How to Rename or Retire a Product Category in EDGEBIC

To rename a product category in EDGEBIC by User Solutions, click Manage Categories on the Product tab toolbar, select the category, click Edit, change the Name, and save. Every product already assigned keeps its assignment and simply displays the new name, because products link to the category record rather than storing its text.

Categories are the backbone of a navigable catalog. The product list groups by category by default, and the toolbar filters by it, so a tidy set of names pays off every day. For creating one in the first place, see how to create a product category.

Before You Start

• You know the new name is not already taken. Category names must be unique and the check is case-insensitive, so "Finished Goods" and "finished goods" collide.
• You have checked whether the old name appears anywhere outside EDGEBIC. Import files and spreadsheets that carry the category as text will stop matching after the rename.
• You have decided whether you want a rename or a retirement. They solve different problems and the buttons sit next to each other, and the retirement path is written up on its own in how to deactivate a product category.

Renaming the Category

1. Open the Product tab.
2. Click Manage Categories in the toolbar. The Manage Product Categories window opens.
3. Select the category row you want to change.
4. Click Edit.
5. Change the Name. Adjust the Code and Description at the same time if they have also drifted.
6. Save, then click Close.

If the new name clashes with another category, the save is refused before anything is written. Pick a different name and try again.

Retiring a Category Instead

1. Open Manage Categories the same way.
2. Select the category and click Edit.
3. Untick Active.
4. Save and close.

The category disappears from the dropdown offered when you create or edit a product. Products already assigned to it keep the assignment, which means you can still see the grouping in the grid but nobody can newly choose it.

That combination is deliberate and it is also the thing to watch. If you retire a category without recategorizing its products, anyone editing one of those products cannot reselect the category they are looking at. Plan to move the products, or leave the category active.

What Changes When You Save

How to Check It Worked

Close the Manage Categories window and look at the product grid. The grouping band that carried the old name should now carry the new one, with the same products under it and the same count.

Then open the Category: filter dropdown in the toolbar. The new name should be listed once, and the old name should be gone. If both appear, you created a new category instead of editing the existing one, and you now have products split across two.

The One Place a Rename Really Bites

Inside EDGEBIC a rename is safe, because the link between a product and its category is a record reference and not a piece of text. Outside EDGEBIC it is not.

Import masks and the files they read match categories by the value in the column. Rename the category and every row in the nightly file still carries the old string, so the import no longer matches it. Depending on your options, that either fails the row or creates a fresh category with the old name, which is how a catalog quietly ends up with both.

Before renaming, check three places: the source file your imports read, any spreadsheet the sales team maintains by hand, and any reporting query that filters by category text. Update them in the same session as the rename.

A Quick Worked Example

A shop set up its catalog with three categories: Raw Materials, Sub-Assemblies, and Finished Goods. Two years in, they split their finished goods between two business lines and want the naming to reflect it.

The planner opens the Product tab, clicks Manage Categories, selects Finished Goods, clicks Edit, and renames it FG - Industrial. Every product under it keeps its assignment and the grid band relabels immediately. He then clicks + New and creates FG - Aerospace, and reassigns eleven products to it from the product form.

Finally he checks the nightly product import file. The category column still says "Finished Goods" on 40 rows, so he updates the spreadsheet to "FG - Industrial" before the evening run. Without that step, the next import would have recreated the old category and split the catalog in two.

Common Mistakes

Creating a new category instead of editing the old one. The result is two bands where you wanted one, with products split between them. Always go through Edit on the existing row.

Renaming without checking import files. This is the failure that quietly undoes the rename overnight.

Retiring a category that products still use. Their assignment survives, but nobody can reselect it. Recategorize first, then retire.

Trying to delete a category in use. Deletion is blocked while active products reference it. Retire it or move the products.

Treating categories as a product type field. A product's role as raw material, work in process, or finished good is expressed through the category plus the procured flag rather than a separate type switch, so keep the category names meaningful for that purpose.

Next Steps

If the product itself rather than its grouping is what needs retiring, how to deactivate a product without losing history is the matching task, and how to add a new product covers assigning a category on the way in. The same edit one level down, including the update-related-references prompt, is how to rename a product. For the full task library, see the EDGEBIC how-to hub, and for the platform overview, EDGEBIC.