Product, article and SKU numbers are generated from templates on the Article Numbers page. Each template builds the number from variables when the item is created. The top of the page states where your numbers come from — for most brands, the system generates every number from the templates on this page.
⚠️ This page is set up usually during onboarding, by whoever owns your numbering — it isn't something to change back and forth. The templates here drive numbering across the whole system, so a change has wide effects. If you're not sure what you're doing, leave it as it is or contact your product owner or Resourced support team.
Number templates
The Article Numbers page holds three templates — the product number, the article number, and the SKU number. Each is a Liquid template you build from variables: click a variable in the Available variables list to drop it in at the cursor, and add filters to shape it (for example pad_left to zero-pad a sequential number, or last to take the deepest hierarchy code). Click Save on the template you changed. Liquid is a simple templating language widely used and easy to look up online for help.
We always recommend keeping as little logic as possible in an article number — it makes for an easier way of working.
What each template can use
Each number builds on the level above it:
The product number can be built from things at product level.
The article number can be built from the product number plus things at article level.
The SKU number can be built from the article number plus things at size level.
Development numbers
With Use development numbers switched on, new products, articles and SKUs get a temporary development number while they are being worked on. When an article reaches a promoting status, the system renumbers the article, its SKUs and its product with their real numbers from the ordinary templates.
Development templates — with the toggle on, each of the three templates gets a development template beside it: Development product number, Development article number and Development SKU number, used until promotion.
Promoted by — tick every status that means the article is live. The order of the status list isn't used: a status after a promoting one only promotes if it is ticked, so archiving or dropping an article doesn't give it a live number. Until a status is ticked, nothing leaves development.
Per article — each article is promoted on its own; the rest of the product keeps its development numbers until its other articles get there too.
Kept for reference — the development number is kept after promotion and stays searchable.
New items only — existing products and articles are not affected when you switch it on.
The Preview Product Numbers panel at the bottom of the page has a Development numbers toggle, so you can preview a product's development numbers as well as its real ones.
⚠️ Promotion cannot be undone, and it changes the numbers other systems know the product by. An integration that identifies products by their number sees a promoted article as a new one — it may create a duplicate, lose track of the original or stop finding it.
Reserved numbers
Some numbers must never be issued again — typically the ones a brand used before Resourced. The Reserved Numbers page (Admin › Products) keeps that list, with a tab each for product, article and SKU numbers, since the three are reserved separately. Paste the numbers into the box — one per line, or separated by commas — add an optional note such as the catalogue they came from, and click Reserve. The list below is searchable, and rows can be removed with the per-row or select-all checkboxes and Delete selected, which frees the numbers for generation again.
The system walks past a reserved number when it generates, and refuses one set by hand: typing a reserved number in the Change number dialog is rejected with Product number … is on the reserved numbers list and a link to the page. A number something currently holds cannot be reserved — it is already out of circulation.
💡 Good to know. Templates can also use your brand's custom fields as variables if the standard fields doesn't cover needed data. The available custom-field variables show in the Available variables list.