Set up your products

Your catalog lists what you trace. Each product fills in the commodity code, the unit and the expiry date of its lots by itself, so your team never types them again and every lot is described the same way.

Add a product

1. Open Products and select Add product. You can also pick products in the Products step of the setup, or select New product while you register a harvest.
2. Under What it is, search the Commodity (green coffee, soybeans, cattle…). The list holds the commodities most companies trace.
3. If your product is not in that list, or you need the exact code of your country, tick Use a code from a classification (HS, NCM, CN, HTS…), a GTIN or your own. Choose the Code system and pick the Code. See Find a code in the classification.
4. Under Names, give the product a name in each language your team uses. Empty names fall back to the Main name.
5. Under Details, choose Shown in and, optionally, Shelf life (days), Variety, Grading standard and Grade.
6. Select Add product.

Commodity codes

The commodity code goes on every lot so customs and buyers recognize it. The code decides, for example, whether a product falls under the EUDR (coffee, cocoa, soya, cattle, oil palm, rubber and wood). See EUDR.

The Code system list offers HS (customs), the code every country shares; your country's own tariff code, chosen first (NCM (Mercosur), CN (European Union) and TARIC (EU integrated tariff), HTS (United States), UK Global Tariff, Arancel Aduanero (Chile), TIGIE (Mexico) or NANDINA (Andean Community)); and GTIN (barcode), FAO, CPC (UN) and Your own code. Prefer your country's code or HS. A product keeps the code system it has.

Find a code in the classification

For HS, NCM, CN, HTS, the UK Global Tariff, the Chilean tariff and FAO, the Code field searches the official classification in your language.

1. In Products, select Add product (or Edit) and tick Use a code from a classification (HS, NCM, CN, HTS…), a GTIN or your own.
2. Check the Code system: your country's code is already chosen.
3. In Code, type words ("café em grão", "soybeans") or the first digits (0901…).
4. Pick a line. Lines too general for a product, such as a chapter, are greyed out.
5. Shown in takes the unit of that code, marked Suggested by the code. You can change it.

For TARIC, TIGIE, NANDINA, CPC, GTIN or your own code, you type the code and only its format is checked.

Codes outside the catalog in force

A new or changed code must exist in the classification in force today. If it does not, the form says This code is not in the catalog in force today. Pick it from the list. Products you already have are never refused, but when the classification changes, a notice at the top of Products lists the products whose codes are outside it. Select Edit on each one and pick a current code. Their past lots keep the code they were registered with.

GTIN (barcode number)

If the product has a barcode, enter its GTIN (barcode number) under Details in Products: the 8, 12, 13 or 14 digits printed under the barcode. Spaces and hyphens are fine. The last digit is a check digit, so the form refuses a number with a typo. Every lot of the product then carries the GTIN in its information: EPCIS exports identify the lot by its GS1 Digital Link (GTIN plus your lot code). Leave it empty if the product has no barcode.

Units

Shown in, under Details in Products, sets the unit people see for the product's lots, such as tonnes. Type a few letters of a unit's name or its code: the list holds every UN/CEFACT trade unit the console converts, from kilograms, bags and head of cattle to bushels and gallons. Bags and bushels depend on the commodity.

Lots of the product are recorded in its base unit, set by the kind of unit: kilograms for anything weighed, pieces or head for anything counted, litres for liquids. Grams or millilitres only when you choose them under Shown in. That way any part of a lot can be delivered, down to a kilogram. See Units and quantities.

Shelf life

Shelf life (days) in Products sets each lot's expiry date from its harvest date. The harvest form fills the Expiry date and says it was set from the product's shelf life. The person registering can still change it. Leave shelf life empty for products that do not expire.

Expiry matters: a lot past its expiry date cannot be delivered, and Home lists Lots expiring soon.

Archive a product

Select Archive on a product you no longer trace in Products. Archived products are hidden from new harvests, and their lots stay traceable. Restore brings a product back.

Who can change the catalog

Owners, admins and operators manage the directory, products included. Other roles can read it.

Products of your group's catalog

In a group of companies, the Products step of the setup first shows From … catalog, with your group's name: the commodities the group already defined, each with the code of your country and its HS code under it. Pick the ones your company trades. When the group allows it, Add a product just for this company lists the other commodities. One commodity appears once, whatever the number of codes it has: when it has several lines in your country, choose yours in Your selection. Set by the group marks a product whose code, unit and shelf life the group fixed. To pick more later, open the same step again. See The group's product catalog.