Item Group
For: Anyone organizing items into categories for reporting and pricing
An Item Group is a named category, Raw Materials, Finished Goods, Packaging, whatever your company uses, that every item is required to belong to. This same screen also has a second, easy-to-miss tab called Sub Item Group, which despite the name isn't a child of Item Group at all.
What this module does
1. An Item Group is the required category every item belongs to
The Add Item Group form is as small as it looks, just a name.
Item Group Id: Assigned automatically with an IG prefix.
Name: Must be unique across your company, checked without regard to letter case.
On the Item itself: Item Group is a required field. An item cannot be saved without one.
2. The item count and Associated Items list are computed live
This isn't a stored number that can drift out of date, it's worked out fresh every time you look.
On the list screen: Every row shows how many items currently carry that group, calculated by scanning Item Master at the moment the list loads.
On the View screen: Opening a group shows the same count plus a full table of every item assigned to it, with each item's number, name, type, and status.
Nothing here is editable: This view is read-only. To move an item out of a group, you edit that item in Item Master.
3. Sub Item Group is a second, independent tag, not a child of Item Group
The Sub Item Group tab sits right next to Item Group on the same page, but the two records have no relationship to each other.
Its own list, its own name: A Sub Item Group is just a name, with the same case-insensitive uniqueness check as Item Group, but checked only against other Sub Item Groups.
Optional on the item: An item's Sub Item Group field can be left blank, unlike Item Group which is mandatory.
Not nested: A Sub Item Group doesn't belong to, or point back at, any specific Item Group. It's a completely separate second category an item can optionally carry.
Same permission: Creating, viewing, editing, or deleting a Sub Item Group is controlled by the same role permission as Item Group.
Note: If you're expecting Sub Item Group to narrow down an Item Group, for example Raw Materials broken into Metals and Plastics, that's not how it works today. Both fields sit on the item side by side, independently of each other.
Business rules
| Topic | Rule |
|---|---|
| No subscription gate | Creating an Item Group or a Sub Item Group isn't limited by your plan |
| Unique name | Both Item Group names and Sub Item Group names must be unique per company, checked case-insensitively, but the two lists don't check against each other |
| Item Group is required on every item | You can't save an item without picking one. Sub Item Group is optional and can be left blank |
| No active/inactive status | Neither Item Group nor Sub Item Group has a deactivate action, only Edit and Delete |
| Deleting an Item Group | Blocked if any Item still has this group set |
| Deleting a Sub Item Group | Blocked the same way, checked separately against the same Item collection |
| Same permission, two lists | Item Group and Sub Item Group are controlled by the same role permission, even though they're unrelated records |