SKUs must be unique within your organization. If you see the error SKU "PMP-001" already exists, check your existing catalog for an item with that SKU. You can either choose a different SKU or edit the existing item instead of creating a new one.
Products
The Products catalog is your central hub for managing all items your pool service business uses, sells, and bills for. From chemicals and equipment parts to labor services, everything starts here before flowing into work orders, invoices, and inventory tracking.
Understanding product categories
Every item in your catalog belongs to one of four categories, each designed for a different type of product or service:
Products — Equipment and tangible goods you sell to customers, such as pool pumps, filters, and heaters.
Parts — Components used in repairs and maintenance, like O-rings, gaskets, and replacement parts.
Chemicals — Pool treatment supplies including chlorine, acid, algaecides, and balancing chemicals.
Labor — Service items representing work performed, billed by the hour (e.g., technician time, service calls).
Category badges appear on product cards throughout the system, making it easy to identify item types at a glance. Categories also control which fields are available—labor items don't show SKU, barcode, part number, brand, or manufacturer fields since those apply only to physical goods.
Navigating the products page
The Products page at /products displays your complete catalog with tools to search, filter, and manage items.
Filtering and searching
Category filters — Click any category card to filter the list to Products, Parts, Chemicals, or Labor items only.
Search — Find items by name, SKU, or barcode using the search box.
Show inactive — Toggle to include deactivated items in the list.
The list shows item name, category, SKU, pricing, and status. Pagination controls at the bottom let you navigate through large catalogs.
Category summary cards
At the top of the page, summary cards show the count of items in each category. These cards also serve as quick filters—click one to instantly filter the list to that category.
Creating and editing products
Click Add Item to add a product to your catalog. The slide-over form collects all the details needed for pricing, inventory, and invoicing.
Required fields
Category — Select Products, Parts, Chemicals, or Labor.
Name — The item name as it appears on invoices and work orders.
All other fields are optional but recommended for complete product records.
Pricing fields
Price — The default selling price. For labor items, this shows as "Price (per hour)." For all other categories, it shows as "Price (per unit)."
Cost (internal) — Your actual cost for the item. This stays internal and doesn't appear on customer-facing documents.
Taxable — Check this if sales tax should apply when the item is invoiced. Enabled by default.
Identification fields
For non-labor items, you can add identifiers that help with inventory lookup and integration:
SKU — Your internal stock keeping unit (e.g.,
PMP-001). SKUs must be unique within your organization—if you try to save an item with a duplicate SKU, you'll see an error.Barcode — The UPC or EAN barcode printed on product packaging.
Part Number — Manufacturer part number for replacement components.
Brand — The product brand name.
Manufacturer — The company that manufactures the item.
Additional fields
Description — A longer description for internal reference.
Unit of Measure — How the item is counted (defaults to "each").
Tags — Labels for organizing and filtering your catalog.
Internal Notes — Private notes visible only to your team.
Click Create Item to save. To edit an existing item, click its row in the list to open the Edit Item form with the same fields.
You can also upload, replace, or remove a product image so the catalog shows a thumbnail.
Product pricing
Products store both a default selling price and your internal cost:
Price appears as the default line-item amount when you add the product to an invoice or work order. You can adjust the price on individual invoices without changing the catalog default.
Cost (internal) helps you track margins and profitability. This value never appears on customer documents.
Prices display in dollars throughout the interface. Behind the scenes, the system stores prices in cents for precision—when you enter $12.50, it's stored as 1250 cents.
Product lookup and barcode scanning
When working with inventory or building work orders, you can quickly find products by name, SKU, or barcode.
Using product search
The product search component appears in inventory lookup and when adding items to work orders. Type into the search box with placeholder "Search by name, SKU, or barcode..." to find matching items.
Results show:
Product name
Category badge
SKU (if assigned)
Barcode (if assigned)
Warehouse quantity and unit
Barcode lookup
Scan or enter a barcode to instantly pull up the matching product. If found, you'll see the item details with current warehouse stock. If no product matches the barcode, the system shows "Product not found" with a Create new product action to quickly add it to your catalog.
When you create a new product from a barcode lookup, the barcode field is pre-filled with the scanned value, saving you a step.
How products connect to other features
Work orders
When creating work orders, you can search and select items from your product catalog. Catalog items become line items on the work order, carrying over their name, category, and default price. This ensures consistent pricing and item descriptions across all your service records.
