Topics Covered:
Overview
All Products must have a Category and a Region assigned to them in the Configio Administrator Console. Some businesses require thorough Category and/or Region development; others require only one or two of each. Categories can be used in many different ways, (such as labeling a Product as a "Shirt" or "Day Camp") and then using Assignments to assign different actions to each Category (such as assigning a 50% off Discount to all Shirt Products, or sending an email to all Day Camp Participants). Customers can also filter the Customer Cart with Categories, making it a great tool for Customer accessibility.
Note: You can override the Category Assignments for individual Products via the Product Assignments Tab.
Example: You wish to make all registrants for all events agree to a standard Disclaimer, send a single Confirmation Email to all purchasers of all products, and apply a Discount to all merchandise items. After creating the Disclaimer, the Email Message, and the Discount, you will assign these items at the Category level.
Creating Categories
To open the Categories module, login to the Administrator Console and then go to Settings, and select Categories.
By default, your database will only have All Categories created. To create a new Category, select the Select Category button.
The Choose Category screen opens:
Hierarchy Setup
Here, you will see all created Categories. When creating a Category, it is important to know if you are wanting to create a Parent or Child Category.
A Parent Category is a larger Category that can then be separated into Child Categories.
A Child Category is a smaller Category that is used when more specific categorization is needed.
In our screenshot above, All Categories is the largest Parent Category. The next level down is AB Category Test, Events, and Merchandise; these are Child Categories.
If a Child Category is created under another Child Category, the higher Child Category will become the Parent Category of the new Child Category.
Why are Parent/Child labels important? If an Assignment is made at the Parent level, it will flow down to all Child Categories. But if an Assignment is made at the Child level, it will not flow up to the Parent level.
Example: If we wanted all Products with an Event Category to have a 5% Discount, we could assign a Discount to the Event Category.
Creating a new Category
First, choose which existing Category will be the new Category’s Parent. (If this is the first Category created for the domain, you will need to select All Categories)
For example, to add a Category of ‘Online Training’ below ‘Donations’ choose ‘All Categories’ as the Parent; to create a Merchandise sub-Category of ‘Apparel’, choose ‘Merchandise’ as the Parent.
Then enter the title (for example, Online Training or Apparel).
Enter Export Value if reporting into another system. Sort Order is by default 0 to sort Categories alphabetically. If you want a different order, you can assign a number here to change the order of Categories.
You can optionally set a color for the Category, which is shown on the Calendar in the lower right corner.
Hide From Search allows you to create Categories that are not shown in Category Search Controls, but still available for Administrative Organization.
Finally, a Category can be Inactivated to no longer show in search results.
Click Save.
Note: Making the Category Inactive will not Inactivate all the Products within that Category.
A completed ‘Apparel’ Category under Merchandise would look like this:
If you decide to create Categories under Apparel for Shirts and Hats, you would repeat the steps above using Apparel as the Parent. This is what the resulting Category Tree would look like:
As you can see, the depth of your Category Tree is unlimited, and will depend upon your business’ needs.
Note: All Child Categories will inherit Assignments made to their Parent Categories. For example, an assignment made to Merchandise will also be assigned to Apparel, Hats, and Shirts.
Each Category has a list of possible Assignments on the right side of the screen. Click the drop-down highlighted below to see the complete list of assignments.
These Assignments are:
Attachments – see Settings > Attachments. Controls attachments sent with the Email Confirmation.
Customer Support Manager - The admin user who is emailed when a Customer Support Ticket is Submitted.
Dependent Product - The products to offer as Dependent Products when purchasing a Product in this Category/Region intersection.
Disclaimers – see Settings > Disclaimers. Controls what disclaimer(s) is shown during Checkout.
Discounts – see Settings > Discounts. Controls what discount(s) is offered on the Products within the Category.
Email Coordinator BCCs - Controls which Coordinators are to be BCC'd on Email Confirmations of these Products.
Email Messages – see Settings > Email Messages. Controls what Confirmation Emails are sent when the Products within the Category are Purchased.
Email User BCCs - Controls which Admin Users are to be BCC'd on Email Confirmations of these Products.
Fees – see Settings > Fees. Controls what Fee(s) is charged on the Products within the Category.
Forms – see Settings > Forms. Controls what Form(s) is presented during Checkout.
Gift Cards - Controls which Gift Card types can be used to pay for these Products.
Help – see Settings > Manage Help Files. Controls what Help Files are associated with the Products within the Category.
