In Brahmin Solutions, inventory items are organized using Products and Variants.
A simple way to think about it:
Products are used for grouping and organization
Variants are the actual items you track, buy, sell, and stock
Most operational activity in the system (inventory, pricing, purchasing, SKUs) happens at the variant level.
Products & Variants in Brahmin Solutions
This article explains how Products and Variants work, and how different item types are classified in inventory.
What is a Product?
A Product is a high-level grouping used to organize related items.
A product acts as the parent record for one or more variants and helps keep your catalog structured.
Key points
A product can have one or many variants
Products do not hold inventory quantities directly
Products do not store pricing directly
Product names should remain generic
Naming best practice
Do not include attributes like size or color in the product name.
Example Products:
Table
Chair
Differences such as “Large” or “Black” should be managed through variants.
What is a Variant?
A Variant is the actual item that is tracked and transacted in Brahmin Solutions.
Variants represent the operational level of inventory.
Variants hold:
Inventory quantities
Pricing
SKU / Variant Code
Purchasing and selling rules
Vendor assignments and reorder settings
Important details
Every product has at least one variant
If multiple variants are not enabled, Brahmin Solutions automatically creates a single default variant
Each variant should have its own unique SKU (Variant Code)
SKU uniqueness is not enforced by the system, but it is strongly recommended to avoid confusion across orders and reporting.
Product and Variant Item Types
Item behavior in Brahmin Solutions is controlled using four key flags:
Buy
Sell
Make
Kit
These flags determine how an item is purchased, sold, produced, or bundled.
Common classifications include:
Materials (Raw & Packaging Materials)
Items used as inputs in manufacturing finished goods.
Typically have the Buy flag enabled
Not sold to customers
Consumed during production
Subassemblies / Batch Items / WIP
Intermediate items used inside larger assemblies.
Can be consumed in manufacturing
Can also be sold directly
Commonly use Make, Buy, and/or Sell flags
Products for Sale (Finished Goods)
Items sold to customers.
Must have the Sell flag enabled
Can be:
Manufactured internally (Make)
Purchased from vendors (Buy)
Bundles / Kits
Items composed of multiple component variants.
Use the Kit flag
Inventory behavior is driven by the component items
Creating and Managing Items
Items can be created:
Individually through the user interface
In bulk using a CSV import
After creation:
View product groupings via Inventory → Products
View and manage individual variants via Inventory → Inventory
Product vs Variant: Which should I create?
If you’re unsure:
Use a Product to group similar items
Use Variants for SKUs, inventory tracking, pricing, and operational detail
A good default is to keep products broad and let variants handle the specifics.