Departments, Sub Departments & Brands

Departments are the top level of your inventory structure — every item belongs to one department, and most VMX reports can be filtered or grouped by it. Sub departments split a department into finer categories, collections group items for your online store, and brands track the manufacturer of an item. All of these are managed from the Inventory section.

The Departments Page

Go to Inventory → Departments to manage your department list. (If your store uses a different word than "Department," the tab shows your store's term.) The page has three sections — Departments, Sub-departments, and Collections — with Jump to: buttons at the top to scroll to each one.

The Departments table shows one row per department. Columns:

Code — the department's internal number. It appears in exports and imports and cannot be changed.
Name — the department name. Click it to drill into the department.
Prefix — text automatically prepended to the description of every item in the department (see "Department Prefixes and Item Descriptions" below).
Employee — up to three employees assigned to the department (its buyers/managers) for the store you're currently viewing.
Annual Turns — the target number of inventory turns per year, used by planning reports.
# Items — how many items are in the department.
$ Cost — total cost value of on-hand inventory in the department (on hand × average cost) at the current store.
$ Retail — total retail value of on-hand inventory (on hand × unit price) at the current store.
% Margin — the overall margin implied by the $ Cost and $ Retail totals.
Stock Sq Ft — floor space allocated to the department (optional, for your own planning).
Stock Months — months of stock target (optional, for your own planning).
Sort — the department's sort position on your online store.
Online — shows ✅ when the department is visible on your online store.

A totals row at the bottom sums # Items, $ Cost, $ Retail, the overall % Margin, and Stock Sq Ft. Every column can be sorted by clicking its header, and the filter row under the headers narrows the list as you type.

Add or Edit a Department

On Inventory → Departments, click + Department to create a department, or click the pencil (edit) icon on a department's row to change it. Adding departments requires the Add Depts employee permission.

The Department Info window has these fields:

Name — the department name shown throughout VMX.
Primary Employee, Secondary Employee, Tertiary Employee — who is responsible for the department. These assignments are saved per store, so each location can have its own department managers.
Annual Turns — target inventory turns per year for planning reports. Saved per store.
Prefix — text prepended to every item description in the department (see the next section before changing this on an existing department).
Warranty — the default warranty applied to items in this department. Leave as Default to use the store-wide default.
Red Margin Range, Yellow Margin Range, Green Margin Range — margin highlighting thresholds (see "Margin Color Ranges" below).
Tag Type — the default tag (price label) type used when printing tags for items in this department. An item's own tag type, or its sub department's, takes precedence when set.
Stock Sq. Ft. and Stock Months — optional space/stock planning figures. Saved per store.
Web Sort Order, Web Name, Web Is Visible, Web Description, Web Title, Web Meta Description, Web Freight — settings for stores with a VMX online shop: whether the department shows online, the name and description shown to shoppers, its position in the shop navigation, and search-engine title/description text.

Click Create (or Update) to save.

Department Prefixes and Item Descriptions

Each department — and each sub department — can have a Prefix. VMX builds every item's description automatically by combining, in order: the department prefix, the sub department prefix, and the item's Name, Variety, Color, and Size. For example, a department prefix of SHRUB produces descriptions like SHRUB Hydrangea Limelight 3G.

Because of this, changing a department or sub department prefix rewrites the descriptions of every item in it. The item page shows the current Dept. Prefix and Sub Dept. Prefix as read-only fields in the item's Description section so you can see what will be prepended.

Margin Color Ranges (Red / Yellow / Green)

Departments and sub departments can define margin thresholds that color-code item margins on the item page and in reports. Set them in the Red Margin Range, Yellow Margin Range, and Green Margin Range fields when editing a department or sub department on Inventory → Departments.

Use a dash to specify a range:

-20 = below 20%
20-35 = between 20% and 35%
50- = 50% and above

The colors indicate:

Red = margin too low
Yellow = needs attention
Green = possibly overpriced
No color = acceptable

If an item's sub department has ranges set, those are used; otherwise the department's ranges apply. If neither is set, VMX defaults to red below 15% margin and yellow from 15% to 50%.

Delete a Department

On Inventory → Departments, a trash icon appears on a department's row only when its # Items count is zero — a department that still contains items cannot be deleted. Clicking the trash icon asks:

Are you sure you want to delete the department "…"?

Even when its # Items count is zero, deleting a department is blocked in these cases, with these messages:

This department has a sub department.

This department has an attachment.

This department has customer requests without a PLU.

