Product Finder
Product Finder helps sales users quickly narrow a catalog of standard products by the specifications they know. It is useful when a customer asks for a product with particular capabilities, such as processor, core count, operating temperature, voltage, material, or certification, but does not know the exact item number.
Product Finder searches the Item Catalog and uses the attributes recorded on catalog items as filters. Start with a category when it is known, or search for a specification or value to find the relevant filters. Choose one or more values to refine the results, review the matching products and their specifications, then add the products you want to a selection. Quantities can be set before the selection is added to a sales document.
Add products to a Sales Quote or Sales Order
Open Product Finder from a draft Sales Quote or Sales Order to keep the destination in context. The banner identifies the quote or order receiving the products. Add matching products to the selection, set quantities, select Add To, and confirm the destination. The selected catalog items are added as SKU lines; products already on the document are not added again.
Product Finder can also be opened on its own. In that mode, build a selection first, then choose a recent draft Sales Quote or Sales Order from Add selected products to. The selection is temporary and is cleared after a successful add.
Product Finder and Smart Quote
Product Finder and Smart Quote solve complementary parts of product selection:
| Use Product Finder when | Use Smart Quote when |
|---|---|
| You need to locate an existing catalog SKU by its specifications. | You need to configure a product from guided selections and rules. |
| The result is one or more catalog item lines with quantities. | The result can be a configured line with calculated BOM, routing, and pricing. |
| A salesperson needs to compare standard products quickly. | Product choices depend on compatibility, engineering logic, or calculated outcomes. |
A practical workflow is to use Product Finder to identify and add standard products, kits, accessories, or replacement parts, and use Smart Quote for the configurable products on the same Sales Quote or Sales Order. This reduces manual catalog searching without replacing the configuration logic that Smart Quote applies.
ADMIN / POWERUSER: Prepare product attributes
Product Finder discovers available filters from Item Catalog attributes. An attribute is a name/value pair stored on a catalog item. For example, the item 43018-0000-12-2 might have Processor = Intel Atom x6212RE, Core Count = 2, and Operating Temperature = -40 to 85 C. Those names become filter labels and their values become the selectable choices in Product Finder.
Use consistent labels and values
Labels must be consistent across every product that should participate in the same filter. Product Finder treats Core Count, Core count, Cores, and CPU Cores as different attributes. Likewise, values such as 6 W, 6W, and 6 Watts produce separate choices even when they mean the same thing.
Before loading data, agree on a small attribute dictionary that defines the exact label, unit style, and allowed value format. Apply it consistently across the relevant categories. For example:
| Attribute label | Consistent value format | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
Core Count |
2, 4, 8 |
2-core, Quad Core |
TDP |
6 W, 10 W |
6W, 6 Watts |
Operating Temperature |
-40 to 85 C |
-40C to +85C, Industrial |
Use meaningful product attributes, not free-form notes. Attributes with the same labels should describe the same property across products. When a specification does not apply, leave it absent rather than inserting placeholders such as N/A or None; placeholders become filter values and make results harder to use.
Define attributes in Excel and import in batch
Before importing, define the corresponding attributes in Setup / Attributes using the same names that will appear in the catalog. The Item import ignores an attribute name that is not defined there. For a large catalog, maintain product specifications in separate Excel columns first. Use one row per item and one column for each agreed attribute, such as Processor, Core Count, TDP, and Operating Temperature. Review the sheet for inconsistent labels, spelling, units, and values before import.
Export the current Item Catalog to obtain the supported import template, then populate its Attributes column with the item attributes in the Velosity import format:
Processor=Intel Atom x6212RE;Core Count=2;TDP=6 W;Operating Temperature=-40 to 85 C
The Item Import documentation includes the supported CSV workflow and an Excel formula example for building this column: Item Import and Attributes. Import a small representative set first, open Product Finder, and confirm that the expected labels and values appear as filters before importing the full catalog.
Other ways to maintain attributes
Attributes may also be added or updated through normal item maintenance, through the supported Item Catalog import/integration process, or through the Velosity API when the catalog is managed by an ERP or other source system. Keep one source of truth for each attribute set. If an external system owns item data, update attributes there and let the integration refresh Velosity rather than making changes that will be overwritten by the next synchronization.
Ongoing data-quality checklist
- Add the agreed attributes to every comparable product in a family.
- Use the exact approved label and value format every time.
- Remove obsolete or duplicate spellings during catalog maintenance.
- Test filters after a new import or integration change, especially within each product category.
- Keep configuration-specific choices in Smart Quote when they are inputs to product rules rather than properties of a catalog SKU.
See also: Smart Quote, Configured versus SKU Items, and Items.