Manage Product Categories

Locate Product Category List

The Product Categories are listed on the Products > Product Categories tab

Product Management Mechanisms

In Abivin vRoute system, there are two Product management mechanisms:
1 - Shipper-oriented Product Management Mechanism: This mechanism is used when you want to set up your account as the Shipper
2 - Carrier/Distributor-oriented Product Management Mechanism: This mechanism is used when you want to set up your account as the Carrier/Distributor

Mechanism 1: Shipper-oriented Product Management Mechanism

This mechanism should be used when you are the Shipper, directly produce and supply your Products to the Product distribution channels or the Consumers by your own vehicle fleet
In this mechanism, the Manufacturer Organization will be the sole management Organization of all Product Categories. All lower-level Organizations will inherit the Product Categories from the Manufacturer
This management mechanism is enabled by default. To know whether your account is currently set up in this mechanism or not, follow the steps below:
Navigate to the Organizations > Organizations tab
Click the Edit icon of the Manufacturer
On the Update Organization form, navigate to the More Configuration > Model sub-tab
Look at the Business section. If the 1PL radio box is currently ticked, that means your account is already using this mechanism

Mechanism 2: Carrier/Distributor-oriented Product Management Mechanism

This mechanism is useful when you want to set up your account as the third-party logistics service provider (Also known as the Carrier or Transporter), which provides the transportation services for various Shippers
In this mechanism, the Organizations of each Shipper will have their own Product Categories
If you wish to switch to using this mechanism, tick the 3PL radio box instead (The steps to navigate to the setting area is described above in Mechanism 1)

With each of these Product management mechanisms, the creation process of the Product Category, as well as the Product, will differ in certain steps

Create Product Categories

You have two methods to create the Product Categories: Webform and Excel import file
Below we will specify the input rules for each Product management mechanism

Create Product Categories For Shipper-Oriented Accounts

If your account is set up following the Product management mechanism 1, follow the input rules in the table below

Information Field	Description & Input Rules
Organizations (Webform); Organization Code (Excel import file) (Required on Webform)	1. Description: The Organization that directly manages the Product Category being created For this management mechanism, it is the Manufacturer 2. Input rules: Webform: Click on this field. Input the Organization Code/Organization Name of the Manufacturer into the search bar then select it from the drop-down menu Excel import file: This information field is no longer used in the Excel import file. Leave this cell blank. You will select the management Organization later when importing the file, which we will talk about below this table
Category Code (Webform); Product Category Code (Excel import file) (Required)	1. Description: The management code assigned to the Product Category being created 2. Input rules: Format: Can contain letters, numbers, special characters. Must not contain spaces
Parents (Webform); Parent Category Code (Excel import file) (Optional)	1. Description: The upper-level Product Category (If any) under which the Product Category being created is the lower-level category For example, the Product Category "Beverages" with the management code "BVRG" could have some lower-level categories such as "Sugar-free drinks" and "Sugary drinks" 2. Input rules: Webform: Click on this field. Input the Category Code of the upper-level Product Category into the search bar then select it from the drop-down menu If the Product Category being created doesn't have the upper-level Product Category, leave this field blank Excel import file: If the Product Category being created has an existing upper-level Product Category, copy the Category Code of the upper-level Product Category on the Web app then paste it into this cell If the Product Category being created doesn't have an upper-level Product Category, you can leave this cell blank The Product Category Code can be found under the "Category Code" column in the "Products > Product Categories" tab
Category Name (Webform); Product Category Name (Excel import file) (Required)	1. Description: A name assigned to the Product Category being created 2. Input rules: Format: Can contain letters, numbers, special characters, and spaces
Category Type (Webform) (Required)	1. Description: The specific type of the Product Category being created For example, Main Category, Sub Category 2. Input rules: Webform: Format: Can contain letters, numbers, special characters, and spaces Note: This information field is not present in the Excel import file. If you use the Excel import file to create the Product Categories, then after being uploaded, the system will automatically fill in this field with the following value (No quotation marks): 'Category'
Description (Webform) (Optional)	1. Description: A short description about the Product Category being created 2. Input rules: Format: Free-form
Unload Time Per Unit (min) (Webform + Excel import file) (Optional)	1. Descriptions: The time period to unload a single item of every Product that belongs to the Product Category being created at the Customer's Ship-to locations This information field is used in the Multi-Depot Carrier Service Time calculation mechanism. Read more about this configuration in the following article: Service Time Calculation 2. Input rules: Format: Minutes Input only the value in numbers. Do not input the unit For example, the unloading time for every single item of the Product Category being created at the Customer's Ship-to locations is zero point two minutes. Input the following value into this field/cell: 0.2

