---
title: Creating and Editing a Product
description: "A product is one thing a customer can buy: a hosting plan, a game server, a domain extension, an SSL certificate. The product editor is a five-tab workspace covering identity, pricing, provisioning, configurable options and store presentation. This article walks…"
url: "https://rackhelm.com/documentation/creating-and-editing-products/"
updated: "2026-09-24"
category: "Products & Catalogue"
---

# Creating and Editing a Product

A product is one thing a customer can buy: a hosting plan, a game server, a domain extension, an SSL certificate. The product editor is a five-tab workspace covering identity, pricing, provisioning, configurable options and store presentation. This article walks through every tab and field, and is for operators.

## Before you start

- Create at least one **product group** — one is required on create. See [Product Groups](/docs/product-groups/).
- Create the **billing cycles** you will price against; a fresh install has none. See [Billing Cycles](/docs/billing-cycles/).
- Connect and enable the panel or registrar first, or it will not appear in **Integration Type**.

> **Warning:** Opening the editor needs `edit_products`, but the request that *saves* a product checks an `admin` capability that is not a seeded permission. In a default install only **Super Admin** can create or update a product; a role with `edit_products` can open the editor and gets a 403 on save. Deleting also needs `delete_products`.

## Opening the editor

Open **Catalogue → Catalogue & Groups** and click **New Product**, or a group's **⋯ → Add Product** to arrive with that group pre-selected. To edit, use **Edit Product** on a product row. A sticky bar carries the save button (**Create Product**, or **Save Changes** when editing), so you can save from any tab; nothing is written until you do.

![The product editor on its General tab, with the sticky save bar and five tabs](/wp-content/uploads/rackhelm-docs/catalogue-product-editor-general.png)
On the edit form the tabs carry counters for priced cycles and for attached options plus add-ons.

## Tab 1 — General

| Field | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Product Name** | Required, up to 255 characters. Shown on the store card, order page, invoices and admin list. |
| **Group** | Required on create — the "— Uncategorized —" entry exists but is rejected. When editing it may be cleared, moving the product to the Uncategorized panel. |
| **Product Description** | Rich text, with styles, colour, lists, tables, links and images. Shown as the store blurb. |
| **Available Upgrades / Downgrades** | Multi-select of products a customer may switch to; only products *in the same group* are offered. Empty on the create form — save first, then reopen. |

## Tab 2 — Pricing

Pricing has three blocks: a one-time base price, a baseline late fee, and the per-cycle pricing table — where nearly all real pricing lives.

### One-Time Pricing

**One-Time Price (Base)** is used *only* when the product has no priced billing cycle; if any cycle carries a price the cart ignores it. **One-Time Setup Fee** is a one-off charge on the product, and drives the **Setup Fee** column in the catalogue list.

> **Warning:** A product must be priceable. Leave every cycle price blank and **One-Time Price (Base)** becomes required at `0.01` or more, with the message "Set a One-Time Price, or give this product at least one priced billing cycle."

### Baseline Late Fee

**Baseline Late Fee (Flat Amount)** is a flat £ charge applied when an invoice for this product goes overdue; blank uses the global default. **Late Fee Grace Period (Days)** is how long after the due date the fee waits. Individual cycles override both.

### Billing Cycles table

One row per billing cycle on the install. A row becomes real pricing only when its **Price** box is filled in; blank rows are discarded on save.

![The Pricing tab showing the billing cycles table with price, setup fee and a Custom late-fee switch per row](/wp-content/uploads/rackhelm-docs/catalogue-product-editor-pricing.png)
The counter reads "N of M cycles priced"; **Show unused cycles** hides empty rows once one is priced.

| Column | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Billing Cycle** | The cycle's label, as defined under Billing Cycles. |
| **Price** | The recurring price for this term. Leave blank to keep the cycle off the store. |
| **Setup Fee** | A one-off fee on the first invoice for this cycle, then cleared so it never re-bills. Hidden while a registrar integration is selected — **Renewal** and **Transfer** replace this column. |
| **Renewal** | Registrar integrations only. The price used from the second invoice onwards. |
| **Transfer** | Registrar integrations only. Used when the customer chose "transfer" rather than "register"; blank falls back to the ordinary price. |
| **Late Fee — Custom** | Expands a per-cycle override: **Fee Type** (`Percentage (%)` or `Flat Amount (£)`), **Fee Amount** and **Grace Period (Days)**. |

> **Note:** On renewal the order line is re-priced to the cycle's **Renewal** price where one exists, otherwise to its ordinary **Price**, and the setup fee is cleared. Since the Renewal column is hidden without a registrar integration, non-domain products renew at the ordinary price.

> **Warning:** Never enter `0.00` to make something free. A cycle with zero price *and* zero setup fee counts as unpriceable, and the customer is stopped at checkout rather than charged nothing.

## Tab 3 — Provisioning

This tab connects the product to whatever creates the service. **Integration Type** lists **None / Manual Processing** plus every panel, registrar or Custom API enabled on the install; picking one reveals its settings (package ID, resource limits, TLD, and so on). A type a product already uses stays listed even if its panel is later disabled, so an existing configuration is never reset behind your back.

