Learn about the importance of product categories and how they impact compliance reports. Add, delete, edit and view categories.
Each product (cannabis and non-cannabis) within your system must be associated with a product category. For cannabis products, these categories are directly related to Health Canada's compliance categories. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that your product categories are set up correctly as it will impact your end-of-the-month compliance reports.
Note: When setting up your product categories, be sure to check in with your provincial regulator to confirm if unfamiliar cannabis products are being added into the appropriate compliance categories.
When setting up your product categories, the ultimate goal is to effectively organize products into appropriate compliance categories (if applicable) and assist sales staff in easily finding products for the customers.
BLAZE's pre-created categories
BLAZE offers the option to pre-create the product categories section for customers based on the Health Canada compliance categories. Go to Products>Categories> Click on "Add compliance categories". You can edit these categories and add sub-categories after they've been added to the section.
Manually add categories
In addition, you can manually create your own categories.
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Go to Products > Categories
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Click on “Add Category” at the top right corner to be directed to the category setup page.
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Select a colour for the category (your POS will display category icons in the selected colour) or you can choose your own. See below.
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Name your category.
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If your category contains cannabis, make sure the "Contains Cannabis" box is selected (it is selected by default). If the category does not contain cannabis, select the "Does not contain cannabis" box.
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If "Contains cannabis" is selected, you must select a corresponding compliance category. The drop-down provides all the Health Canada approved compliance categories. If "Does not contain cannabis" is selected, you will notice the compliance category drop-down section disappear.
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Click the Add subcategory button to create a subcategory. There is no limit to the number of subcategories you can create. Both categories and subcategories can be attached to products. Once set up, you will be able to view items on the POS based on categories and subcategories.
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Click the Save button to store this category.
Note: Categories can be organized in order of appearance by using the up and down arrows in the "Order" column and clicking on the up and down arrows.
For example, you could name a product category “Dried Flower”, select “Contains Cannabis”, and choose the correct compliance category called “Dried Flower”. Then add subcategories for all the different strain types such as Sativa, THC, Indica, CBD, and Hybrid.
Changing Category Colors
In addition to the pre-determined colours, you can also choose your own by clicking on the colour.
Category Recommendations
BLAZE provides an example of ways you could categorize your products. If you ever have any questions or you don't know what products fall within a compliance category, reach out to our customer support team or contact your provincial regulator to confirm.
Categories setup recommendations
We recommend having the following category layout to start. From this base, you can add new categories and subcategories and modify existing ones.
a) Categories: Dried flower
Subcategory: Sativa, Hybrid, Indica, CBD
Compliance Category: Dried flower
b) Categories: Pre-rolls
Subcategory: Sativa, Hybrid, Indica, CBD
Compliance Category: Dried flower
c) Categories: Extracts ingested
Subcategory: Capsules, Oils/Tinctures, Sprays
Compliance Category: Extracts ingested
d) Categories: Extracts inhaled
Subcategory: Vape pens, Vape cartridges
Compliance Category: Extracts inhaled
e) Categories: Edibles
Subcategories: Chocolate, Gummies/Candies, Baked goods, Teas
Compliance Category: Edible solids
f) Categories: Beverages
Subcategories: THC, CBD, 1:1
Compliance Category: Edible non-solids
g) Categories: Topicals
Subcategories: Creams
Compliance Category: Topicals
h) Categories: Accessories
Subcategories: Rolling papers, Grinders, Bongs, Pipes, Lighters
Compliance Category: None is needed. Select the "Does not contain cannabis" box.
How to view reports relating to categories?
You can also view category-specific reports from your dashboard by going to the following:
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Reports > Analytics > Sales> Categories overview
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Reports > Analytics > Sales> Categories over time
How to delete a category?
It's possible to delete categories in BLAZE but please be careful before doing so.
In order to delete a category:
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Click on the button with the vertical dots and select delete.
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A new pop-up will appear, asking you to "select a category to migrate all existing products to."
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Select a category and click the delete button to complete the deletion and migration.