# Variants

Adding bores, sizes or grades to a product creates real items underneath it, each with its own SKU and stock.

**Video coming soon:** Building a product with two variant axes, and which fields each variant keeps for itself.

A variant is how one product carries several versions of itself. Each combination becomes a full item with its own SKU, prices and stock, and the product above becomes a label that groups them.

![The Items list with Hydraulic Hose Assembly R2AT expanded. The parent row carries a downward chevron and a purple 6 variants badge with every value column blank. Six indented sub-rows read 1/4 in / 1 m, 1/4 in / 2 m, 3/8 in / 1 m, 3/8 in / 2 m, 1/2 in / 1 m and 1/2 in / 2 m, each labelled Bore / Length, with selling prices from 38.50 to 78.30 and their own cost prices.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/items/variant-rows.png)

*Two axes of three and two values describe six items. The parent is a label; the prices belong to the variants.*

## Build a product with variants

- **Set the structure to Has variants**

  Go to **Items > Item** and select **Has variants**, then name the product. Keep the distinguishing part out of the name: **Hydraulic Hose Assembly R2AT**, not the bore and the length.

  ![The Create Item form with Structure set to Has variants and the Name field reading Hydraulic Hose Assembly R2AT. A Variants section is introduced by the line Group variants by a type like Color or Size, then list the names under it. A panel on the left holds a Variant Type picker reading Select option, a numbered Variant Names row, an Add variant link and an Add variant type 1 of 3 button. The pane on the right reads Select a variant, pick a variant on the left to edit its price, stock and other details.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/items/variant-panel.png)
- **Name the axes**

  A variant type is an axis such as Bore or Length; its variant names are the values on it. **Add variant type** takes you to three axes, which is the cap the button itself shows.
- **List only the values you sell**

  Three bores and two lengths describe six combinations; three axes of three describe twenty-seven. A combination you create shows up in every picker afterwards, so trim before you generate.
- **Give each variant an SKU and its prices**

  Select a variant on the left and its details open on the right. A variant with no price of its own does not fall back to the product, so a blank price is a blank price.

> **Warning:**
>
> **A variant needs its options, and its tracking must match the parent**
>
> A variant record is rejected if it has no option values, and its stock tracking has to agree with the product it sits under. Both are checked when you save rather than when you transact.

## What a variant keeps, and what it borrows

| Field | Owned by | When the variant leaves it blank |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SKU, prices, stock, status | The variant | Nothing is inherited |
| Images | The variant | Falls back to the product's, for display only |
| Descriptions, category, brand | The product | Reads through to the product |
| Accounts, tax, vendor, unit | The product | Reads through to the product |
| HS code, country of origin | The product | Reads through to the product |
| Tracking and valuation | The variant | Never inherited, and set per variant |
| Returnable, product type | The variant | Set per variant, which is what allows a mixed product |
| Usage | The product | Decided once, shown on every variant row |

## Finding and counting a variant

![The Items screen listing forty-four records with the Hydraulic Hose Assembly R2AT row collapsed at the top, showing a right-pointing chevron and a 6 variants badge and no figures against it, while every row beneath is marked Single item and carries a selling price, a cost price and a stock figure.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/items/items-list.png)

*Collapsed, a product is one row. The list counts it once; its six variants are not in that count until you expand it.*

- The items list shows products and standalone items only. Expand a product to load its variants underneath it.
- Search returns variants in their own right, so you can put one bore on a document without opening the parent.
- A variant has its own address and opens as its own record, with the same five tabs any other item has.
- Filters, exports and reports treat a variant as an item, because it is one.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Price the ones that differ, not all of them**
>
> Generate the grid, then set prices only where a variant genuinely costs or sells for something different. Anything left alone is a variant you have not finished, and an unpriced line on an order is easy to miss.