Items are reusable templates used to represent products or services that you buy or sell in Administrate. Examples include course materials, registration fees, subscriptions, instructor costs, or add-on services.
Items define pricing, costs, and accounting behavior, and can be reused across sales invoices, purchase invoices, bookings, and events.
Once created, items can be added to invoices as line items. For instructions on adding items to invoices, see Invoice Items.
On this page
- What items are used for
- Create and manage items
- Prices and costs
- Categories
- Compound items
- Mapped items
- Where items are used
What items are used for
Items allow you to standardize how products and services are represented across your financial workflows.
Common uses include:
- course materials or training packs
- registration or certification fees
- consultancy or service charges
- subscriptions or recurring charges
- instructor or venue costs
By using item templates, you avoid re-entering pricing, accounting, and categorization details each time you need to bill or record a cost.
Create and manage items
Items are created and managed in the Control Panel.
When creating an item, you define its core properties, including pricing, cost, and accounting behavior. These settings determine how the item can be used across invoices and events.
Once created, items can be reused repeatedly across different workflows.
Prices and costs
Items can include both sales prices and purchase costs.
- A sales price is required for adding an item to a sales invoice.
- A cost is required for adding an item to a purchase invoice.
Prices and costs must match the currency of the invoice where the item is used.
Items can store:
- multiple prices for different regions and currencies
- multiple costs for different suppliers and currencies
This allows a single item template to be reused across different markets and operational contexts.
Categories
Items can be restricted to specific course categories.
When a category restriction is applied, the item can only be used on invoices that include events belonging to that category.
This ensures that items are only applied in the correct business context and prevents incorrect billing.
Compound items
Compound items allow you to group multiple items together into a single parent item.
For example:
-
A “Training Materials” item could include:
-
manual
-
workbook
-
flash cards
This is useful when multiple components are always sold or purchased together.
Mapped items
Items can be mapped to a course so they are automatically included when that course is sold.
Examples include:
- awarding body registration fees
- mandatory equipment
- required materials
When an item is mapped to a course, it is automatically added during booking and is no longer independently selectable in that context.
Where items are used
Items are used throughout Administrate, including:
- Sales Invoices and Sales Orders
- Purchase Invoices and Purchase Orders
- Bookings and registrations
- Event financial tracking
To add items to invoices, edit invoice line items, or link items to events, see Invoice Items.