editing and moving#

Categories are editable at any time (they do not have an approval workflow). You can:

• Rename an existing category
• Update the description
• Move a category by changing its parent (for reorganisation)
• Activate / deactivate — deactivated categories disappear from the picker for new items but do not orphan existing items

Deactivate vs. delete#

Deactivate keeps the category in the system and visible in reports; it just hides it from the category picker. Items already assigned to it are unaffected. Use this for categories you no longer want to use going forward.

Delete removes the category permanently. Only possible when the category has:

• No child categories
• No items assigned to it

If either condition fails, Neriyam blocks the delete and tells you why.

No approval workflow#

Categories do not go through Draft → Pending → Approved. Any user with INVENTORY.MANAGE_ITEMS can create, rename, activate/deactivate, or delete them.

Using categories on items#

On the Item form, the Category field is a picker that walks the tree. When reporting, you can filter items (or the Stock Ledger via item picker) by category.

List page#

The list is the tree itself — nodes expand and collapse. A search box filters the tree while preserving ancestor paths (so a match three levels deep still shows the chain).

Each node shows:

• Category name
• Item count (how many items use this category)
• Active / Inactive badge
• Row actions: Edit, Add Sub-Category, Deactivate / Activate, Delete

Permissions#

Related#

• Items — where categories are assigned