Invoices
Invoice forms also include a catalog picker that searches your products. When you add a catalog item to an invoice, the category maps to invoice line-item categories:
Labor → Service
Chemicals → Chemical
Parts → Repair
Products → Equipment
This automatic mapping keeps your invoices organized by work type while maintaining the connection to your master catalog.
Inventory
Products with SKUs and barcodes integrate with inventory tracking. The warehouse quantity shown in product lookup comes from your inventory records, giving you real-time visibility into stock levels when building work orders or invoices.
QuickBooks Online sync
If you've connected QuickBooks Online, creating or updating catalog items automatically enqueues a sync job to mirror the item in QuickBooks. This keeps your accounting system in sync with your service catalog without manual double-entry.
Importing products
Add catalog items in bulk from a spreadsheet, or import a single product from a supplier-page screenshot. Both options are in the More actions menu on the Products & Catalog page.
Bulk import
Use bulk import to load many products at once when you're migrating from another pool service platform or have an existing product list.
On the Products & Catalog page, open More actions and choose Bulk import.
Upload a CSV or XLSX file by dragging it into the drop zone or clicking to browse. The modal accepts exports from Skimmer, PoolBrain, ServiceTitan, and other common pool service platforms.
Map the columns from your file to catalog fields—you must map at least the Name column.
Choose whether to update existing products—when enabled, items matching by SKU, part number, or name within the same category are updated instead of creating duplicates.
Click Import Items to process the file.
The import shows results with counts of items created, updated, and skipped, plus details on any issues.
Download the example template from the import page to see the expected column structure and format.
Single import
Single import creates one product from a screenshot of a supplier product page. Chisel Tide extracts the product details and a cropped product photo, then opens the New Item form for you to review before saving.
On the Products & Catalog page, open More actions and choose Single import.
Upload a screenshot of the supplier product page—select a file, drag and drop it, or paste an image from your clipboard. Only PNG, JPEG, and WebP images up to 4.2 MB are accepted.
Click Extract. The modal shows Extracting… while it processes the image.
Review the pre-filled New Item form. The extracted category, name, description, SKU, barcode, part number, brand, manufacturer, unit of measure, and product image are filled in for you.
Check the supplier price: it fills Cost (internal), never the customer-facing Price. Enter the selling price yourself.
Correct any extracted values, then click Create Item to save the product.
Nothing is saved until you choose Create Item—canceling the form doesn't create the item. The supplier name is normalized and added to the Tags field, where you can edit it before saving.
If Chisel Tide can't isolate a product photo from the screenshot, extraction still finishes and shows a warning; you can upload or replace an image manually in the form. A possible-duplicate warning is advisory only—it doesn't block you from reviewing or saving the item.
Deactivating products
When you no longer want a product appearing in search results and pickers, deactivate it rather than deleting. Deactivated products:
Disappear from active search results and catalog pickers
Remain in your database for historical reference
Can be viewed by toggling "Show inactive" on the products page
Still appear on old invoices and work orders where they were used
To deactivate, open the item for editing and use the deactivate action. The product will show as inactive in the list view.
You can also use Delete item to soft-delete a product. Soft-deleted products leave the active picker but keep historical invoice and job line references. Restore an inactive product when you need it in the catalog again.
Troubleshooting
Why am I getting a "SKU already exists" error?
Why doesn't my barcode pull up the product?
If a barcode search shows "Product not found," the catalog doesn't contain an item with that barcode. Use the "Create new product" action to add it, or check whether the item exists under a different barcode value. Typos in barcode entries are a common cause—verify the correct digits are stored in the Barcode field.
Why can't I see SKU or barcode fields for a labor item?
Labor items represent services billed by time, not physical goods you track in inventory. The SKU, barcode, part number, brand, and manufacturer fields only apply to Products, Parts, and Chemicals categories. This is intentional—labor services don't have barcodes or manufacturer details.
Why did my product import skip some rows?
Skipped rows typically occur when the import couldn't match required fields or encountered invalid data. Check that each row has a name value and that mapped columns align with the expected format. The import summary shows which rows were skipped so you can correct and re-import them.
Next steps
Track stock levels in Inventory to see warehouse quantities alongside your product catalog.
Use products in Work Orders to build accurate service records with consistent pricing.
Generate invoices from completed work using your catalog for professional, itemized billing.
Was this helpful?
Was this helpful?