Your inventory can be found on the Add / manage items page. Please see Introduction to Inventory for the basics of Inventory in BRM and where to find the Add / manage items page. This article will explain how inventory is structured in BRM and within the Add / manage items page.
Inventory is automatically organised into 4 levels of hierarchy:
 | Category |
 | Product Family |
 | Product Line |
 | Item (e.g. a bike) |
These four levels of the inventory hierarchy form the fundamental building blocks of BRM from which all other features are derived. Please see Key Concepts summarising other specialised vocabulary used throughout BRM.
Starting at the top level of the hierarchy we have Categories
, typically the type of bike based on usage/type, for example "Hybrid" "Mountain" shown in the example below. The quantity gives the number of items within the category (the capacity) while the buttons on the right hand side allow you to add to, delete, or edit the Category.
Categories in the table expand (by clicking on the row) to reveal Product Families
, which could be a specific brand or model of bike from a manufacturer. An example here would be a Specialized Stumpjumper 27.5". Within each product family lies a series of Product Lines
, generally the specific size of the bike model in question; Small, Medium, Large, and so on.
Below is an example of these first three levels in the hierarchy. You can see we have 6 total items in the Mountain Category 
, all contained within the Specialized Stumpjumper 27.5" Product Family 
, within which there are three Product Lines 
- Small, Medium, Large, with 2 items of each size.
Expanding a Product Line
above reveals the final level of the hierarchy - the actual Item
to be rented by the customer. Each Item has a unique Item ID, chosen as a meaningful identifier by you - this is usually displayed on a sticker attached to the item so you know which is which. In the example below, we have chosen "SJ" to mean "Stumpjumper", "S, M, L" for the size, followed by a number. So we have items named SJS1, SJS2, SJM1, SJM2, and so on to size Large. Additionally, in the row of each item is its Status, SJS1 below is marked as "Ready" while SJS2 and SJM1 are currently "Checked Out" on a rental.
Navigating around the Add / manage items page
The screenshot below summarises the remaining features on the Add / Manage Items page. At any point, you can quickly view your online booking page via the link at the top left. A quick summary of your inventory is generated when you click on "Total bikes" in the bottom right. To add a completely new Category of bikes/items to your inventory, use the green "Add bike" button on the top right. You can find a detailed walkthrough of adding a new bike in Adding new inventory (bikes or items).
See also