Working with Item Master
Use the Item Master application to create item records. An item record defines a kind of thing your company keeps track of. An item record contains data about a kind of material or equipment; it does not contain data about a specific piece of equipment, such as a serial number.
When you create an item record, you define the main attributes of the item along with any alternate items that you can use in its place and a list of the condition codes you want applied to the item. You also can specify other information related to the item, such as vendors that carry the item, specifications for the item, and other parts needed to build the item (item assembly structure).
Think of an item record as a template that defines a kind of equipment. For example, you can create an item record for a Lenovo notebook. All Lenovo notebooks share the same attributes and share a common item number. You can specify how much RAM a Lenovo notebook has and a specific size for the hard disk. When you order a Lenovo notebook, the attributes that you have associated with that item are transferred to the purchase order so that the notebook will be configured properly when it is ordered.
For items classified as IT assets, you can specify a refresh cycle that is used to calculate a technology refresh date for a specific asset.
When you create software items, you can associate the items with software products maintained in the Software Catalog application. You can also specify that a license is required for a software item to ensure that the license is associated with the item when it is received.
For more information about tasks related to managing items, see the Item Master application help in the Modules and applications section of the information center. For more about the Software Catalog application, see Using the Software Catalog application.