Catalogue Management

Categories, sub-categories, and vendors used by the Inventory module live in a shared catalogue, scoped to your organization. This page covers how to manage it from Inventory → Manage Catalogue.

#Self-populating, never pre-set

There is no catalogue setup step. The first time you create an asset (or import a CSV) with a category, sub-category, or vendor name that doesn't exist yet, that name is created automatically in the catalogue — matching is case-insensitive, so "SIM" and "sim" resolve to the same entry.

If you'd rather start from a small set of common categories, the catalogue page offers a "Add default categories" button that creates a short predefined list (SIM, Software, Subscription, Badge) in one click, already configured with icons and contextual field labels (see below). This is an explicit action you choose to take — nothing is seeded silently in the background. Running it again never creates duplicates, and it never overwrites a category you've already customized.

#Renaming

Any catalogue entry — category, sub-category, or vendor — can be renamed at any time. Every asset already using that entry picks up the new name immediately; nothing needs to be re-saved.

Renaming to a name that already exists in the same scope (same type, same parent for sub-categories) is rejected — use Merge instead.

#Merging

When two entries mean the same thing — a typo, or two names entered independently ("Sim" and "SIM Card") — merge them into one. Before confirming, the portal shows exactly how many assets will be moved from the source entry to the destination.

• Merging two categories that each have a sub-category with the same name automatically merges those matching sub-categories into one as well — the confirmation dialog lists which sub-categories will be merged this way before you confirm, so nothing is folded in as a surprise.
• Merging a sub-category is only allowed between sub-categories that share the same parent category. Two sub-categories with different parents cannot be merged directly — merge their parent categories first (which cascades the sub-categories as described above), or rename one of them into the correct parent's scope first.
• The source entry is removed once the merge completes; the destination entry keeps its own name, icon, and contextual labels.

Merging is permanent: there is no undo beyond restoring from a backup.

#Deactivating (never deleting)

A catalogue entry that is still referenced by at least one asset cannot be deleted — this is a deliberate design choice: nothing in the catalogue is ever destroyed once it has been used, because that would silently orphan the assets pointing to it.

Instead, an entry can be deactivated. A deactivated entry:

• No longer appears in the autocomplete suggestions when creating or editing an asset
• Still appears in the catalogue management page, marked as inactive
• Leaves every asset that already uses it completely untouched and visible

Deactivating and reactivating is instant and reversible from the same button.

#Contextual field labels

Categories can carry their own icon and field labels, so the same form reads naturally for very different kinds of assets. For example:

These labels — and an optional help text shown under the form fields — are edited from the catalogue page, per category. They are your data, not fixed product text: leave them blank on a category and the generic default labels ("Name", "Serial Number") are used instead.

#Who can manage the catalogue

Catalogue management uses the same Inventory permission as the rest of the module — there is no separate permission key for it. Anyone who can create an asset can already create catalogue entries implicitly, so a dedicated permission for renaming/merging/deactivating would only create a false sense of extra control.