Delete or move the department's sub departments, remove the attachment, or clear those customer requests first.

To remove a department that still has items, first move its items to another department (edit each item, or contact help@vmxllc.com for help with a bulk move).

Sub Departments

Sub departments divide a department into finer categories (for example, a Trees & Shrubs department with Evergreen and Deciduous sub departments). Manage them in the Sub Departments section of Inventory → Departments — use the Jump to: Sub-departments button to get there.

The table shows: Code, Department, Sub Department (the name), Prefix, Warranty, Tag Type, Sort, Online, plus inventory stats for the current store — # PLUs, $ Cost, and $ Retail.

Click New Sub Department to add one. Each sub department belongs to exactly one Department.
Click the pencil (edit) icon to change a sub department. In addition to the table columns, the edit form includes Red Margin Range / Yellow Margin Range / Green Margin Range (margin color thresholds that override the department's for items in this sub department) and web fields (Description, Web Name, Web Title, Meta Description, Web Freight) for stores with a VMX online shop.
Moving a sub department to a different department moves all of its items too — the items' department is updated and their descriptions are rebuilt with the new prefixes.
Clicking a sub department's name opens Inventory Search filtered to that sub department. (For a small number of stores, VMX has enabled a per-sub-department attributes editor here instead — this is set up per-client by VMX; contact help@vmxllc.com.)

Deleting a sub department is blocked if it's still in use. You'll see one of these messages:

This sub department has items in it, so cannot be deleted.

This sub department has an attachment.

Move the items to another sub department (or remove the attachment) first.

Collections

Collections group items for your online store independently of departments — an item belongs to one department but can be in many collections (for example, "Deer Resistant" or "Gift Ideas"). Manage them in the Collections section of Inventory → Departments — use the Jump to: Collections button.

The table shows: ID, Parent Collection, Anchored Department, Anchored Sub. Department, Collection (the name), Web Name, Sort, Online, and a Sort link that opens the collection's items so you can arrange them.

Click New Collection to add one. Collections can be nested by choosing a Parent Collection.
To reorder collections on your online store, drag rows into position and click Save Sort.
Items are added to collections on the item page, in the Collections field of the item's Classification section.

Deleting a collection is blocked in these cases, with these messages:

This collection has child collections and cannot be deleted.

This collection has an attachment.

Brands

Go to Inventory → Brands to manage the brand list used on items. The page shows two tables — Active Brands and, below a divider, Inactive Brands — each with columns Brand Name, Code, Note, Website, Active, and Added.

Click New Brand to add a brand. New brands are created active.
Click the pencil (edit) icon to change a brand's name, code, note, or website, or to change its Active setting.
Only active brands are offered in the Brand dropdown on the item page and in the Inventory Search Brand filter (an item that already has a deactivated brand keeps showing it). To retire a brand without losing history, edit it and set Active to No — it moves to the Inactive Brands table. To reactivate a brand, click the edit icon and check Active.

A brand that is referenced by any item cannot be deleted. You'll see:

This brand cannot be deleted because one or more inventory items reference it. You can deactivate it by editing the brand and unchecking Active.

Departments, Sub Departments & Brands on the Item Page

On an item's page (open any item from Inventory Search):

The Classification section has the Department and Sub Department dropdowns. The Sub Department list only shows sub departments belonging to the selected department. The Collections multi-select in the same section adds the item to online-store collections.
The Description section shows the read-only Dept. Prefix and Sub Dept. Prefix fields — these are prepended automatically when VMX builds the item's description from its Name, Variety, Color, and Size.
The Brand section has the Brand dropdown (active brands, plus the item's current brand if it has since been deactivated) and a Manufacturer # field for the brand's own item/part number.

The department and sub department you choose also determine the item's default tag type for tag printing, its default warranty, and the red/yellow/green margin highlighting shown next to its prices.

Filtering by Department and Brand in Search and Reports

Departments, sub departments, and brands are the main ways to slice VMX data:

Inventory → Search has a Department dropdown — it lists each department, and below a separator each department's sub departments as "Department / Sub Department" entries — plus a Brand dropdown listing active brands.
Sales reports such as Reports → Sales → Departments PTD and Departments PTD vs total sales by department.
Ordering reports — Order Planning, Open to Buy, and Departments Receiving — filter by department, and Order Planning and the Open to Buy reports also offer an All Brands brand dropdown. Reports → Sales → Items includes a Brands multi-select filter.

If a report's numbers look off for one category, check that its items are in the department you expect — an item counts toward whichever department it is assigned to on its item page.