Every invoice line in Nizam can be one of two things. It can be a product you have set up, with its price, tax rate and the branches that sell it. Or it can be a line in your own words, typed straight onto the invoice with no product behind it.
Both are valid, and both are signed and reported the same way under ZATCA. The difference shows up later: in your stock, in your reports, and in how much typing you do next month.
What a free-text line is good for
A free-text line is the right choice for something you will probably never sell again in the same form. A one-off consultancy fee, a custom fabrication job, a charge agreed in a phone call. Setting up a product for each of these would fill your catalogue with items nobody will ever pick.
Nizam tidies these lines for you: a description you type is capitalised the way every name is, so the invoice still reads cleanly. What it will not do is accept a line priced at zero. A line that says something was sold for nothing is refused before it can be numbered and reported.
When it should be a product
As soon as you find yourself typing the same description a second time, it should probably be a product. Products bring things that free text cannot:
- Stock. A product sold on an invoice or at the till takes stock off the shelf. A free-text line has no item behind it, so nothing moves.
- Reports. Best sellers and sales by item only know about products. Ten free-text lines for the same service are ten unrelated sales.
- Branches. A product can be limited to the branches that sell it, so a branch never invoices something it does not carry.
- Consistency. The price, tax rate and description are the same every time, whoever raises the invoice.
A simple rule for your team
- Before typing a description, search the products list on the invoice line. If it is there, pick it.
- If it is a genuine one-off, type it as a free-text line with a clear description and a real price.
- If you type the same thing twice in a month, ask whoever manages products to add it, with its price and the branches where it is sold.
- Once a month, look through recent invoices for repeated free-text lines and turn them into products.
A related habit applies at the till. Owners and managers can create a product on the spot at the POS when something is missing, but cashiers sell only what is already there. That keeps the catalogue in the hands of the people responsible for it.
Free text is a convenience; products are a record. Use the first for the exceptions and the second for everything you sell more than once, and your stock and reports will stay honest without extra effort.