How to Use Item Categories and Attributes in Business Central

Item categories and item attributes are two separate but complementary tools for organizing your item list. Categories let you group items in a hierarchy and inherit shared attributes automatically. Attributes let you attach descriptive properties, like warranty period, voltage, or material, to items so you can filter and search the item list by those values.

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Item Categories

What Item Categories Do

Item categories provide a classification hierarchy. A category can have a parent category, and attributes assigned to a parent are inherited by all child categories and the items within them. This means you can define “Warranty Period” once on the “Electronics” category and every subcategory and item under it picks it up automatically.

Creating a Category Hierarchy

1. Search for Item Categories using Alt + Q.
2. Select New to create a top-level category.
3. Enter a Code and Description, for example, Code: ELECTRONICS, Description: Electronics.
4. Leave the Parent Category field blank for a top-level category.
5. Save.
6. To create a subcategory, select New again and this time set the Parent Category to ELECTRONICS.
   • Example: Code COMPUTERS, Description Computers, Parent ELECTRONICS
   • Example: Code PHONES, Description Mobile Phones, Parent ELECTRONICS

Assigning Attributes to a Category

1. Open the category card (e.g., ELECTRONICS).
2. On the Attributes tab, select the attributes that apply to this category (you will need to create the attributes first, see the next section).
3. Add each attribute and set a default value if appropriate.

Attributes assigned here are automatically available on items assigned to this category or any subcategory beneath it.

Assigning an Item to a Category

1. Open the Item Card for the relevant item.
2. In the Item Category Code field, select the appropriate category.
3. Save.

The item now inherits all attributes from that category and its parents.

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Item Attributes

What Item Attributes Do

Item attributes are properties you define and assign to items. They are separate from item variants, attributes are descriptive metadata, not inventory-tracked dimensions. You can filter the item list by attribute values to find items that match a specification.

Creating Attribute Types

1. Search for Item Attributes using Alt + Q.
2. Select New.
3. Enter a Name, for example, Warranty Period.
4. Set the Type:
   • Text, free text value
   • Integer, whole number
   • Decimal, decimal number
   • Option, a predefined list of choices
   • Date, a date value
5. For Option type, define the allowed values in the Item Attribute Values section below the type field.
6. Optionally set a Unit of Measure for numeric attributes (e.g., Years for warranty period, V for voltage).
7. Save.

Example: Electronics Attributes

Attribute Name	Type	Unit
Warranty Period	Integer	Years
Voltage	Integer	V
Colour	Option	,
Weight	Decimal	kg

Assigning Attribute Values to an Item

1. Open the Item Card.
2. In the Attributes fact box (usually on the right side of the page), select Edit or open the attribute list.
3. For each attribute, enter or select the value.
4. Save.

If the item is assigned to a category with attributes, those attributes appear automatically. You can override or fill in the values directly on the item.

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Filtering Items by Attribute

Once attributes have values, you can use them to filter the item list.

1. Open the Items list.
2. Select Filter by Attributes from the action bar (or look for the Attributes filter option in the filter pane).
3. Choose one or more attributes and specify the values or ranges to filter by.
4. The item list narrows to only items matching your criteria.

This is useful for sourcing decisions, product catalogues, and quality checks where you need to find items based on technical specifications rather than just item codes.

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Category Attributes vs Direct Item Attributes

An attribute can exist on an item in two ways:

• Inherited from category, set at the category level, shared by all items in that category. You can still set a specific value on the item to override the category default.
• Assigned directly, added on the item card independent of any category.

Both types appear the same in the Attributes fact box. The category source is shown to indicate where the attribute definition comes from.

To control which users can create or modify items and categories, see How to Configure Security Groups in Business Central.