# Item Preferences

Defaults for new items, the units everything is measured in, and the settings that decide how rate lists behave.

Item preferences decide what a new item starts out as, so you fill in less every time. Two of them change more than a default.

Go to **Settings > Items**.

![The Items Settings screen inside Inventory Settings, subtitled Configure defaults, behavior, and custom fields for items, with General and Field Customisation tabs. A Defaults section carries three switches: Create new items as services, Create new items with variants, and Allow duplicate item names. A General section below holds Quantity decimal places, Dimension unit set to cm, Weight unit set to kg and Barcode scan field set to SKU. The settings sidebar on the left lists Organisation, Users and Roles, Taxes, Payment Terms, Portal, Email Preferences and Preferences under General, then Sales, Purchases, Items and Inventory under Modules.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/items/item-settings.png)

*Items settings. The Defaults section decides what a new item starts out as.*

## Defaults

| Preference | What it does | Worth changing when |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Create new items as services | New items open with Type set to Service instead of Goods. | You sell mostly labour rather than stock. |
| Create new items with variants | The item form starts in variants mode rather than as a single item. | Most of your catalogue comes in bores, sizes or grades. |
| Allow duplicate item names | Chooses what an import matches on. It does not gate saving an item. | Your SKUs are complete and you want imports keyed on them. |

> **Note:**
>
> **The duplicate-names setting only steers imports**
>
> Despite the name it does not decide whether two items can share a name. The screen says so: all imports involving items will use SKU as the primary field for mapping. Turn it on only if your SKUs are complete, because they become the thing an import trusts.

> **Warning:**
>
> **One name rule does survive, on products**
>
> Two active *products* cannot share a name, because a second grouping shell of the same name leaves it ambiguous which one new variants should join. Standalone items and variants may reuse names freely.

## General

| Preference | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Quantity decimal places | How many decimals a quantity accepts, up to the three that are stored |
| Dimension unit | The unit item dimensions are measured in |
| Weight unit | The unit item weights are measured in |
| Barcode scan field | Which field a scanner types into when it reads a code |

These are organisation-wide rather than per item, so changing one restates every item's dimensions in the new unit rather than converting them.

## Inventory defaults and rate lists

![The lower half of Items Settings. An Inventory Defaults section, introduced by the line Pre-filled on new tracked items so they need not be re-entered each time, holds Default valuation method set to Weighted Average Cost and an empty Default inventory account. A Rate Lists section below has Enable rate lists switched on with an indented Apply rate list at line item level switched off. An Auto-Update Selling Price section at the foot has Update selling price when a quote is sent switched off, described as sending a quote automatically updates the selling price of linked inventory items to match the quoted price.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/items/item-settings-lower.png)

*Rate lists are switched on here, under Items, not under Sales. The line-level switch is indented because it only matters while rate lists are on.*

### Inventory defaults

| Preference | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Default valuation method | Pre-selected on new tracked items |
| Default inventory account | The stock account new tracked items post to |

> **Warning:**
>
> **A default is not a correction**
>
> Changing either of these changes what the NEXT item starts with. Items already created keep what they were saved with, and valuation in particular is not something to change on an item that has moved stock.

### Rate lists

| Preference | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Enable rate lists | Turns the rate list field on across sales and purchase documents |
| Apply rate list at line item level | Lets a single line take a different rate list from the rest of the document |
| Update selling price when a quote is sent | Writes an edited quote price back onto the item as its new selling price |

> **Warning:**
>
> **Auto-update rewrites the item, not just the document**
>
> With it on, editing a price and sending changes the item's own selling price, and therefore every document raised from it afterwards. It suits a business whose latest quote is always the current price and silently reprices the catalogue for everybody else.