Ambivo Books User Guide
DocsUG-013
Products and Services
Catalog, default income/expense accounts, tax codes
A product in Ambivo Books is anything you sell or buy regularly. It can be:
- A physical good (a widget, a pair of shoes, a printer)
- A service (an hour of consulting, a software subscription, a maintenance plan)
Setting up products is optional — you can always type a description on the line item itself — but doing it pays off the second time you bill the same thing. Pricing, accounts, and tax come pre-filled, which means fewer typos and consistent reporting.
Where Products Live
Products are shared across the Ambivo platform. The same product is available in CRM (for opportunities), Commerce (for sales orders), and Books (for invoice and bill line items). Behind the scenes the product master is in the Core Ambivo API.
Getting There
- Click Products in the left sidebar (under the secondary "masters" group)
- The product list appears with search
Creating a Product
Steps
- From Products, click + New
- Fill in: Product name — what it is called; SKU — your internal stock-keeping code (optional but useful); Price — default selling price; Description — what shows up on invoice line items by default
- Set the GL accounts — see below
- Click Save
What Happens Next
The product is in your catalog and selectable on invoice and bill line items.
Product GL Accounts
This is where Books becomes more than a fancy invoice template. Each product can carry default GL accounts that decide where the money goes when the product is sold or bought.
| Default | What it does |
|---|---|
| Income Account | Revenue account credited when the product is on a customer invoice or cash sale |
| Expense / COGS Account | Expense account debited when the product is on a vendor bill |
| Asset / Inventory Account | Asset account used when the product is held in inventory |
| Sales Tax Code | Tax to apply on sales |
| Purchase Tax Code | Tax to apply on purchases |
When you select a product on an invoice line item, Books pre-fills the income account and the sales tax. When the same product appears on a bill, it pre-fills the expense account and the purchase tax. You can override the defaults on any individual line if needed.
Choosing accounts
Use the picklist on each field to pick from your Chart of Accounts. The picklist filters by appropriate account type:
- Income Account → Revenue accounts only
- Expense Account → Expense accounts only
- Asset Account → Asset accounts only
- Tax Codes → Tax records only
If you do not see the account you want, create it in Accounts first, then come back here.
Editing a Product
- Click the product in the list
- Click Edit
- Update price, description, accounts, or tax codes
- Click Save
Changes affect future line items. Invoices and bills you have already created keep the snapshot they had at the time.
Product Detail
Open a product to see:
- Its current price and SKU
- Its mapped GL accounts and tax codes
- Recent invoices and bills containing the product
- Total revenue earned from the product (where reporting is available)
Service vs. Goods
The product form has a product type selector that includes options like service and inventory, plus a track quantity on hand flag for inventory items. The flag is recorded on the product, but a fully integrated inventory module (automatic stock decrements on each sale, low-stock alerts, valuation) is not yet available — the quantity field is informational. The difference is mostly how you set up the GL accounts:
- Service — Typically no Asset/Inventory account, just an Income account and (for resold services) an Expense account.
- Good — Typically all three: Income (revenue when sold), Expense / COGS (cost when sold), Asset (inventory while held).
If you need real-time inventory accounting, plan to record it via journal entries at period-end or use a separate inventory system that feeds Books.
Common Questions
Do I have to use products?
No. You can type a free-text line description on every invoice. Products are a convenience — recommended if you sell the same things repeatedly.
Can I have one product with multiple prices?
The product carries one default price. Override it on individual line items, or create separate product records for distinct offerings (e.g., "Consulting — Standard" and "Consulting — Discounted").
Can a product be priced in multiple currencies?
The default price is in one currency. For multi-currency invoicing, override the price on the invoice line item or create per-currency product variants.
How is sales tax applied?
If the product has a sales tax code, the line item picks it up automatically. The line item also has a "tax inclusive" flag that decides whether the tax is added to the price or extracted from it.
Can I import products in bulk?
Not from the Books frontend today. To bulk-load a product catalog, add products in the Core Ambivo platform (where the catalog is shared from) or use the REST API.
Can I deactivate products?
Yes. Open the product and toggle Active off. Deactivated products no longer appear in line-item selectors but stay on historical invoices.
What if my products are managed in QuickBooks?
In QuickBooks-mode tenants, the product list may be read-only here and synced from QuickBooks instead. See QuickBooks Migration and Read-Only Mode (UG-090).
Tips and Best Practices
- Set the income account on every product. It is the single biggest factor in a clean Income Statement.
- Use SKUs. They make searching and reporting much faster, even if you do not strictly need stock control.
- Don't create one product per invoice. Reuse the product across invoices; only create a new one when the offering itself is new.
- Set sensible default tax codes. Coding tax wrong is the #1 source of restated filings.
- Periodically review prices. They drift; review at least once a year.