Categories

Categories let you organise your products into logical groups — things like Proteins, Dairy, Produce, Dry Goods, or Beverages. Categorising your products makes it easier to navigate your product library and unlocks category-level reporting in your inventory counts.

Navigate to your categories at app.digichef.co/categories.

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Why use categories?

Categories pay off most in two areas:

1. Inventory count reporting — when you complete an inventory count, DigiChef can break down your total inventory value by category. This helps you see exactly how much of your inventory is tied up in proteins vs. dry goods, for example.
2. Product organisation — a well-structured category list makes your product library easier to search and manage, especially as it grows with each imported invoice.

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Creating a category

1. Navigate to Categories.
2. Click Create.
3. Enter the Category Name, e.g.: Proteins, Produce, Dairy, Dry Goods.
4. Click Save.

TIP

Keep your category list manageable — aim for 6–12 broad categories rather than dozens of narrow ones. Categories work best when they reflect how you think about your food spend, not every supplier code.

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Assigning a category to a product

Once a category exists, assign it to products from the product edit page:

1. Navigate to Products and open the product.
2. Click Edit.
3. Select a Category from the dropdown.
4. Click Save.

INFO

Products imported from invoices are not automatically categorised. Assigning categories is a one-time manual step per product, but pays off in richer inventory and cost reporting.

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Category totals in inventory counts

When viewing a completed inventory count, the Category Totals tab breaks down your total inventory value by category. This is one of the most useful views for understanding where your money is sitting.

For example:

• If Proteins represent 60% of your inventory value but only 35% of your purchases, you may be over-stocking proteins.
• If Produce is a large share of inventory and you have high waste, it's a prompt to review ordering frequency.

See Inventory Counts for more detail.