Overview

When reviewing your Management One (M1) reports—especially those that break down child classes—you might notice an extra child class listed that matches the name and code of the parent class. This can be confusing at first glance, but there’s a clear reason behind it.

What's Happening?

Let’s walk through an example:

Say you’ve set up a parent class for your “Books” category:

• Class Code: 01

• Class Name: Books

And under this parent class, you’ve created the following child classes:

However, when viewing a report that breaks out child classes, you might see an additional row listed as:

• Class Code: 01

• Class Name: Books
  (appearing as if it’s another child class)

Why does this happen?

The parent class itself can also contain data, just like its child classes. This means that:

• If any items are mapped directly to the parent class (instead of one of its children), they will show up as their own row in the report.

• The parent class is effectively acting both as a container for child classes and as a standalone class if any data exists at that level.

Real-World Example

Let’s say your store is experimenting with a new book category, like Murder Mystery. You're not ready to create a new child class yet, so you assign these books directly to the parent class 01 - Books.

What happens?

• M1 will still capture that data accurately.

• The 01 - Books class appears in your child class report as its own row.

• It allows you to track those sales without needing to create a new child class just yet.

Summary

Seeing your parent class show up in the child class section of a report is expected behavior when:

• You’ve mapped items directly to the parent class

• The parent class is actively holding data alongside its child classes

This flexibility allows for quick experimentation and accurate reporting while still maintaining the overall integrity of your merchandise hierarchy in Retail Orbit.

Need Help?

If you're unsure whether something should be in a parent class or needs a new child class, feel free to reach out to our support team at support@retailorbit.com. We’re happy to help you with class structure decisions or reporting questions.