Setting up your Product and Service structure correctly from day one is vital, not just for your internal teams, but for the overall customer experience. A clear, intuitive category structure improves how your teams quote, provision, and manage assets, ultimately creating smoother interactions for your end-users.
This guide walks you through the process of creating and managing Base Categories and Sub-Categories in The Layer, as well as how to maintain a flexible and future-proof structure.
🔹 What Are Base Categories?
Base Categories are the top-level groups in your Price Book. Think of them as the main "chapters" in your product and service catalogue—each one housing related items, whether that's SIMs, mobile handsets, broadband services, or accessories.
By setting up well-defined Base Categories, you’re doing more than organising products—you’re improving visibility, speeding up quoting, and creating a more intelligent user experience for your teams and your customers.
🔹 How to Create a Base Category
To add a Base Category:
Navigate to Settings → Inventory Settings → Product Categories
Click on New Product Category in the left-hand panel
In the form:
Enter a Name
Leave the Parent field set to
--This is a root category--(This ensures it’s treated as a Base Category) and Save
After saving, you’ll be redirected to its configuration screen, where you can define:
Service Core Fields
Product Core Fields
Stock Metadata
🧠 Why it matters: Base Categories directly influence what your teams see when quoting, provisioning or managing assets. A clear structure reduces admin time and makes life easier for everyone.
🔹 Creating Sub-Categories for Better Organisation
Sub-Categories allow you to group items within a Base Category into more specific segments.
For example:
Under Mobile, you might have: Phones, SIM-only Plans, Accessories
Under Broadband, you might have: Fibre, Leased Line, Routers
To create a Sub-Category:
Navigate to Product Categories
Click New Product Category
In the form:
Enter a Name and Description
Under Parent, select the appropriate Base Category
✅ Tip: Use sub-categories to reflect how your customers think about your offerings—it makes internal processes faster and external interactions smoother.
🔹 Reorganising Categories (Made Easy)
Need to restructure? No problem. Categories in The Layer are designed to be flexible as your business evolves.
🔄 Why restructure? Business offerings change. Keeping your category structure aligned ensures your teams can find what they need—fast.
✔️ Move a Sub-Category to a Different Base Category:
Edit the sub-category
In the Parent dropdown, select a different Base Category
Save your changes
This instantly relocates the sub-category, along with all associated products and configurations, under the new parent.
✔️ Convert a Base Category into a Sub-Category:
To demote a Base Category:
Edit the existing Base Category
In the Parent field, choose an existing Base Category as its new parent
Save—it's now a sub-category
⚠️ Important: Ensure the new parent Base Category has compatible settings (e.g., field configurations) if products or services are already linked.
🔹 How the Product Category Structure Impacts Customer and End-User Experience
A well-structured Product Category setup delivers clarity across departments:
Sales Teams can quote from clear, predefined lists
Provisioning & Service Teams know where and how to provision assets
Admins can manage pricing, visibility, and reporting efficiently
Inventory Managers gain stronger insight into stock behaviour
When categories are intuitive, fewer mistakes are made, training time drops, and support tickets reduce. Everyone wins!
🔹 1. Setting Up Service Core Fields
The Service Core Fields section allows you to define which service-related fields should be visible and editable when managing service items across The Layer.
Service Item Window:
Tick Enable for the fields you'd like to make available in the Edit Service window. These appear when accessing a service asset item within a Customer record under the Service Assets tab.
Images for reference:
Customer Record ➡️Assets tab ➡️Category: Mobile Tariffs ➡️ Service Item: VF Roaming Discount 2_Exp
Service Item Window: VF Roaming Discount 2_Exp
You can also choose which fields appear in:
The Grid View
Helpful when viewing multiple service assets visible in a Customer record in the Assets Tab
Sales Order - Data Capture
The Sales Order Data Capture screen – ensuring the correct data is collected at the point of sale
When you select the field to show in the Sales Order, this will be visible in the data capture:
✏️ You can rename each field to use terminology that suits your organisation. For instance, if your team refers to mobile numbers as CLIs instead of MSISDNs, you can reflect that here, making the system more intuitive for everyday users.
