Item Sets and Organizations

Maximo Bite Size

Item and

00:00 / 00:12:21

Last Updated on February 18, 2026 by maximosecrets

Good morning and welcome to Maximo Bite Size, a podcast on the functionality of Maximo Manage. Today is the first episode in the series on Inventory and we will be discussing Item Sets and Organizations. We will also describe the different Item Types and the fields that you define at the Item/Organization level.

Items are a core part of Maximo which supports inventory and purchasing processes, but you will also see the item field referenced in the applications of other modules.

Item Sets and Organizations

Items are defined at the Set level in an Item Set. This allows the same set of items to be shared across multiple organizations.

Organizations tend to be defined around currencies as an organization is defined with a base currency. This would allow the sites in France, Germany, and Italy to exist in the same organization as they all have the Euro as their currency. Sites in Poland and Romania would need to exist in different organizations as they have their own currencies, while they are in Europe, they do not use the Euro. All these sites and their three Maximo organizations could share the same item set and have the same set of items.

Maximo is often interfaced with an ERP or purchasing/financial systems, and this will influence the design of Maximo’s organization and site data structures. Remember an organization is used for data sharing and a site is used for data separation. The two types of sets, the Item Set and the Company Set are also used for data sharing. However, if the Items and Companies are defined in the ERP or other purchasing system, then that can restrict whether items can be shared across organizations.

If multiple sites across different organizations have similar assets, then in an ideal world you would have a common item set but that may not be possible if you are interfacing to multiple ERPs and the decision to master items in the ERP has already been made. If it is possible to master items in Maximo, then having a common item set across multiple organizations would provide benefits, both immediately and over the longer term. Irrespective of where the items are defined you do need to put in place discipline to avoid duplicate records representing the same item, duplicates create a messy Maximo system, and you do need to try and avoid this.

If language feels like a barrier to having a common item set, then it shouldn’t, Maximo can provide the same item with its description in the language of the user, it is also possible to generate those item descriptions.

When you define an item, it will be automatically associated with the organizations that share the same Item Set. The ITEMORGINFO records will be seen in applications like Item Master and the action Item/Organization Details. There is a status field which exists at both the Item level and the Item/Organization level. Therefore, a common item set does not mean that every organization has the same items, you use the status field at the Item/Organization level to say whether it is visible to the users of that organization.

If you create a new organization and associate it with an Item Set, this is mandatory, then all the items in that item set will also be added to the organization, records will be created in the ITEMORGINFO table. Maximo handles the creation of the records in the ITEMORGINFO table, you will find there are no New Row or Delete Row buttons. If you are data loading, you must make sure the item is added to all the organizations that belong to the same item set.

Item Types

The are three Item Types, Item, Tool and Standard Service. They are created in the Item Master, Tools and Service Items applications respectively. The TOOLITEM and SERVICEITEMS objects are database views on the ITEM table that use the ITEMTYPE attribute to find records that are a synonym of TOOL or STDSERVICE. The Item Master application finds records from the ITEM table where the ITEMTYPE=’ITEM’ or a synonym.

In the Purchase Requisitions and Purchase Orders applications when entering a new line, there is a Line Type which has values for Item, Tool, Standard Service, Materials and Service. The first three of these will require you to select an Item. Materials and Service Line Types do not use an item, instead you enter a description of what needs to be procured. The Item Type and PR/PO Line Type are not the same, but in some cases the PR/PO Line Type does map onto the Item Type. Note. Service is not an Item Type, it is a PR/PO Line Type, the correct Item Type term is a Standard Service, but the term Service Item is also used.

There is a feature set-up in the Organizations application and Purchasing Options – PO Options called – Allow the Generation of Special Order Items? – which when set will introduce a new PR/PO Line Type of Special Order. When used Maximo automatically creates an Item Master record of Item Type ITEM, it is distinguished through the Stock Category of SP – Special Order Item. Maximo also creates the Item/Organization Detail records for the special order item, one for each organization. Note. Special Order is not an Item Type; it can optionally be a PR/PO Line Type.

If the Item Type is ITEM, the item can be added to a storeroom, and it will be seen in the Inventory application. If the Item Type is TOOL, the tool item can also be added to a storeroom, and it will be seen in the Stocked Tools application. A Standard Service (Service Item) cannot be added to a storeroom.

Incidentally, an item which is created through the Special Order process cannot be added to a Storeroom though the normal Add Items to Storeroom action, but it can exist with balances in a storeroom if the destination on the PR/PO Line (Charge To) is a Storeroom.

Item/Organization Details

In the Item Master application there is an important action Item/Organization Details which is used for changing the status and a few other fields. There is a similar action in both Tools and Service Items but the fields in each are a little different. In Item Master we will find:

Stock Category – The default is STK (Stocked) but it can also be NS (Non-Stocked) or SP (Special Order). If you do not hold the item in any storeroom across all the sites of the organization, then change this to NS. I’ll return to the use of this field when we discuss Inventory Reorder.
Status – The status of the item in the organization. There is a Change Status button at the end of the table window. We’ll discuss Item Statuses separately.
Hazard – A hazard which will be automatically added to a work order when the item is added as a planned material, it will be found in the Safety Plans tab of the Work Order Tracking application. The hazard is most likely to be associated with a hazardous material. It would allow a user to get a reference to the Material Safety Data Sheet, the MSDS number.
Tax Code – The tax code to be used with the item in this organization. It is used during purchasing, but it is the 4^th place Maximo looks to derive a tax code after Ship To Address, Item/Vendor record, and the Companies record. While only one tax code is shown there are 5 already defined in the object, and this can be extended to a maximum of 27 tax codes in the Database Configuration application and Add/Modify Tax Types action.
Tax Exempt – A check box to indicate whether the item in this organization is tax exempt. Some items are subject to tax, others not. This field is defaulted from a similar field defined at the Item level and the field at the Item/Organization level is used as a default when a vendor is associated with the item, the Inventory/Vendor record (INVVENDOR object).
Receipt Tolerance – The Receipt Tolerance at the Item/Organization level is used as a default when adding the item to a storeroom or adding an Inventory/Vendor record where the values can be changed. The Receipt Tolerance is the percentage by which the quantity received can exceed the quantity ordered on the purchase order line. Maximo will look for a Receipt Tolerance value for the item by looking at the Inventory/Vendor record or Inventory records before it uses the one defined at the Item/Organization level.

In the Tools application the action is called Tool/Organization Details, there is no Hazard field, it will only be found in the Item Master application, but there are a few additional fields:

Tool Rate – The hourly rate charged for using the tool when an actual tools transaction is added to a work order.
Outside Vendor – The vendor that owns the tool. This field is read-only and is enabled when you mark the Tool Item as Outside, but you must do that when inserting the record as the Outside check box is read-only after the tool has been saved.
GL Account – The GL Account used on the debit side of a work order actual tools transaction. This is normally a partial GL account with only the resource segment filled.
Control Account – The GL Account used on the credit side of a work order actual tools transaction. This GL Control Account is derived depending on whether the tool is marked as Outside.

In the Service Items application, the action is called Service Item/Organization Details. It has fields for Status, GL Account, Tax Code, Tax Exempt, and Receipt Tolerance.