HR Person – see Settings > Users. Controls who will receive HR notifications on the Products within the Category.
Icons - Controls which Icons are to be assigned to these Products.
Inventory Manager - Controls which Admin User is emailed when these Products drop below the Low Inventory Threshold.
Membership Level Groups - Controls which Membership Level Group these Products are associated with.
Membership Levels - Controls which Membership Levels are allowed to purchase these Products, populates with levels assigned in Membership Level Groups.
Membership Price Group - Controls which Membership Level Group to populate Membership Prices with.
Membership Prices - Controls which Membership Levels should receive special pricing on these Products.
Packet Contents – see Settings > Packet Content. Controls what Packet Contents are associated with the Products within the Category.
Participant Packet Contents - See Settings > Participant Packet Content. Controls what Participant Packet Contents are associated with the Products within the Category.
Pickup Locations - Controls what Pickup Locations are offered for products within the Category.
Pre-Requisite - Controls which Products are offered as a Pre-Requisite to Products that are within the selected Category.
Product Display Groups - Controls which Product Display Groups the Products within the Category are displayed in.
Product Information – see Settings > Product Information. Controls what Product Information is attached to the Long Description on the Main Tab of the Products within the Category.
Product Options – see Settings > Product Options. Controls what Options are presented during Checkout.
Recurring Subscription Discounts - Controls which discounts will adjust subscription payments for Products within the Category.
Recurring Subscription Fees - Controls which fees will adjust subscription payments for Products within the Category.
Required Products - Controls which Products are Required to purchase with Products in the Category.
Roster Groups - Controls which lists are used to make Roster Groups on the Attendance modal from the Calendar Display.
Shipping Manager - Controls which Admin User is emailed Priority Shipping Email Messages for Products within the Category.
Shipping Override Locations - Controls which Shipping Override Locations are applied to the Products within the Category.
Suggested Products - Controls which Products are Suggested to purchase with Products in the Category.
Theme - Overrides the Active Theme and shows a Theme for that page, as well as for following pages if the Product is placed in the Cart.
Triggered Emails - Controls which Triggered Emails are sent related to the Products within the Category.
User Groups - Controls which User Groups can See or Edit Products within the Category.
Users – see Settings > Users. Controls which individual users can see and change the Products within the Category.
Videos - Controls which uploaded Videos are available for viewing after purchase of a Product within the Category.
Vouchers - Controls which Vouchers can be used to purchase Products within the Category.
Users and Groups have four permissions:
Activate – complete Admin access to InActivate/Activate, Read, and Write on the Products within the Category
Write – ability to see and modify the Products within the Category, but not change its status from InActive to Active
Read – ability to see the Products within the Category, but make no changes
Deny – the Products within the Category will be hidden to this User or Group
Required Products have five permissions:
Apply Inventory - the customer must purchase the Required Product and the Product is reflected in Product Inventory Modal
Apply - the customer must purchase the Required Product
OptOut Inventory - the customer has the option to Opt Out of purchasing the Required Product and the Product is reflected in Product Inventory Modal
OptOut - the customer has the option to Opt Out of purchasing the Required Product.
Deny - the Required Product is not required for purchase
Dependent Products have three permissions:
Apply Inventory - the customer has the option to purchase the Dependent Product and the Product is reflected in the Product Inventory Modal
Apply - the customer has the option to purchase the Dependent Product
Deny - the Dependent product is not available for purchase
All other Assignments have two permissions:
Apply – the Assignment will attach to the Products within the Category (Attachment will attach to the Email Confirmation, Disclaimer will be presented during Checkout, etc.)
Deny – if an Assignment is inherited from a Parent Category, changing the Permission to Deny and dragging the Assignment from the UnAssigned (left) to Assigned (right) column will remove the Assignment from the Products within the Category. (Discount offered on other products in this Category/Region will not be offered on this Product, etc.)
To make an assignment, choose the Category from the tree at the left, then select the type of Assignment from the drop-down list on the right. Drag the Assignment from the left(Unassigned) column to the right (assigned) column. If the Assignment has not also been made to the All Regions, a pop-up will ask if you want to automatically assign the Assignment to All Regions by clicking OK, or no Region at all by clicking Cancel and later assign the Assignment to a Region.
Note: All Assignments must happen at a Category and Region intersection. If the Assignment isn’t made at both a Category and a Region, it will not apply to any Product.