Once configured, the chosen fields will appear consistently in the respective areas: Service Item Window, Grid View (Assets Tab - Customer Record), and Sales Order - Data Capture for each customer record.
When configuring the Service Core Fields, you can rename each field to use terms familiar to your team. For example, if you typically use “CTN” instead of “MSISDN,” you can set it as such in this section.
🔹 2. Setting Up Service Custom Fields
Service Custom Fields are designed to capture additional, tailored data that’s unique to your services. Unlike core fields, which tend to be standard across the board, custom fields let you personalise what you track.
By enabling custom fields in this section, you're making them available for all service assets linked to the Base Category.
Examples include:
Account numbers
Login credentials for managed services
Internal reference tags or provisioning notes
🧩 These fields enhance visibility and ensure all users across departments have access to the same, relevant information.
🔹 3. Configuring Product Core Fields
Product Core Fields function similarly to Service Core Fields, but are used for physical or digital product assets.
When configuring these fields:
Enable grid view for any field you want to display in both the Product Asset Grid and Data Capture screens.
This ensures that critical product data—such as model, supplier, or SKU—is accessible and visible where it matters most.
🔵 Product Core Fields help streamline stock tracking, quoting accuracy, and fulfilment clarity
🔹 4. Setting Up Product Custom Fields
Product Custom Fields, similar to Service Custom Fields, apply to each product asset within the Base Category. Tailor the product record layout to suit your business. They’re perfect for capturing additional information that default fields might not cover.
This could include:
Warranty details
Internal classification tags
Supplier-specific product identifiers
These fields will be displayed within individual product asset records, ensuring that your team has all the necessary context when viewing or managing product entries.
🔹 5. Configuring Stock Metadata
In the Stock Metadata section, you can enable fields to capture enhanced detail about stock units—ideal for businesses with diverse or spec-driven inventory.
Typical metadata fields include:
Colour
Memory size
Condition (e.g., New/Refurbished)
These values will appear in:
The Stock Movement section, when booking in or transferring stock
The Stock Stacks view helps warehouse and procurement/provisioning teams make informed decisions quickly
📦 This level of detail adds control and visibility to your stock process, supporting better forecasting and fulfilment.
🔹 6. Quotation Builder Configuration
This setting plays a key role in supporting your Sales and Service teams. It determines which categories can be used when generating quotes, and how assets appear in the customer view.
When configuring:
Choose whether to allow services, products, or both from this category to be available/visible in quotes
Sort Order in Asset Manager: Decide the display order of items—e.g., placing Mobile Tariffs first to reflect business priorities
For example:
If your business only quotes on services from this category, you can disable product visibility
If both are used, enable both options, ensuring flexibility for Sales
📣 These settings directly impact the quoting experience for your teams and ultimately influence how quickly and accurately customers receive proposals.
🔗 Note: Products and services will always remain linked at the record level, ensuring consistency between quoting and provisioning.
🔹 6. Data Capture Sort Order
It is possible to rearrange the sort order per category for data capture so that the relevant, visible fields are displayed in an order that makes the most sense for that category.
To sort the Data Capture order, simply navigate to the DC sort order tab and click and drag the fields into the order you would like. This can be done separately for products and services
🔹 Using Categories to Filter Workstacks
Once your categories are set up, you can filter your Workstacks by Base Category, making it far easier to track and manage:
Sales Orders
Commissions
Assets (Product)
Assets (Service)
This type of filtering ensures that the right people see the right things, cutting through the clutter and helping your teams focus.
🔹 Final Thoughts: Keep It Logical, Keep It Flexible
Your category structure isn’t set in stone—it should evolve and adapt as your offerings expand. That said, getting it right early on saves time, improves team confidence, and enhances customer satisfaction from day one.
If you’re ever unsure about how best to set things up or need help mapping out your structure, speak to your Layer account manager. We’re here to help you get it right!