> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.elastik.mu/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.elastik.mu/enterprise-management-system/items/item-overview.md).

# Item Overview

An item is one of the things your company sells or buys. A product on a shelf is an item. So is something you charge for but never hold, like a delivery or an hour of labour.

Until something is an item in Elastik, you cannot sell it, buy it, count it or report on it. So the item list is where most of the rest of the system gets its facts from.

**An item is not a document.** A quotation, an order or an invoice is a one-off record: you write it, and it stands on its own. An item is the opposite. There is one record for each product, and every quotation, sales order, invoice, purchase order and stock movement that names that product is pointing at that same one record. Change it or delete it and you have changed it or taken it away for all of them, with no draft copy to throw away first — so treat editing and deleting an item more carefully than you would a document.

Your screen may not show every field and filter these pages describe, and it may show others they do not — nothing has gone wrong, and nothing here is out of date. Each company chooses what its Elastik screens show, so ask whoever looks after Elastik for your company: they set this up in [Studio Mgmt.](/enterprise-management-system/getting-started/studio-mgmt.md), under **Admin**.

## Stock or service

Every item is one of two kinds. The item's **Type** says which. It is set when the item is created, and [Create an Item](/enterprise-management-system/items/item-overview/create-an-item.md) says when it can still be changed afterwards.

* **STOCKABLE** is something you hold and count — a product on a shelf. Elastik keeps stock figures for it: how many you have, where they are, and what has moved in and out.
* **SERVICE** is something you sell but do not hold — a delivery charge, an hour of labour, a room booking. There is nothing to count, so **everything about stock is taken off its screen**. A service item has no **View Stock** button and no **STOCK INFORMATION** tab. Nothing on screen says why, so if a button somebody told you to press is missing, check **Type** first.

**Type** is on the **GENERAL INFORMATION** tab of any open item. [Item tabs and buttons](/enterprise-management-system/items/item-overview/reading-an-item.md) goes through what else a service item does without.

## Which page do you need

* [Find an Item](/enterprise-management-system/items/item-overview/find-an-item.md) — you need to know whether something is already in Elastik, and what it sells for. Read this before you add anything: the list arrives empty until you press **Search**, and it keeps the filters somebody last used, so an item can look missing when it is not.
* [Item tabs and buttons](/enterprise-management-system/items/item-overview/reading-an-item.md) — an item is open in front of you and you did not set it up. What each tab holds, what each button does, and why some of them are not there.
* [View Stock](/enterprise-management-system/items/item-overview/view-stock.md) — how many you have, where they are, and how many are genuinely left to promise a customer. This is the page that explains what **Qty on Hand**, **Qty Available**, **Qty Committed** and the rest each count.
* [Create an Item](/enterprise-management-system/items/item-overview/create-an-item.md) — you are adding something new, and you want to know what every box on the form is for.
* [Import Items](/enterprise-management-system/items/item-overview/importing-items.md) — you have a lot of items to add, rather than one.
* [Item Variants](/enterprise-management-system/items/item-overview/item-variants.md) — one product that comes in several colours or sizes, kept as one item with children underneath it instead of a handful of separate items.
* [Print an item barcode](/enterprise-management-system/items/item-overview/how-to-print-item-barcode.md) — you need labels for the shelf or the product.
* [Item Dashboard](/enterprise-management-system/items/item-overview/item-dashboard.md) — you are deciding whether to reorder an item, move it to another branch, or stop carrying it.

## The lists an item is filed against

Every item is given an **Item Class** and, inside that, a **Category**. Those two lists are set up once for the whole company, in a different part of Elastik — **Admin** → **Items Config** — so they exist before anyone files an item against them. See [Item Classes & Categories](/enterprise-management-system/items/items-config/class-and-categories.md).