Products, SKUs, and Altana products
Altana organizes catalog products into two tiers. HS classification, country-of-origin determinations, and rules-of-origin analysis all operate at a different level than the product names and identifiers you use internally. They depend on where something was made and by whom. That's what the two-tier structure is built around.
The product structure
- Aggregate product
- The product concept itself: its name and description. Each aggregate product carries one or more SKUs, the identifier codes your organization uses to refer to that product in procurement systems and shipment records: part numbers, Universal Product Code (UPC) barcodes, and ERP identifiers. An aggregate product can have more than one Altana product if it is manufactured in multiple countries or by more than one set of suppliers.
- Altana product
- The compliance-relevant unit, one tier below the aggregate product. One Altana product equals one product made in one specific country of origin by one specific set of suppliers. All HS classification, country-of-origin determination, and rules-of-origin work happens at this level. Each Altana product links to Altana's global supply chain graph.
A worked example
Acme Outdoor sells a trail hiking boot under part number ACO-TB-900. The same boot is manufactured in two places: by a supplier in Vietnam, and by a different supplier in China.
Each Altana product gets its own HS classification and country-of-origin determination, because the trade rules that apply to a boot made in Vietnam may be different from those that apply to the same boot made in China. Acme Outdoor's part number (SKU) is how their team refers to the product; the Altana products are how Altana tracks compliance for each manufacturing configuration.
How your data maps to these levels
Customer data can arrive at either tier. When you provide product and supplier information during onboarding, the platform determines the correct tier for each record. You do not need to pre-sort your data before submitting it.
SKUs are how you refer to products internally. Altana products are how Altana tracks which version of a product is subject to which trade rules: the specific country it was made in and the specific supplier set that produced it.
Where these levels appear in the catalog
The catalog product list shows one row per aggregate product. Each row displays the product name, description, Harmonized System (HS) code, SKU count, and your internal identifier (External ID). Expand an aggregate product row to see the Altana products beneath it. Each Altana product shows its HS code, country of origin, and classification attributes.
Walking the hierarchy on the Products tab
Where enabled for your account, the Products tab also carries a product hierarchy table that lets you walk the whole structure from one place, one level at a time. It shows four columns — Product, HS Code (the 6-digit HS heading), Supplier, and SKU (a count, shown on aggregate product rows only) — and each level loads when you expand it, so the table stays responsive on a large catalog.
- Start at your aggregate products. The top level is one row per aggregate product, badged AG, with a count of the SKUs it carries.
- Expand an aggregate product to see both its SKUs, badged SKU, and its Altana products, badged AP. An Altana product carries a second badge for its place in the value chain — FG for a finished good — and shows its HS code and the supplier that provides it.
- Keep expanding an Altana product to trace the upstream products that go into it. Upstream rows keep the AP badge and take a tier badge in place of FG — S1 for direct inputs, S2 for their inputs, and so on — so you can see how deep into your supply chain the row sits.
Click any row to open its detail panel without losing your place in the tree. To narrow a large catalog to a starting point, use the workspace filters described below.
- Workspace filters on product name and HS code narrow the product rows and limit the top level to aggregate products that still have a match underneath. SKU rows are always shown, and other workspace filters do not apply to this table.
- How far upstream you can expand depends on how many tiers of supplier data your catalog holds. A row with no expand control has no products recorded beneath it.
- Contact your account team if you do not see the hierarchy table on the Products tab.
Related
- What is the Catalog — how the catalog is the system of record for all product data.
- Value Chains — how Altana products connect to multi-tier supplier networks.
- Getting Data In — how your product and supplier data arrives in the catalog.
- Trade mechanics — HS classification, country of origin, and free trade agreement (FTA) qualification.