Managing Categories

Introduction

Organizing your products and services through categories creates a seamless experience for both your team and customers. Salesbuildr's category management system allows you to create, customize, and manage categories with complete control over your catalog structure.

Resources:

Download our How to Productise your MSP services eBook
Read Managing Products and Services to learn how Salesbuildr categories link to PSA categories

Understanding Categories

Salesbuildr categories are directly linked to PSA categories and service codes. This integration ensures that products are correctly created in your PSA system with proper billing codes and categorization.

Need help designing your category structure? Check out our category structure example.

Creating New Categories

To create a new category in Salesbuildr and link it to PSA:

Create the category in PSA - Set up the new product category or service code in your PSA instance
Create the subcategory in Salesbuildr - Add the corresponding category in Salesbuildr
Link to PSA category - Connect your Salesbuildr category to the correct PSA product category or service code to ensure products are created properly
Connect billing codes - Navigate to Settings > Integrations > Your PSA > Billing codes to link the correct billing code, allowing Salesbuildr to create products or services with proper billing information

Managing Existing Categories

Navigate to the categories section from your dashboard to manage your category structure.

What You Can Do:

Reorder categories (drag and drop)
Create new categories
Delete categories
Rename categories
Change category settings

Dashboard Overview:

The category dashboard displays key information in columns:

Hidden availability status
Number of products
Add-on configuration status
Shipping rules
Admin-only visibility settings

Video Tutorial

Watch this overview to quickly learn how categories and subcategories work in Salesbuildr.

Changing Product Order

Products within categories can be reordered to control how they display to users. Watch the video guide to learn how to set the display order for products in your categories.

Configuring Category Settings

Each category has three configuration tabs with various settings.

General Info Tab

Name - Sets the category name displayed throughout Salesbuildr

Description - Provides clarity about what the category contains

Category Image - Upload an image that appears on your category page. If no image is added, Salesbuildr uses the first product's image

Short Category Description - Used for the page's meta description for SEO purposes

Cost Center - Configure cost centers under Admin > Configuration > Products. Products in this category will automatically have this cost center attached for downstream billing and reporting

Term - Automatically sets the billing term for products added to this category

Default Markup for Products - Apply rule-based markup or margin on product costs automatically. Learn more about dynamic product pricing

Shipping Type - Set shipping costs that automatically apply when products from this category are added to quotes. See quote defaults configuration

Add-ons Tab

Set business rules for upselling and cross-selling by configuring mandatory or optional add-ons for products in this category.

How It Works:

Select any item from your sales portfolio
Set as required (mandatory) or optional add-on
When adding products from this category to quotes, Salesbuildr automatically:
- Adds mandatory items to the proposal
- Enables optional add-ons for the quote creator to select

Learn more in our configure add-ons guide.

Settings Tab

Quote Description - Content added here automatically appears as an introduction for products from this category when added to quotes:

Hidden - Hide products in this category from users without product editor permissions

Hide Product Availability - Conceals product availability information for this category

Use Logo/Product Image as Primary Image - Uses the category logo when no product image is set

Enable Company Visibility Whitelist - Control which customers can view specific categories or subcategories. Essential for creating custom storefronts. When you add a customer to a main category's whitelist, underlying subcategories are also visible to them

Only Admins Can Add Products - Restricts product additions to this category to admin users only

Customer-Specific Categories

Create tailored storefronts and product portfolios for individual clients using customer-specific categories.

When to Use Customer-Specific Categories:

Building personalized storefronts
Offering custom pricing to specific customers
Creating curated product selections for individual clients
Bundling customer-specific add-ons

How to Create Customer-Specific Categories:

1. Create a Dedicated Root Category

Create a new root category for your customer
Activate the company whitelist feature
Add the customer's name to grant exclusive access

2. Organize with Subcategories

Create subcategories within the root category
Group by product types (Hardware, Software, Services) or any logical structure

3. Populate with Products

Navigate to the product edit dialog
Select the "Category" tab
Add the customer-specific category as either primary or secondary category

4. Configure Custom Add-ons (Optional)

Set up customer-specific add-ons within the category
Create tailored packages for unique requirements

5. Choose Category Type:

Secondary Category - Add the customer-specific subcategory as a secondary category. The product remains accessible from other categories in your main catalog.

Primary Category - Move the product to the customer-specific subcategory as the primary category. Ideal when the product is uniquely tailored for one customer and should only appear in their storefront.

Adding Products with Custom Pricing

You can offer the same product with different pricing and add-on configurations by quick-adding a new product based on an existing part number with customized settings.

Final Step: Enable self-service ordering on the customer admin tab so customers can view and order from their categories.

Advanced Features

Product Comparison Tool

Salesbuildr's compare feature enables side-by-side product comparisons. This works for both internal users and end customers using the customer storefront.

How to Compare: