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Settings Guide

Configure every aspect of Ardent Seller to match your business

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How to set up your Ardent Seller account

Set up an account in this order: pick your Features (which modules of the app are shown), set Account Preferences (currency, units, accounting method), Billing (pick a plan or stay on Free), Team (invite members and assign roles), Locations (one per physical site), then the library data — Attributes, Custom Fields, Transaction Methods, Tax Categories, Pricing Tiers, and Tags. Data Management is where you export a full backup. Everything under Settings is scoped to the current account, and every card described below lives on the Settings hub.

Features & Integrations

Features (Modules)

Settings → Features lets you turn whole modules of Ardent Seller on or off to fit how you work — hidden modules keep their data, nothing is deleted. The card shows a live count of enabled modules. See Setup & Modules for what each module includes.

Integrations

Settings → Integrations connects marketplaces like Etsy to sync listings, sales, and inventory. It requires the Marketplace module (the card shows a badge if it's off). Setup and day-to-day sync behavior are covered in the Etsy integration guide.

Account Preferences

Navigate to Settings → Account Preferences to configure display and business defaults.

Currency & Units

Currency

Select your business currency from a searchable dropdown. Shows currency code and symbol (e.g., "USD $").

Default Measurements

Choose between US Customary (pounds, gallons, etc.) or Metric (kilograms, liters, etc.) as the default unit system.

Default Barcode Format

Select the barcode format for generated barcodes: CODE39, CODE128, EAN13, UPC, QR, AZTEC, or PDF417. Each format has guidance on common industries and use cases.

Tax Settings

IRS Business Code (NAICS)

Your 6-digit NAICS code for the Schedule C report. Examples: 454110 (e-commerce), 311811 (retail bakeries), 339910 (jewelry manufacturing).

Business Description

A brief description of your business for Schedule C Line A (max 200 characters).

Accounting Method

Choose Cash (record income when received, expenses when paid) or Accrual (record when earned/incurred regardless of payment). This affects how financial reports calculate totals.

AI Features

Account-level consent toggles for AI document capture (invoice import and Snap-a-Sale), the AI pricing advisor, the AI listing copywriter, and email-to-import. All are off by default, and your documents are never used to train AI models. See the AI features guide for what each one does and how credits work.

Cottage Food

Operator information (name, address, contact) printed on cottage food disclosure labels, plus your state. Only needed if you print cottage food labels.

Billing

Navigate to Settings → Billing (account Owner only) to manage your subscription.

Shows your active plan, price, billing type (flat rate or usage-based), subscription status, and next billing date. On Pay As You Go plans it also breaks down credit usage for the current period and lets you choose an audit trail retention tier. From here you can open the billing portal (payment method and invoices), change plans, or cancel.

Owners also get Settings → Refer & Earn — share Ardent Seller and earn referral credits.

For plan comparisons, credits, and annual billing details, see the Billing & Plans guide.

Team

Navigate to Settings → Team (Owners and Managers) to manage team members and invitations.

Rename the account, invite members by email with a role, change roles, resend or revoke pending invitations, remove members, and transfer ownership. Invited members receive an email link to create their account and join your team.

Roles

Owner

Full access to everything, including Billing, Refer & Earn, and Data Management. Can transfer ownership and delete the account.

Manager

Everything except Billing, Refer & Earn, and Data Management — including Features, Account Preferences, Team, Locations, Integrations, and all Library settings.

User

Works with business data: inventory, transactions, recipes, and reports. No account settings beyond their own profile and email preferences.

Auditor

Read-only access to inventory, transactions, recipes, and reports. Cannot create, edit, or delete any data.

The full role matrix and invitation walkthrough are in the Team & Roles guide.

Locations

Navigate to Settings → Locations to manage your business locations.

Location Types

Primary

Your main headquarters or primary business facility. Every account starts with one primary location.

Secondary

Additional branches or satellite facilities.

Storage

Warehouses, storage units, or other dedicated storage facilities.

Production

Manufacturing or production facilities (kitchens, workshops, etc.).

Sales

Retail locations, market stalls, consignment shops, or point-of-sale locations.

Fields

Each location has: Name, Category (type from above), State (draft/active/archived), Contact info (name, phone, email, website), full Address (street, city, state/province, postal code, country), and an optional Default Pricing Tier.

How Locations Work

Inventory, transactions, procedures, and equipment logs are all scoped to a specific location. Use the location selector in the app header to switch between locations. When you switch, all data on the page refreshes to show data for the selected location. Your location selection is saved across sessions.

Attributes

Navigate to Settings → Attributes to define option sets for inventory items and variants.

What Are Attributes?

Attributes are custom properties you define for your inventory items and variants. For example, you might create a "Size" attribute with options "Small", "Medium", "Large", or a "Color" attribute with options "Red", "Blue", "Green".

Fields

req

Name

The attribute name (e.g., "Size", "Color", "Material", "Scent").

req

Options

One or more values for this attribute. Each option has a Name (e.g., "Small") and an optional Abbreviation (e.g., "SM", max 10 characters). Add as many options as needed.

Using Attributes

Once defined, attributes can be assigned to inventory items and their variants in the detail sheet. They appear as option badges in the attributes table showing "Name (Abbreviation)".

More Library Settings

The Library group on the Settings hub has more taxonomies alongside Attributes: Custom Fields add your own typed fields to inventory items, customers, and vendors (see the Custom Fields guide); Tags are reusable labels for filtering inventory, customers, and vendors (see the Labels & Tags guide); Referral Sources track where customers find you; and Customer Groups segment customers for pricing and reporting.

