Key tasks: Set up a category hierarchy
Important
This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 product documentation. For the latest release plans, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.
Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Category hierarchies are used to classify products, vendors, and other data for reporting and analysis. Each hierarchy consists of a parent category and a structure of subcategories, which are also named the child categories. An organization may have more than one category hierarchy. For example, there may be a category hierarchy of commodity codes that are used for sales, and another category hierarchy for categorizing procurement activities. You can import commodity codes from a standard industry classification system, or you can manually create a category hierarchy to meet the business requirements for your organization.
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Set up a category hierarchy
Assign a category hierarchy type
Manually add categories to a hierarchy
Delete or inactivate a category
Activate a category
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Set up a category hierarchy
Use this procedure to create a category hierarchy and set up the parent category. After you create the parent category, you can create child categories manually or you can import categories.
Note
Category hierarchy cannot be changed by changing the company in the Buying legal entity field because Category hierarchy extends across all companies. If you add a node to the Category hierarchy, that node will be visible to all companies because the Category hierarchy is not company-dependent. The information on the FastTabs beneath Buying legal entity, all display information that relates to that specific company in the Buying legal entity field.
Click Product information management > Setup > Categories > Category hierarchies. On the Action Pane, click Category hierarchy.
In the Create a category hierarchy form, enter a unique name and an optional description in the form, and then click Create. By default, a new category hierarchy is set to Active status.
In the Category hierarchy form, on the Action Pane, click New category node.
Important
The first category that you create for a new category hierarchy is always the parent category of all other categories in the hierarchy.
On the General FastTab, enter a name and optional commodity code for the category.
Select the Classify as tangible product check box to indicate that products that are assigned to the category are tangible items only, not services.
In the Description field, enter a detailed description of the category that helps employees understand the purpose of the category. This description is displayed in a tooltip when the category is selected in a transaction.
In the Friendly name field, enter an optional short name for the category.
In the Keywords field, enter words to help identify this category in a search of category names in Enterprise Portal for Microsoft Dynamics AX. You can enter multiple keywords separated by a colon or semicolon.
On the Category attributes FastTab, click Add to assign attributes to the category. For example, you assign an attribute of Manager to a category. The data type for this attribute is Text. For each category, you enter the name of a category manager as the value for this attribute. For information about how to create category attributes, see Set up attributes and attribute types.
On the Commodity codes FastTab, add subcategories from imported commodity codes. For information about imported commodity codes, see Import categories (form).
On the Assign project categories FastTab, select a project category as the default category that is associated with the selected project category.
Note
The Assign project categories FastTab is only available for procurement and sales category hierarchy types. For more information about category hierarchy types, see Category hierarchy types (form).
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Assign a category hierarchy type
Use this procedure to assign a type to a category hierarchy. The type that you assign determines how the category hierarchy appears in Microsoft Dynamics AX. For example, if you assign the procurement category type to a hierarchy, the products from this procurement category hierarchy are displayed in procurement forms such as requests for quotations and purchase requisitions.
You can assign more than one type to the same category hierarchy. For example, use the same category hierarchy for sales and procurement activities and for products.
Click Product information management > Setup > Categories > Category hierarchy types.
In the Category hierarchy types form, click New.
In the Category hierarchy type field, select a hierarchy type.
In the Category hierarchy field, select a category hierarchy.
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Manually add categories to a hierarchy
Use these procedures to manually add categories to a category hierarchy. You must create the parent category before you can add other categories to a category hierarchy. After you create the parent category, you can use this procedure to add child categories.
Click Product information management > Setup > Categories > Category hierarchies.
On the Category hierarchies list page, select the category hierarchy that you want to add child categories to, and then on the Action Pane, click Edit.
In the Category hierarchy form, in the left pane, click the name of the category to which you want to add a child category.
On the Action Pane, click New category node.
On the General FastTab, enter a name and optional commodity code for the category.
Select the Classify as tangible product check box to indicate that products assigned to the category are tangible items only, not services.
In the Description field, enter a detailed description of the category that helps employees understand the purpose of the category. This description is displayed in a tooltip when the category is selected in a transaction.
In the Friendly name field, enter an optional short name for the category.
In the Keywords field, enter words to help identify this category in a search of category names in Enterprise Portal for Microsoft Dynamics AX. You can add multiple keywords separated by colons or semicolons.
On the Category attributes FastTab, click Add to assign attributes to the category. Alternatively, select the Inherit category attributes from parent category: check box to assign the same attributes to a category that you assign to the parent of the category.
On the Commodity codes FastTab, add commodity codes from the list of imported commodity codes. For information about how to import commodity codes, see Import categories (form).
On the Assign project categories FastTab, select a project category as the default category that is associated with the selected project category.
Note
The Assign project categories FastTab is only available for procurement and sales category hierarchy types. For more information about category hierarchy types, see Category hierarchy types (form).
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Delete or inactivate a category
Use these procedures to delete or inactivate a category in a category hierarchy. You can delete a category only if there are no records, such as commodity codes, products, or transactions, that reference the category. If records are associated with a category, you can inactivate the category to make the category unavailable for transactions.
When you delete a category that has child categories, the child categories are also deleted. When you inactivate a category that has child categories, the child categories are also inactivated.
Click Product information management > Setup > Categories > Category hierarchies. Open the category hierarchy that contains the category that you want to delete.
In the Category hierarchy form, in the left pane, click the name of the category that you want to delete.
On the Action Pane, click Delete, and then confirm the deletion.
If records are associated with the category, an error message will be displayed. To make the category unavailable for other records, click Inactivate on the Action Pane. The records that are already associated with the category retain the association with the category.
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Activate a category
Use these procedures to activate a category in a category hierarchy to make the category available for transactions. When you activate a category that has child categories, you can activate only the category, or you can activate both the category and all its child categories. If you activate a child category, any inactive parent categories that are associated with the child category are also automatically activated.
Click Product information management > Setup > Categories > Category hierarchies.
On the Category hierarchies list page, open the category hierarchy that contains the category that you want to activate.
In the Category hierarchy form, in the left pane, click the name of the category that you want to activate.
On the Action Pane, click Activate, and then confirm the activation.
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Category hierarchy types (form)
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Key tasks: Set up and maintain procurement category hierarchies