![The Provisioning tab with the Integration Type dropdown and an integration-specific settings panel below it](/wp-content/uploads/rackhelm-docs/catalogue-product-editor-provisioning.png)
Selecting a type reveals its settings panel and disables every other integration's fields.

> **Note:** The **Enable Provisioning** switch in this tab's header is never written back on save — a saved integration is always active. To stop a product provisioning automatically, set **Integration Type** to **None / Manual Processing**.

## Tab 4 — Options & Add-ons

On the create form this tab is labelled just **Options**; the add-on column and the fuller label appear once the product exists.

The left column is the **Configurable Options** picker: every custom field, each with three per-assignment switches — **Show on Order Page**, **Show in Admin** and **User Changeable**. See [Configurable Options](/docs/configurable-options/).

The right column, **Available Add-ons**, is where you tick the extras sold alongside this product. Every add-on on the install is listed here — **Include in store** is a customer-facing filter applied on the order page, not a filter on this list — and the group's add-ons reach the order page too without being ticked here. See [Product Add-ons](/docs/product-addons/).

> **Note:** The add-on column appears only when editing an existing product. Save first, then reopen the product to attach add-ons.

## Tab 5 — Store & SEO

![The Store and SEO tab with visibility switches and SEO fields](/wp-content/uploads/rackhelm-docs/catalogue-product-editor-store-seo.png)
**Direct Link to Product** gives the shareable `/order/…` URL with a copy button.

| Field | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Product Sort Order** | Integer, default `0`. Lower numbers appear first on the group's store page. |
| **Direct Link to Product** | Read-only `/order/{group}/{product}` URL with a copy button. Edit form only. |
| **Include in Store** | Default on. Lists the product on its group's store page. |
| **Quote Product** | Default off. Sends the customer to the ticket form, subject pre-filled "Quote Request: *product name*", instead of to checkout. |
| **Allow Direct Link** | Default on. Lets the order page be opened by URL when the product is unlisted. With both switches off, the order page redirects back to the group. |
| **Highlight Product** | Default off. Adds a "Most Popular" badge. Applies only to the **Product Grid** layout. |
| **Checkout Agreements** | Legal pages the customer must accept before ordering — registry terms on a `.uk` product, say. Each acceptance records the page version, IP address and timestamp. Draft pages are badged "Draft — not enforced". |
| **SEO Title** | Up to 255 characters. |
| **SEO Description** | Meta description, counter aiming at 160 characters. **Generate with AI** drafts one from the name and description. |
| **SEO Image (Open Graph)** | JPEG, PNG, JPG, GIF or WebP, maximum 2 MB. Leave blank to keep the current image. |

> **Note:** The products table carries a `stock` column, but no editor field writes it and nothing enforces it. Treat stock control as unavailable.

## Row actions on the catalogue list

Each product row's **⋯** menu offers **Edit Product**, **View in Store**, **Duplicate**, **Activate**/**Deactivate** and **Delete Product**.

**Duplicate** asks for a new name and copies pricing, cycles, add-ons, custom fields with their switches, upgrade paths, checkout agreements and the integration. The copy is created **inactive** and opens for review. An inactive product is never reachable publicly: the store skips it and its order page returns 404, whatever the visibility switches say.

Deletion is refused while the product sits on any order in `paid`, `active` or `processing` status. Otherwise it removes cycle pricing and the integration, detaches add-ons, custom fields and upgrade paths, and clears the product from every cart. Bulk deletion skips protected products and reports them by name.

## Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Cause and fix |
| --- | --- |
| "No group was selected. Please select a product group." | Creating a product requires a group, despite the "— Uncategorized —" entry in the dropdown. Pick a real group. |
| Save is rejected asking for a One-Time Price. | No cycle carries a price. Price at least one cycle, or set the base price to `0.01` or more. |
| "No billing cycles defined yet". | None exist. Follow the link in the message to create one. |
| A deactivated cycle still shows in the pricing table. | Expected — the product editor lists every cycle regardless of its active flag. Only the add-on pricing grid filters to active cycles. |
| Customer sees "could not be priced" at checkout. | The line resolved to zero or nothing: a cycle priced `0.00` with no setup fee, a cart row with no cycle chosen, or an add-on option unpriced for the order's cycle. |
| Renewal / Transfer columns are missing. | They appear only when **Integration Type** is a domain registrar. Set the integration first, then price the cycles. |
| Upgrade/downgrade list is empty. | Only same-group products qualify, and the create form never populates it. Save into a group, then reopen. |
| Saving returns 403. | The form request requires the unseeded `admin` capability — only Super Admin satisfies it out of the box. |
| "Cannot delete … assigned to N active customer order(s)." | Deactivate the product instead: it leaves the store while existing services keep working. |
| The SSL product dropdown will not load. | The eNom certificate catalogue is fetched live and cached six hours. A failure reports "Could not load the eNom SSL product list." — check the eNom panel credentials. |