Home Glossary Zoho Books Item (Books)
Zoho Books

Item (Books)

An item in Zoho Books is a product or service record in the Item Master that stores all the details needed for…

An item in Zoho Books is a product or service record in the Item Master that stores all the details needed for invoicing and purchasing: name, unit price, GST rate, HSN or SAC code, and the accounting accounts it posts to when used on sales or purchase documents.

Creating an Item in Zoho Books

Go to Items and click New Item. Set the item type to Goods or Service. For goods, Zoho Books will require an HSN code. For services, it requires a SAC code. Both are mandatory for GST compliance. Enter the selling price (the rate that auto-fills on invoices), the GST rate (0%, 5%, 12%, 18%, or 28%), and the income account (which sales account to credit when this item is invoiced). If you also purchase this item, enter the purchase price and the expense or asset account for bills.

Items and GST Compliance

Every item in your Zoho Books Item Master should have the correct HSN or SAC code and the correct GST rate. When you add the item to an invoice, Zoho Books uses these settings to calculate the correct CGST, SGST, or IGST split. If the item’s GST rate changes (which has happened frequently for various goods categories in India), update the item master and all future invoices will use the new rate. Existing invoices are not affected retroactively.

Inventory vs. Non-Inventory Items

Items in Zoho Books can be set as inventory items (quantities are tracked) or non-inventory items (only value is tracked). For businesses that track physical stock, inventory items in Zoho Books are updated automatically when items are added to invoices (decreasing stock) or bills (increasing stock). Non-inventory items such as service line items have no stock tracking and are simply used for consistent pricing and GST coding.

Industry: Pharmaceutical Distribution — A Pune pharma distributor has 2,400 items in Zoho Books, each with the correct HSN code and GST rate (either 5% or 12% for most pharma products). All sales reps use the same item master, ensuring every invoice has the correct rate regardless of who raises it.
What is an Item in Zoho Books?

An item in Zoho Books is a product or service record that stores the name, unit price, GST rate, HSN or SAC code, and the income or expense account it posts to when used on invoices or bills.

How do I create an item in Zoho Books?

Go to Items, click New Item, fill in the item name, type (goods or service), unit, selling price, GST rate, HSN or SAC code, and income account. Save to make it available on all invoices and purchases.

Need help implementing this in Zoho?

Aaxonix is a certified Zoho implementation partner based in Pune. Architecture-first, no surprises.