Create a product template

Before you start

You can create many templates through CSV import. Use the steps here to build and inspect one product first.

Add the template

1. 1

   Step 1: Enter the starting details

   Open Products and click Add template. In Add product template, enter Title, choose a vendor and optionally choose Category.

   Enter Base price and select Start from these bundles when shared options are ready. Bundles bring their values and rules with them.

   

2. 2

   Step 2: Create the draft

   Click Add template. The app confirms Draft template created and opens its page.

   The handle is made from the title. If the button waits, read the footer for the missing title or vendor.

   

   Note

   Creating a template from the quote or order picker makes it active immediately and creates its Shopify product. That route lets you add it to the current sale.

Add options and offered values

Shared option values provide starting prices, costs and lead times that several templates can use. A template override replaces one of those figures for this product only. Resetting an override returns that field to its inherited value.

1. 1

   Step 1: Attach a bundle or option

   In Options, choose Use this bundle from a suggestion, or click Add option or bundle.

   Under Bundles, click Attach. Under Options, tick choices and click Attach selected. Attached options appear in the card.

   

   The empty card suggests up to 3 bundles. Create new lets you add an option when the shared choice does not exist yet.

Direct options and bundles

Options attached directly here belong to this template. To add them across products, put them in a bundle those products follow.

1. 2

   Step 2: Choose which values to offer

   Click Manage on Fabric. Tick Offer beside the values available for this product, or use Offer all and Clear all.

   Offer Sage Velvet and the other fabrics the Linden Sofa supports. The table shows this template's available values.

   An option with no offered values never appears. Keep at least 1 when customers should be able to choose it.

2. 3

   Step 3: Set this template's figures

   Enter Price, Cost and Lead time overrides where this product differs. Use the reset arrow beside an override (Reset to inherited) to return to the shared figure.

   A zero price or cost is deliberate and displays Included or Free. Add value adds a shared value without leaving the template.

   

   These overrides affect this template only. Image changes affect every use of the shared option, so review that wider consequence before replacing an image.

3. 4

   Step 4: Set ordering and visibility

   Choose Starts as, When ordering and Shown. Use Required or Optional for the choice requirement.

   For conditional visibility, click Edit rules; Shown then reads Conditional. See Option rules. Click Save to apply the option configuration.

   Required behavior belongs on the bundle or template, not the shared option page.

4. 5

   Step 5: Arrange the choices

   Use Move up and Move down to put options in customer order. Remove from template removes a direct choice.

   Use a bundle chip's x to open Detach bundle, then review the confirmation. The card reflects the remaining choices.

   For how attachments follow future changes, read Manage product templates.

Finish setup and activate

1. 1

   Step 1: Follow Get it ready

   Use Get it ready to visit each unfinished field: Give it a title, Choose a vendor, Add a photo, Set a base price, Add options.

   Each button takes you to its field. The count advances as the template meets those checks.

   Only title and vendor are required to save. The base-price check completes above 0; zero is the new template's starting placeholder.

2. 2

   Step 2: Confirm vendors and images

   Under Organization, choose the vendors staff can buy this product from. Offer all vendors, the first row of the vendor list, includes active vendors added later.

   Add the product photos, up to 10. The first image becomes the thumbnail on quotes, orders and Shopify.

   

   If you turn Offer all vendors off later, the previously chosen list remains. Inactive vendors leave new lines without a vendor until staff choose an active one.

3. 3

   Step 3: Save and activate

   Save with the Save bar, then click Activate in the header. Unsaved changes must be saved or discarded first.

   The badge changes to Active, and Quotes, orders and POS under Sales channels reads On.

   

   The online store has its own setup; see Put a template online. Locations, tax categories and services are covered in Template special cases.

What happens next

Draft templates do not appear on quotes, orders or POS, and nothing is sent to Shopify. Active templates become available in staff product pickers.

If a template offers several vendors, staff choose which vendor supplies that line. The Shopify product uses the first vendor by name.

Read Templates and Shopify products for what syncs. Existing saved lines keep their prices when catalog prices change.

After Activate, Template activated — publishing to Shopify appears, and a Syncing badge shows until the Shopify product is ready.

Important notes and tips

New shared values follow this template's Offered straight away or Added but not offered rule. Check that setting before adding a value used across products.

If something goes wrong