No, you don’t have to link your items to suppliers. There is a branch profile selection to disable the option to link items with suppliers.

If you don’t need to link your items database with your supplier database, you have the option to disable that feature. Under “Branch Profile” just check the following option:

Remember: This can be reversed at any time, the link that was established already will be remembered if you decide to associate your items with your suppliers again.

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