As mentioned above, the Organization Code field in the Excel import file is no longer used. Therefore, when you import this file, on the Upload Data form, you need to do one more step which is to select the management Organization of the Product Categories. To do this, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Click the Organization field at the bottom left of the form
Step 2: Select the Manufacturer on the drop-down list. Alternatively, you can input the Organization Code/Organization Name of the Manufacturer into the search field to filter it out faster
Step 3: Click Start Upload

Create Product Categories For Carrier/Distributor-Oriented User Accounts

Information Field	Description & Input Rules
Organizations (Webform); Organization Code (Excel import file) (Required on Webform)	1. Description: The Organization that directly manages the Product Category being created 2. Input rules: Webform: Click on this field. Input the Organization Code/Organization Name of the appropriate Organization into the search bar then select it from the drop-down menu Excel import file: This information field is no longer used in the Excel import file. Leave this cell blank. You will select the management Organization later when importing the file
Category Code (Webform); Product Category Code (Excel import file) (Required)	1. Description: The management code assigned to the Product Category being created 2. Input rules: Format: Can contain letters, numbers, special characters. Must not contain spaces
Parents (Webform); Parent Category Code (Excel import file) (Optional)	1. Description: The upper-level Product Category (If any) under which the Product Category being created is the lower-level category For example, the Product Category "Beverages" with the management code "BVRG" could have some lower-level categories such as "Sugar-free drinks" and "Sugary drinks" 2. Input rules: Webform: Click on this field. Input the Category Code of the upper-level Product Category into the search bar then select it from the drop-down menu If the Product Category being created doesn't have the upper-level Product Category, leave this field blank Excel import file: Copy the Category Code of the upper-level Product Category on the Web app then paste it into this cell If the Product Category being created doesn't have an upper-level Product Category, leave this cell blank The Product Category Code can be found under the "Category Code" column in the "Products > Product Categories" tab
Category Name (Webform); Product Category Name (Excel import file) (Required)	1. Description: A name assigned to the Product Category being created 2. Input rules: Format: Can contain letters, numbers, special characters, and spaces
Category Type (Webform) (Required)	1. Description: The specific type of the Product Category being created For example, Main Category, Sub Category 2. Input rules: Webform: Format: Can contain letters, numbers, special characters, and spaces Note: This information field is not present in the Excel import file. If you use the Excel import file to create the Product Categories, then after being uploaded, the system will automatically fill in this field with the following value (No quotation marks): 'Category'
Description (Webform) (Optional)	1. Description: A short description about the Product Category being created 2. Input rules: Format: Free-form
Unload Time Per Unit (min) (Webform + Excel import file) (Optional)	1. Descriptions: The time period to unload a single item of every Product that belongs to the Product Category being created at the Customer's Ship-to locations This information field is used in the Multi-Depot Carrier Service Time calculation mechanism. Read more about this configuration in the following article: Service Time Calculation 2. Input rules: Format: Minutes Input only the value in numbers. Do not input the unit For example, The unloading time for every single item of the Product Category being created at the Customer's Ship-to locations is zero point two minutes. Input the following value into this field/cell: 0.2

As mentioned above, the Organization Code field in the Excel import file is no longer used. Therefore, when you import this file, on the Upload Data form, you need to do one more step which is to select the management Organization of the Product Categories. To do this, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Click the Organization field at the bottom left of the form
Step 2: Select the appropriate Organization on the drop-down list. Alternatively, you can input the Organization Code/Organization Name of the Organization into the search field to filter it out faster
Step 3: Click Start Upload
Note: If you wish to create the same Product Categories for multiple Organizations at once, you could use a trick, that is to select the upper-level Organization of all the wanted Organizations on the Upload Data form, then tick the All Organization checkbox before importing. Using this trick, the Product Categories being imported will be created for the selected upper-level Organization as well as all of its lower-level Organizations
For example: In the illustration image below, I have selected a Branch. After importing, the Product Categories will be created for that Branch as well as all the Depots/Suns/xDocks under that Branch

Update Product category

Please refer to the CRUD functions article to know the general steps about updating objects in Abivin vRoute

Delete Product category

Please refer to the CRUD functions article to know the general steps about deleting objects in Abivin vRoute

Search Product category

If the Product category list is too long, the dispatcher can search for a specific product category by typing either its Category Code or Category Name into the Search field

Beginner's Guide

Create a Product Category

Here is the guide to creating a product category using Web form:
Step 1: Navigate to Products > Product Categories tab.
Step 2: Click on the symbol Create (the symbol).

Step 3: Input information to the required fields to complete the Category information
Organizations: Input the Organization Name of the appropriate Organization into the search bar, then select from the drop down menu: Sample Depot
Category Code: Input the management code assigned to the product category being created.
Category Name: Input the product category type assigned to the product category being created. Values of this field depend on the actual product categories structure of your organization. For example: Main Category; Sub Category.
Example:

Step 4: Click SAVE.