Adding a New Item to Your System

Got a new shipment in with something you've never carried before? Getting it into TORO takes less time than unwrapping the cellophane. There are two ways to do it, and which one you pick depends on how much control you want over the details.

Quick Add — The Fast Way

This is what most shops use for day-to-day additions. You can have a new item scannable at the register in under a minute.

1. Open the Dashboard, click the Items tab on the left, and click the Quick Add New Items card. (Can't find it? Type "add item" in the search box at the top right.)

2. Click Select Brand and pick the manufacturer from the list

3. You'll see a table of items you already carry from that brand — helpful for avoiding duplicates

4. Click Create New Item

5. Type in the Item Name. New items are created as your default product type automatically — no need to pick a category every time. The current default is shown near the top of the screen ("Default Product Type for New Items: Cigar"); to change it, click the small * button beside it and pick a different type.

6. For cigars, a size screen pops up. Build the Length by tapping a whole-inch button (3, 4, 5, 6, 7) and a fraction button in 1/8″ steps (⅛, ¼, … ⅞) — the decimal value TORO stores fills in automatically, and you can also type a decimal straight into the box. Then enter the Ring Gauge (measured in 64ths of an inch — a 50 ring gauge means 50/64 of an inch in diameter). Enter both values, or leave both blank.

7. Set your pricing: Box Manf. Cost is your wholesale cost for the master SKU, and Cigars/Box is how many units come in that package

8. TORO automatically calculates your per-unit cost and retail price based on the markup rules you've set for that product type

9. Add barcodes: click Add Manf. Barcode to enter the UPC from the packaging, or Create Store Barcode to generate one of your own

10. Click Save — the item is live at the POS immediately

That's it. Your staff can start scanning and selling it right away.

Item Creator — More Control

When you need to set up case-and-single SKU structures or want to see exactly how the pricing math works before committing, the Item Creator gives you the full picture.

1. Open the Dashboard, click the Items tab on the left, and click the Item Catalog card. (Can't find it? Type "catalog" in the search box at the top right.) Then click the Create New Item button at the top of the catalog screen — that opens the Item Creator.

2. The Item Creator shows two columns. The left column, Automatically Set Retail, prices the item from your product type markup rules. The right column, Manually Set Retail, lets you type in whatever price you want. Each column has the same two buttons.

3. In whichever column you picked, choose your SKU structure:

Purchase By The Case / Sell Individually creates both a case SKU and a single SKU linked together

4. Purchase Individually / Sell Individually creates just one SKU

5. Enter the brand, item name, product type, cost, and Items/SKU (the number of units in the package — same concept as Cigars/Box in Quick Add)

6. Review the pricing breakdown — you'll see each step: cost, special tax (excise), markup percentage, rounding rule, final retail, and your margin

7. Add barcodes for each SKU

8. Click Create

The Item Creator is especially useful when you're bringing in a new product line and want to make sure your margins are dialed in before anything hits the floor.

Using a Template

Already carry something similar? Click Create New Item Using Another Item As Template and TORO clones the product type, SKU structure, markup rules, and packaging setup from an existing item. You just change the name, cost, and barcodes. This is a huge time-saver when you're adding multiple items from the same brand with the same packaging.

How Pricing Works

TORO builds your retail price in layers: Product Type Markup % + Item SKU Markup + Special Tax (excise tax, if applicable) + Rounding = Retail Price. Auto-calculation is the default, so when your costs change, your retail adjusts automatically. If you want to lock a specific item's price and prevent auto-adjustments, uncheck the Auto Adjust Retail checkbox on that item.

Additional Item Settings

The Item Details screen used to carry every field at once, which made the everyday job — checking a price, fixing a name — harder than it needed to be.

The settings you rarely touch now sit behind an Additional Item Settings button: Manufacturer Name, Brand Line, Transaction Notes, Search Tags, Minimum Purchasing Age, Eligible For Rewards and Item Reviews. Same fields, same Save button, just out of the way until you want them.

Naming an Item the Way Your Manufacturer Does

Manufacturer Name is worth a look if you rename things for your own shelf.

Plenty of shops shorten a product name so it fits a button or reads better to their staff. That's fine in the store and unhelpful on a purchase order, because the person reading that order is looking the item up in their catalog, not yours.

Fill in the Manufacturer Name and TORO prints their name for that item on purchase orders. Everything else — wholesale invoices, returns — keeps your own name, and so does a purchase order for any item you haven't given a manufacturer name. Set it on the handful of items whose names you've changed most and your orders stop needing a translation at the other end.

Things Worth Knowing

• You'll need the AC_ITEM_CREATE_NEW permission to create items. If the option is grayed out, talk to your manager.

• Get the cost right. Every margin report, profit calculation, and reorder suggestion in the system traces back to this number. Garbage in, garbage out.

• SKUs represent packaging sizes. A single item can have a case SKU and a single SKU, each with its own cost, retail price, and barcode.

• Barcodes are typically 13-14 numeric digits (UPC-A format). Each barcode links to a specific SKU, not just the item.

• After creating the item, you can set initial quantity on hand, desired backstock, and desired display quantities — but none of that is required at creation time.

• Don't stress about getting everything perfect up front. Items can be edited later from the item detail screen. The only thing you really need to nail from the start is the cost and the product type.

• Need to fix a cigar's size later? Select the item in Quick Add and click the Adjust Size button on its detail panel. The same size screen opens so you can change the length and ring gauge.

• Manufacturer changed the packaging? If a brand changes how many units come in a box (say, 20-count becomes 25-count), open the item in Advanced View and click the Manufacturer Changed button. TORO will walk you through it — you enter the new count and cost, and it automatically creates a new master SKU, re-links everything, and deactivates the old one. No need to rebuild the item from scratch. Learn more