Departments Overview

In most retail businesses, related merchandise is grouped into departments. Establishing and using departments is a good way to monitor sales performance, manage inventory, and run meaningful reports, which will help you to make informed buying decisions. A well-designed department structure will also save you time and give you greater flexibility when conducting a physical inventory, changing prices, and printing tags.

How many departments should you have? That depends on the level of detail you wish to see on reports and how you want to work with categories of items with tasks, such as changing prices or talking inventory. Use the Plan Your Departments link above for some ideas and guidance on this important decision.

Each department must be identified by a unique department name. Departments can also be identified by a department code which can be used to search for a department record and is printed on price tags. Each item added to your inventory then must be assigned to one of your departments. Department options, such as default tax codes and profit margin/markup are automatically suggested when you assign new items to a department in inventory. Assigning inventory items to departments allows Point of Sale to track and report on the merchandise in each department as it is ordered, received, and sold.

View an example department structure

(Pro) Remote stores can view department records and use them to filter reports, but only Headquarters can add or edit departments.

Department field descriptions

Security rights for departments