ConnectWise PSA Product Catalog

Overview

The ConnectWise Manage product catalog is the master list of everything an MSP sells — hardware SKUs, software licenses, managed service subscriptions, bundles, and service offerings. Catalog items are the building blocks that flow into quotes, opportunities, sales orders, agreement additions, and ticket charges. Getting the catalog right drives accurate quoting, consistent billing, and clean COGS/margin reporting.

This skill covers the full catalog item schema, the supporting lookup entities (categories, subcategories, manufacturers, product types, unit of measure), and the workflows for the most common MSP scenarios.

API Endpoints

Base:         /procurement/catalog
Categories:   /procurement/categories
Subcategories: /procurement/subCategories
Manufacturers: /procurement/manufacturers
Product types: /procurement/productTypes
Unit of measure: /procurement/unitOfMeasures
Product class: /procurement/productClasses

Available MCP tools (connectwise-manage-mcp):

Product Class

productClass is the single most important field because it drives downstream billing, inventory, and agreement behavior.

Rule of thumb for MSPs:

• Per-endpoint managed services (RMM, EDR, backup) → Agreement
• M365 / Google Workspace licenses you resell → NonInventory (or Agreement if billing monthly)
• Switches, firewalls, desktops you physically hold → Inventory
• Project engineering hours, onboarding fee → Service
• "Small Business Bundle" that rolls up RMM + EDR + backup → Bundle

Complete Catalog Item Field Reference

Core Identity

Classification

Pricing & Cost

Vendor & Supply

Inventory

Lifecycle

Passthrough Pattern: extraFields

The cw_create_catalog_item tool surfaces ~11 common fields directly as typed Zod params. For any field not in that list (e.g. manufacturerPartNumber, unitOfMeasure, upc, minStockLevel, serializedFlag), use extraFields:

{
  "identifier": "DELL-OPTI-7010",
  "description": "Dell OptiPlex 7010 Desktop",
  "subcategoryId": 12,
  "typeId": 3,
  "cost": 849.00,
  "price": 1199.00,
  "categoryId": 5,
  "manufacturerId": 17,
  "productClass": "Inventory",
  "taxableFlag": true,
  "customerDescription": "Dell OptiPlex 7010 - i5/16GB/512GB SSD",
  "extraFields": {
    "manufacturerPartNumber": "OPT7010-i5-16-512",
    "unitOfMeasure": { "id": 1 },
    "vendor": { "id": 9823 },
    "vendorSku": "DELL-7010-BSTOCK",
    "minStockLevel": 2,
    "serializedFlag": true,
    "ianCode": "1400-INV-HW"
  }
}

extraFields is merged into the POST body verbatim — anything the CW /procurement/catalog POST endpoint accepts will work.

Common MSP Recipes

Recipe 1: Hardware SKU (Inventory)

{
  "identifier": "FW-MERAKI-MX67",
  "description": "Meraki MX67 Firewall",
  "subcategoryId": 8,
  "typeId": 2,
  "productClass": "Inventory",
  "categoryId": 3,
  "manufacturerId": 24,
  "cost": 495.00,
  "price": 795.00,
  "taxableFlag": true,
  "extraFields": {
    "manufacturerPartNumber": "MX67-HW",
    "unitOfMeasure": { "id": 1 },
    "serializedFlag": true,
    "minStockLevel": 1
  }
}

Recipe 2: Software License / SaaS (NonInventory)

{
  "identifier": "M365-BP",
  "description": "M365 Business Premium",
  "subcategoryId": 21,
  "typeId": 5,
  "productClass": "NonInventory",
  "cost": 22.00,
  "price": 28.50,
  "taxableFlag": false,
  "customerDescription": "Microsoft 365 Business Premium - per user/month",
  "extraFields": {
    "unitOfMeasure": { "id": 7 }
  }
}

Recipe 3: Managed Service / MRR line item (Agreement)

{
  "identifier": "MSP-WKST-MGD",
  "description": "Managed Workstation",
  "subcategoryId": 30,
  "typeId": 9,
  "productClass": "Agreement",
  "cost": 18.00,
  "price": 75.00,
  "customerDescription": "Fully Managed Workstation - RMM, EDR, patching, backup",
  "extraFields": {
    "unitOfMeasure": { "id": 7 },
    "ianCode": "4100-REC-MSP"
  }
}

Recipe 4: Project Service / Labor (Service)

{
  "identifier": "SVC-PM-HR",
  "description": "Project Management - hourly",
  "subcategoryId": 45,
  "typeId": 11,
  "productClass": "Service",
  "cost": 85.00,
  "price": 195.00,
  "extraFields": {
    "unitOfMeasure": { "id": 3 },
    "phaseProductFlag": true
  }
}

Updating Catalog Items (JSON Patch)

Use cw_update_catalog_item with JSON Patch ops. CW Manage is strict about patch syntax — reference fields use /id paths.

Common patch patterns

Adjust price:

[{ "op": "replace", "path": "price", "value": 29.95 }]

Retire a SKU:

[{ "op": "replace", "path": "inactiveFlag", "value": true }]

Change manufacturer:

[{ "op": "replace", "path": "manufacturer/id", "value": 42 }]

Update customer description + cost atomically:

[
  { "op": "replace", "path": "customerDescription", "value": "M365 Business Premium (annual commit)" },
  { "op": "replace", "path": "cost", "value": 21.00 }
]

Search Patterns

Catalog search uses standard CW conditions syntax.

All active hardware from one manufacturer:

conditions=manufacturer/id=17 and inactiveFlag=false and productClass="Inventory"

SKUs with a specific prefix:

conditions=identifier like 'M365-%'

Items missing a manufacturer (data hygiene):

conditions=manufacturer=null and inactiveFlag=false

Price-list export — active NonInventory:

conditions=productClass="NonInventory" and inactiveFlag=false
orderBy=identifier asc

Recently updated:

conditions=_info/lastUpdated>=[2026-01-01T00:00:00Z]

Best Practices

1. SKU conventions matter — pick a pattern (VENDOR-PRODUCT-VARIANT) and stick to it. Catalog bloat from inconsistent SKUs is the #1 reason CW quote selection gets painful.
2. Always set `productClass` — default CW behavior when it's missing is rarely what MSPs want. Bundles and agreement items especially must be classified correctly or they won't expand / won't roll up MRR.
3. `subcategory` and `type` are required — look them up first with cw_list_catalog_subcategories and cache the IDs. Don't hardcode.
4. Separate `description` from `customerDescription` — internal SKU naming (short, searchable) vs customer-facing (descriptive, marketing-friendly).
5. Retire, don't delete — set inactiveFlag=true instead of deleting. Historical quotes, tickets, and invoices reference the item by ID.
6. Bundle children must exist first — create the component SKUs before the bundle parent, or the bundle creation will fail.
7. GL account (`ianCode`) on agreement items — this is what flows to accounting. Missing ianCode on Agreement class items is a common source of bad financial reports.
8. Keep `cost` current — margin reporting uses the catalog cost at quote time unless the quote has its own override. Stale cost = lying margin.

Pitfalls & Error Handling

Related Skills

• ConnectWise Tickets — using catalog items as ticket product charges
• ConnectWise Projects — phase products and project service items
• ConnectWise API Patterns — query syntax, JSON Patch, pagination