Transaction Methods

Navigate to Settings → Transaction Methods to configure payment methods and their fees.

Fields

req

Name

The payment method name (e.g., "Credit Card", "Cash", "PayPal", "Venmo", "Check").

opt

Description

Optional description of this payment method.

opt

Fixed Fee

A flat fee charged per transaction (e.g., $0.30 per credit card swipe).

opt

Percentage Fee

A percentage of the transaction total charged as a fee (e.g., 2.9% for credit card processing).

opt

Applicable Categories

Which transaction types this method applies to (purchase, sale, transfer, income, expense, etc.). Leave empty to apply to all types.

How Fees Work

When you assign a payment method to a transaction, the system automatically calculates the fee based on the method's fixed fee plus its percentage fee applied to the transaction total. For example, a "Credit Card" method with a $0.30 fixed fee and 2.9% percentage fee on a $100 sale would calculate: $0.30 + ($100 x 2.9%) = $3.20. Multiple methods can be applied to a single transaction.

Tax Categories

Navigate to Settings → Tax Categories to organize income and expenses by IRS category.

Fields

req

Name

Category name (e.g., "Office Supplies", "Meals", "Advertising").

opt

Description

Description of what expenses or income this category covers.

req

Category Type

Whether this is an Income category or an Expense category.

opt

IRS Category

The corresponding IRS Schedule C line reference (e.g., "Part II, Line 27a").

req

State

Draft, Active, or Archived. Only active categories appear in transaction dropdowns.

Seed Default Categories

Click the Seed Default Categories button to pre-populate standard IRS Schedule C categories. These system categories are locked (cannot be deleted) but you can add your own custom categories alongside them. Assign tax categories to transactions for automatic categorization on the Schedule C report.

Pricing Tiers

Navigate to Settings → Pricing Tiers to create formula-based pricing for different customer segments.

Fields

req

Name

Tier name (e.g., "Wholesale", "Retail", "Distributor", "VIP Discount").

req

Formula Type

Choose "Markup from Cost" (percentage markup on item cost) or "Adjustment from Retail" (fixed or percentage adjustment from retail price).

req

Amount

The markup or adjustment amount. For markup: a percentage (e.g., 50 means cost + 50%). For adjustment: a fixed dollar amount or percentage to add/subtract from retail.

How Pricing Tiers Work

Create tiers like "Wholesale" (Markup from Cost: 30%) or "VIP Discount" (Adjustment from Retail: -15%). Assign a tier as the default for a customer in their entity record. When you create a sale for that customer, the tier formula is automatically applied to calculate item prices. You can also override the tier on individual sales.

Data Management

Navigate to Settings → Data Management to export or delete your data (Owner access only).

Data Overview

Shows a summary of your data: total inventory items, transactions, procedures, and entities.

Export All Data

Downloads a complete copy of all your account data as a single JSON file — a good habit before any large change. (Per-list CSV exports and imports live on the individual list pages; see the CSV import guide.)

Delete Application Data

Removes all business data (inventory, transactions, procedures, entities, and their audit trails) while preserving your account, user profile, team members, locations, and settings. Requires typing "DELETE MY DATA" to confirm. This action cannot be undone.

Delete All Data & Account

Permanently deletes everything: all business data, all entities including locations, all settings, all team memberships, the account itself, your subscription (auto-cancelled), and your user profile and authentication. Requires typing "DELETE EVERYTHING" to confirm. You will be logged out immediately and the account is unrecoverable.

Both delete actions are irreversible. Export your data before deleting if you need to keep a copy. Only the account Owner can access these actions.

My Profile

Navigate to Settings → My Profile (every role) to manage your personal details, sign-in email, password, and connected social accounts.

Profile Details

Your first name, last name, and an optional company name. These are personal to you and do not change the account's name (Owners and Managers rename the account under Account Preferences).

Changing Your Email

Enter a new address in the Email section. For security, confirmation links are sent to both your current and new addresses, and the change completes only after both links are confirmed. Until then the page shows the pending new address and you keep signing in with your current email.

Setting or Changing Your Password

Use the Password section to change your password — or to set one for the first time if you signed up with Google, Facebook, or a magic link (password-free email sign-in). Setting a password adds it as an extra way to sign in; magic links keep working alongside it. Passwords need at least 12 characters with a lowercase letter, uppercase letter, digit, and symbol. If you've forgotten your current password, use the password reset email from the login page instead. If the change requires a recent sign-in, Ardent Seller shows a Send me a password reset email button right on the page.

Connecting Google & Facebook

The Sign-in Methods section lists email & password, Google, and Facebook. Click Connect to link a social account (you'll be sent to the provider to approve it and returned here), or Disconnect to remove a method you no longer want. Any connected method signs you in to the same account.

You must always keep at least one sign-in method — the last remaining method cannot be disconnected, so you can never lock yourself out of your account.

Settings Access by Role

Owner

Every settings page, including Billing, Refer & Earn, and Data Management.

Manager

Features, Account Preferences, Team, Locations, Integrations, and all Library settings (Attributes, Custom Fields, Transaction Methods, Tax Categories, Pricing Tiers, Referral Sources, Customer Groups, Tags). No Billing, Refer & Earn, or Data Management.

User

My Profile and Email Preferences only. Works with business data but has no account settings access.

Auditor

My Profile and Email Preferences only. Read-only access to business data.

Regardless of role, every signed-in user can manage their own My Profile and Email Preferences pages under the Personal group of the Settings hub.