# Sync products to items

Create inventory item records from library products so Tooling Metrics can track their stock.

Source: https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/inventory/tutorials/sync-products-to-items/
Updated: 2026-10-29

**Prerequisites:** Products exist in the Library.  
**Required permission:** Library → Products — User or above; Inventory → Items — User or above (the **Push to Item** button shows only at that level).

## Products vs. items

A **Product** in the Library is the specification — the manufacturer's catalog record with parameters, drawings, and models. It describes *what* the tool is.

An **Item** in Inventory is the stock record — it tracks *how many* you have, *where* they are, and *what they cost*. An item can exist on its own with no Product at all (created manually in Inventory → Items), but the only way to link an item to a Product is to sync from that product — there is no way to attach a Product to an item created manually, before or after the fact.

Sync is also how you keep an item current: syncing a product that already has a linked item updates that same item's copied fields rather than creating a second one.

## Sync a product to an item

1. In the sidebar, click **Library → Products**.
1. Open the product you want to track in inventory.
1. Click **Push to Item**, then confirm in the **Push Product to Item** dialog.

The item is created (or updated, if this product was already synced) immediately — there is no review step. A flash message confirms whether the item was created, updated, or unchanged.

## What to expect

A newly created item inherits the product's name, description, order code, barcode, weight, dimensions, picture, manufacturer, and item type (Consumable or Durable, based on whether the product is a cutting item), and starts in **Draft** status with on-hand quantity 0. Fields specific to inventory — Internal Category, cost method, unit of measure — are set to organization defaults and can be edited on the item record afterward.

To understand the difference between cost methods, see [How tool cost allocation works](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/inventory/overview/cost-allocation/).

## Next

[Create stock rules](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/inventory/tutorials/create-stock-rules/) — define the target quantities and storage locations that trigger automatic purchase requests.