The group's product catalog

In a group of companies, the group keeps one product catalog and each company picks the products it trades from it. This is how agricultural groups and their ERPs keep products the same everywhere: the product is defined once for the group and extended to each company and site.

What the group decides

• The HS code of each commodity: the heading or subheading every country shares (for example HS 0901.11, green coffee). It is the key of the entry and never changes.
• The name in each language, the Default unit and the Shelf life.
• Whether the entry is Fixed for every company, and whether companies may add products outside the catalog.

What each company keeps

• Its own product, which its lots are recorded against. Nothing on the ledger changes when the group edits its catalog.
• The code of its own country: NCM in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, CN in the European Union, HTS in the United States. When a commodity has several national lines (NCM 0901.11.10 and 0901.11.90), the company chooses one; when the group pinned one, the company takes it.
• Its unit (Shown in): the unit its quantities are shown in, chosen when the product is added. Lots of every company are recorded in the base unit (kilograms, litres or pieces), so any amount can move. A later change of the group's default unit applies to new adoptions only.
• Its barcode number (GTIN), its own ERP code and its declared carbon footprint.

When the group changes an entry

A new name or shelf life follows into the companies' products that still had the group's value. A company that renamed its product keeps its name. When the entry is fixed, the change follows everywhere and companies cannot change the code, the unit or the shelf life.

One company only

A company that is its own group sees one setup. The products it picks become entries of its catalog and its own products at the same time, so a second company finds them ready.