Setting Up Product Types

Product types are how TORO organizes your inventory into categories — Cigars, Pipe Tobacco, Accessories, Beverages, whatever makes sense for your shop. But they're more than just labels. A product type carries pricing rules, compliance settings, reward eligibility, and (as of v810) default packaging types. Set them up right and every new item you add inherits the correct defaults automatically.

Creating a Product Type

Open the Dashboard, click the TORO Configuration tab on the left, and click the Set Up System card. Inside, click Manage Product Types. (Can't find it? Type "product type" in the search box at the top right.) On the Product Types screen, click + New Product Type.

You'll land in the Product Type Editor. Here's what you're working with:

Product Type Name — What you'll see everywhere: the main menu, reports, item editors. Keep it clear and concise.

Is Active — Toggle this off to hide the product type from menus and dropdowns without deleting it. You can't deactivate a product type that still has active items — TORO will let you know.

Age Requirement — If this category requires age verification at the register (tobacco products, for example), set the minimum age here. Leave it blank for unrestricted categories like accessories.

Returnable — Whether items in this category can be returned. Toggle it off for things you don't want coming back.

Default Eligible For Rewards — Whether items in this category earn loyalty points by default. Individual items can override this, but the product type sets the starting expectation.

Pricing and Discount Settings

These fields control how TORO calculates retail prices for new items in this category:

Markup to MSRP — The default markup percentage applied when pricing from the manufacturer's suggested retail price.

Markup to Store Pricing — The default markup when calculating from your store's existing retail pricing model.

Default Max Discount — The maximum discount percentage anyone can apply to items in this category. This is a ceiling — even if an employee's personal discount limit is higher, they can't exceed this product type cap.

Auto Discount Master Sku — If you want TORO to automatically apply a discount when a customer buys a full case (master SKU), configure the percentage here. You can also set a minimum items-per-SKU threshold so the discount only kicks in for packages above a certain size. There's even an option to apply this discount when printing price labels, so your shelf tags reflect the case pricing.

Packaging Defaults

This is the big addition in v810, and it's a real time-saver.

Every product type can now specify default packaging types for both the Master SKU (the case, box, or bulk unit) and the Transaction SKU (the individual unit customers buy). You'll find these at the bottom of the Product Type Editor:

Default Packaging — Master SKU — What the bulk package is called for this category. "Box" for cigars, "Tin" for pipe tobacco, "Case" for beverages.
Default Packaging — Transaction SKU — What the individual selling unit is called. "Single" for cigars, "Ounce" for pipe tobacco, "Each" for accessories.

What happens when you create a new item

When you add a new item and assign it to a product type, TORO automatically sets the packaging types to match. Create a new cigar? Master SKU defaults to "Box" and Transaction SKU defaults to "Single" — or whatever you've configured for the Cigars product type. No extra clicks.

What happens when you change an item's product type

If you reassign an existing item to a different product type, TORO checks whether the new product type has different packaging defaults. If it does, you'll get a prompt:

"The new product type has default packaging types of [Box] (Master) and [Single] (Transaction). Would you like to update the packaging types on this item's SKUs?"

Click Yes to update, or No to keep the existing packaging. TORO only asks when there's an actual difference — if the packaging already matches, it skips the prompt entirely.

Custom packaging types

TORO comes with seven built-in packaging types: Box, Single, Case, Pack, Tin, Ounce, and Ounces. But you're not limited to those. If your inventory uses packaging that doesn't fit the defaults — Bundles, Sampler Packs, Gift Boxes, Cartons — you can create custom packaging types and use them as product type defaults.

Custom packaging types are managed in the Item Sku Packaging Type Manager, which you reach from the SKU editor (when you go to set a SKU's packaging type). You can create new types, deactivate ones you don't use, and drag-and-drop to reorder how they appear in dropdown menus throughout the system.

Attribute Profiles — extra details per category

Some categories have details worth tracking that don't apply to everything else. A cigar has a wrapper and strength; a cutter has a cut style and blade material; a lighter has a fuel type. TORO handles this with Attribute Profiles.

In the Product Type Editor, the Attribute Profile dropdown lets you tag a category as Cutter or Lighter (or Cigar, or None). Once set, every item in that category shows a matching details panel on its Item Details screen:

Cutter — Cut Style, Blade Material, Max Ring Gauge, Double Blade.
Lighter — Fuel Type, Flame/Jet Count, Refillable, Built-in Punch.

(The Cigar profile is built in and its panel — wrapper, strength, size, and so on — can't be changed.)

Add your own attributes

Want to track something we didn't include? On the Product Types screen, select a category that has an Attribute Profile and click Manage Attributes. From there you can add your own fields — a dropdown (with the choices you type in), a number, a yes/no, or free text. Every new field shows up on the Item Details screen for every item in that category. The built-in fields are protected, and you can't delete a field that's already in use.

To change the order and look of the product type buttons on your main POS screen, use the buttons on the Product Types screen. Click Edit Main Menu Layout (bottom-left) to rearrange the buttons into the order you want — this is set per station. The change takes effect next time the application starts.

To customize a button's colors, select a product type and click Edit Menu Button. Giving each product type a distinct color makes it faster for your team to find what they need during busy periods.

Online Store Settings

If you use the TORO online store module, each product type has its own online pricing and inventory configuration:

Retail Pricing — Choose between using your in-store retail prices directly, or applying separate online markups for master SKUs and individual SKUs. The automatic pricing model lets you price your online store independently from your physical store.

On Sale Pricing — Mark products as on sale for the online store with percentage adjustments. You can set different sale pricing for master SKUs versus individual SKUs.

Quantity on Hand — Either pull actual inventory counts from your system, or manually set a fixed QOH number for the online store. The manual option is useful when you don't want online availability to fluctuate with every in-store sale.