A product in Tabs holds everything about something you sell: its name, photos, prices and how many you have. There are three ways to add one. You can enter the details yourself, scan the barcode on the pack, or import a whole spreadsheet at once.
Use whichever suits what's in front of you. A new shop with 400 items in Excel should import. A shop receiving a delivery should scan. Everything else, type it in.
Enter the details yourself
Go to Products and press Add product. Tabs takes you through six short steps, with a preview card on the side that fills in as you go. The preview is there so you catch a wrong price or a missing size before you save.
Name and store. Name the product and pick the store that stocks it. The store matters: the product's stock is held there, and its prices are in that store's currency. Description, category and supplier are optional, but a category makes the product much easier to find later.
Photos. Add JPG, PNG or WebP photos, up to 5 MB each. The first photo is the cover, shown everywhere the product appears. Drag photos to change the order.
Options. Choose Single item for something sold one way, like a mug, a book or a bag of rice. Choose Several options if it comes in sizes, colours or styles. Each combination then gets its own price and stock. That's covered in sizes, colours and options.
Price and stock. This is the step that matters most.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Cost price | What you pay for one. Only staff whose role can see costs will see it. |
| Sale price | What you sell one for. |
| Compare-at price | Optional. The "was" price, shown crossed out. |
| In stock now | How many you have today. |
| Reorder at | Optional. Tabs shows the item as low stock at or below this number. |
| SKU | Your own code for the item. Leave it blank and Tabs makes one from the name. |
Tabs works out the margin from the two prices and warns you if something sells for less than it costs.
A few more details. All optional. Stock tracking is on unless you turn it off. You can also set a tax rate, mark the product as featured so it shows first in lists, and fill in any custom fields your business uses.
Check it over. Tabs shows what will be created. Change anything with Edit, then save.
A worked example
Say you're adding a 50kg bag of rice to your Lekki store. You buy it at ₦68,000 and sell at ₦74,000. You have 12 bags and you want a warning when you're down to 3.
Name: Rice 50kg. Store: Lekki. Single item. Cost price ₦68,000, sale price ₦74,000, in stock 12, reorder at 3. Tabs shows a margin of ₦6,000 a bag. Save, and it's ready to sell.
Drafts
You can save a product as a draft instead of publishing it. A draft is saved in full but isn't for sale. It can't be added to an order, and it's left out of low stock warnings. Use a draft when you're still waiting on a price or a photo.
Publish it from the product's page when it's ready. A product needs at least one item that isn't discontinued before it can be published.
Scan a barcode
On the Products page, press Scan barcode. There are three ways to get the code in:
- A barcode scanner. Point it at the pack and pull the trigger. The page is already listening.
- Your camera.
- Typing the code.
Tabs first checks the code against your own products. If it's already on one, Tabs shows you that product and adds nothing, so you never get the same item twice. From there you can open the product, or add it to another store.
If the code is new, Tabs starts a new product with the barcode filled in. A barcode can't tell you your prices, so you enter the name, the store, the cost price, the sale price and how many you have. Nothing is added until you press Add product.
The page then clears for the next scan and keeps a list of what you've added in this sitting. That list is handy for checking against the pile on the counter when a delivery comes in.
If a scan doesn't read cleanly, scan again. If it's a code you printed yourself, you can choose to use it as it is.
Import a spreadsheet
If your products are already in a spreadsheet, press Import CSV on the Products page.
- Download the product import template from the import window.
- Fill it in, one product per row. Keep the column headings as they are.
- Save it as a CSV file and upload it.
One thing to get right: prices in the file are written in the smallest unit of your currency. For naira that means kobo, so ₦1,500 is written as 150000. The import window reminds you of this.
A file of up to 500 rows is imported while you wait, and Tabs tells you how many rows went in. A bigger file is imported in the background, and the result appears by itself when it's done. You can keep working.
If some rows fail, the report says which. Fix those rows and import them again.
Finding and changing products
The Products page lists one row per product, with its stock and price or price range. Open a row to see the product's items underneath.
Search by name, brand, SKU or barcode. Filter by store, category, supplier or status. You can also filter for products with no cost price, which is the quickest way to find the ones that will throw off your profit figures. Tabs remembers your filters for next time.
Open a product to change it. Its page has tabs for its items, its details and its photos.
A few rules worth knowing:
- Moving a product to another store. You can only change a product's store if it has no stock and has never been ordered or transferred. To move stock, use a transfer.
- Deleting a product. Its items go with it and it leaves your list. Orders that already include it keep their lines, so your sales history stays complete.
- Your plan. Each plan allows a certain number of products. If you reach it, Tabs tells you when you try to add more.
If something goes wrong
The store list is empty. Every product is stocked in a store, so you need one first. If your role can't add a store, ask the owner.
"It sells for less than it costs." Tabs is warning you, not stopping you. Check you haven't swapped the two prices.
The product won't publish. It has no item that can be sold. Add one, then publish.
You can't see cost prices. Your role doesn't allow it. The owner can change that under roles.