Manage Items for Invoicing

Define reusable products and services so invoice and bill lines can be built faster and with more consistent descriptions, pricing, and account defaults.

When to use this

Use this guide when you want invoice lines to reuse prepared item records instead of retyping descriptions, prices, and sales defaults each time.

Before you start

• You can open the Items page.
• You know whether the record should be set up as a service, product, or other item type.
• You know whether the company should show items as Item number + description or Description only.

Steps

1. Open Items.
2. Choose the setup path that fits the job:
   • Use New to create one item from the drawer.
   • Use Import if you already maintain item data in a spreadsheet or CSV file.
   • Use More > Enable Grid Mode when you need to edit several items together, or turn on Grid Edit default in Preferences if you want supported pages to open that way automatically.
3. Enter the core item details:
   • Item type
   • Item Number / SKU
   • Description
   • Unit price
   • Unit of measure
4. Fill in the extra pricing and tax fields when they matter for your workflow:
   • Buy price
   • Sell price
   • Tax code
5. If your accounting setup uses account defaults, review:
   • Income account is the income account credited when the item is used on an invoice.
   • Expense/COGS account is an optional default for the item’s cost side.
6. Confirm the Active setting, then save the item.
7. If you import items, review any mapped income or expense accounts before you rely on those records in invoices.
8. Use the page search when you need to find an item later by item number, SKU, or description.
9. Use the saved item later from invoice line selectors so invoice entry stays more consistent.
10. Use item row actions when you want to start a document directly from an item:
    • Create Invoice opens an invoice drawer with the selected item ready for invoice-line review.
    • Create Bill opens a bill drawer with the selected item ready for bill-line review where that workflow is available.
    • Review the customer or vendor, account, price or cost, quantity, tax, and status before saving. The shortcut starts the document; it does not post it by itself.
11. Use Grid Edit when repeated item cleanup will be faster than opening each record individually, then review the changed-cell count before selecting Apply Changes.

Item Identification Mode

Company setup can control how supported item labels appear:

• Item number + description shows item numbers beside descriptions where the current workflow supports it.
• Description only hides item numbers from supported item selectors, invoice drawers, and line-entry helpers.

This is a presentation setting. It does not delete the item number from the item record, change the item’s income or expense accounts, or change posting behavior.

Items And Inventory

Choosing Product as the Item type or filling in Expense/COGS account does not, by itself, create inventory quantities, an inventory asset balance, or automatic cost-of-goods-sold entries. The item stores reusable invoice or bill defaults. If you track inventory outside SPRK, use your accountant’s approved journal and supporting schedule rather than assuming the item record is a perpetual inventory system.

What happens next

The item becomes available for invoice entry, item-started invoices or bills where available, and future lines can reuse its saved description, pricing, unit-of-measure, and account defaults.

If something looks wrong

Related

• Set up receivables defaults before invoicing
• Manage customers
• Create and open invoices
• Understand invoice general ledger impact
• Use grid edit for bulk record maintenance