Organize your inventory with types, categories and specifications
A short item list needs no organizing — but somewhere around fifty items, scrolling stops working and structure starts paying off. Itefy gives you three complementary tools:
- Types — what the item is: camera, laptop, vehicle, power tool. Every item has exactly one type, and types drive filtering, statistics and reports.
- Categories — flexible, account-wide groupings that cut across types: make, size, color, project, owner. An item can carry values from several categories at once.
- Specifications — name/value details on a single item: serial-adjacent data like brand, model, weight or capacity.
This tutorial sets up the structure, applies it to your existing items in bulk, and shows the payoff: finding exactly the right items in seconds.
Step 1 — Decide on your structure
Before clicking anything, sketch the answer to two questions:
- What kinds of equipment do you have? Those become your types — keep the list short and non-overlapping (10–20 types is plenty for most operations).
- What do you search for when you need an item? "A 17mm impact wrench", "the Sony one", "anything on project North". Recurring qualifiers like these become categories; one-off details belong in specifications instead.
A useful rule of thumb: if you'd want to filter the item list by it, make it a category. If you'd only want to read it on the item page, make it a specification.
Step 2 — Set up your types
- In the main menu, select Filters > Types. The Manage types dialog opens.
- Click Add type, enter a name, and save. Repeat for each type — names must be unique.
- You can rename a type at any time; every item carrying it updates immediately.
Step 3 — Set up your categories
- Select Filters > Categories in the main menu. The Edit categories dialog opens.
- Click Add category and enter the group name — for example Make, Size or Project.
- Click Add value on the category to add its selectable values (Bosch, Makita, … under Make).
- Repeat for each category you sketched in Step 1.
Step 4 — Reclassify existing items in bulk
Now apply the structure to the items you already have — without opening them one by one.
- Open Items in the main menu. Use the search field or Filter by dropdown to bring up a group of items that belong together (for example, search their common name).
- To edit everything matching the search, click Edit results in the toolbar. To edit a hand-picked set, tick their checkboxes and click Edit selected in the selection bar instead.
- Pick the field to change — Item type or Categories (you can also batch-change location, condition or main image).
- Choose the value, confirm, and Itefy applies it item by item, ending with a receipt of what changed.
Repeat with different searches until every item has the right type and category values. This is much faster than it sounds — a few well-chosen searches usually cover most of the list.
Step 5 — Add specifications to key items
For details that matter on one item rather than across the list:
- Open an item, go to its Settings tab, and find the Specifications section.
- Add name/value rows — brand, model, weight, capacity — and drag the handle in front of a row to reorder. (Available on Startup and higher plans.)
Specifications show on the item page and are covered by item search, so a serial number or model name typed into the search field still finds the item.
Step 6 — The payoff: find anything in seconds
- On the Items page, type a keyword in the Search for... field — the list narrows as you type.
- Click Filter by and combine filters: one or more Types, Categories values, Locations, Availability or Condition. A badge shows how many filters are active.
- Values within different categories combine with AND (items must match each), values within the same category with OR — so Make: Bosch + Size: 17mm finds exactly the Bosch 17mm gear.
Your searches and filters also drive QR label printing, exports and batch edits — organizing once keeps paying off everywhere.
What you accomplished
- Designed a type list and category groups that match how you actually search
- Created them under Filters > Types and Filters > Categories
- Applied types and categories to your existing items in bulk with batch edit
- Added specifications to items where the detail matters
- Combined search and filters to pinpoint items instantly
Where to go next
- Organize gear into kits — bundle items that always travel together
- Track consumables — stock-counted inventory with low-stock alerts
- Contextual Categories — the full category reference
- Batch Edit Items — everything batch edit can change