diff --git a/woo-business-central/admin/class-wbc-admin.php b/woo-business-central/admin/class-wbc-admin.php
index 7ff33b8..a12097d 100644
--- a/woo-business-central/admin/class-wbc-admin.php
+++ b/woo-business-central/admin/class-wbc-admin.php
@@ -86,6 +86,9 @@ class WBC_Admin {
         register_setting( 'wbc_sync', 'wbc_enable_brand_sync', array(
             'sanitize_callback' => array( $this, 'sanitize_checkbox' ),
         ) );
+        register_setting( 'wbc_sync', 'wbc_category_parent_map', array(
+            'sanitize_callback' => 'sanitize_textarea_field',
+        ) );
 
         // Order settings (own group)
         register_setting( 'wbc_orders', 'wbc_enable_order_sync', array(
diff --git a/woo-business-central/admin/partials/wbc-admin-display.php b/woo-business-central/admin/partials/wbc-admin-display.php
index 64fe84c..27b87d5 100644
--- a/woo-business-central/admin/partials/wbc-admin-display.php
+++ b/woo-business-central/admin/partials/wbc-admin-display.php
@@ -233,10 +233,23 @@ $tabs = array(
                                 <label>
                                     <input type="checkbox" name="wbc_enable_brand_sync" value="yes"
                                         <?php checked( get_option( 'wbc_enable_brand_sync', 'no' ), 'yes' ); ?> />
-                                    <?php esc_html_e( 'Sync BC item category to the product_brand taxonomy, and its parent category to the WooCommerce product category', 'woo-business-central' ); ?>
+                                    <?php esc_html_e( 'Sync BC item category to the product_brand taxonomy', 'woo-business-central' ); ?>
                                 </label>
                                 <p class="description">
-                                    <?php esc_html_e( 'Requires the custom ItemCategoryHierarchy OData endpoint and the WooCommerce Brands plugin (product_brand taxonomy).', 'woo-business-central' ); ?>
+                                    <?php esc_html_e( 'Uses the standard itemCategories API. Requires the WooCommerce Brands plugin (product_brand taxonomy).', 'woo-business-central' ); ?>
+                                </p>
+                            </td>
+                        </tr>
+                        <tr>
+                            <th scope="row">
+                                <label for="wbc_category_parent_map"><?php esc_html_e( 'Category Parent Map', 'woo-business-central' ); ?></label>
+                            </th>
+                            <td>
+                                <textarea id="wbc_category_parent_map" name="wbc_category_parent_map"
+                                          class="large-text code" rows="6"
+                                          placeholder="DAVINES=Haircare&#10;OBAGI=Skincare"><?php echo esc_textarea( get_option( 'wbc_category_parent_map', '' ) ); ?></textarea>
+                                <p class="description">
+                                    <?php esc_html_e( 'Optional. One "CODE=Parent Category Name" pair per line. Business Central\'s item categories here are flat (no parent-category field), so the WooCommerce product category grouping (e.g. brand "Davines" under category "Haircare") is maintained here rather than pulled from BC. Leave empty to skip - only the brand taxonomy will be set.', 'woo-business-central' ); ?>
                                 </p>
                             </td>
                         </tr>
diff --git a/woo-business-central/includes/class-wbc-batch-sync.php b/woo-business-central/includes/class-wbc-batch-sync.php
index a954576..b576f7c 100644
--- a/woo-business-central/includes/class-wbc-batch-sync.php
+++ b/woo-business-central/includes/class-wbc-batch-sync.php
@@ -29,8 +29,16 @@ class WBC_Batch_Sync {
 
     /**
      * Number of BC items fetched per page in category-filtered mode
+     *
+     * Kept small on purpose: each item can trigger several sequential BC
+     * calls while processing it (location stock, price lists, brand/category
+     * lookup), not just the one page fetch. 100 items/page was measured to
+     * take 150-250+ seconds per page - long enough to exceed PHP's
+     * execution limit and strand the action mid-run ("in-progress" forever,
+     * never completing or erroring). Matches BATCH_SIZE, which is proven to
+     * finish reliably within one execution.
      */
-    const CATEGORY_PAGE_SIZE = 100;
+    const CATEGORY_PAGE_SIZE = 25;
 
     /**
      * Option name storing the current/last run's progress
diff --git a/woo-business-central/includes/class-wbc-product-sync.php b/woo-business-central/includes/class-wbc-product-sync.php
index f585114..ee1886b 100644
--- a/woo-business-central/includes/class-wbc-product-sync.php
+++ b/woo-business-central/includes/class-wbc-product-sync.php
@@ -630,12 +630,14 @@ class WBC_Product_Sync {
     }
 
     /**
-     * Sync WooCommerce product_brand (leaf BC item category) and product_cat
-     * (parent BC item category) from BC.
+     * Sync WooCommerce product_brand (BC item category) from BC, and its
+     * WooCommerce parent product category from a manually configured map.
      *
-     * Requires the custom ItemCategoryHierarchy OData endpoint (exposes
-     * Code, Description, Parent_Category) since the standard BC API's
-     * itemCategories entity has no parent-category field.
+     * BC's item categories here are flat (e.g. "DAVINES", "CANTABRIA LABS")
+     * with no parent-category field on the Item Category table to walk up
+     * from brand to a grouping like "Haircare" - confirmed against the
+     * published CategProd endpoint, which only exposes Code and Description.
+     * That grouping is maintained in wp-admin instead (wbc_category_parent_map).
      *
      * @param WC_Product $product WooCommerce product.
      * @param array      $item    BC item data.
@@ -649,26 +651,19 @@ class WBC_Product_Sync {
         }
 
         $category_info = $this->get_category_info( $category_code );
-
-        if ( ! $category_info ) {
-            return false;
-        }
+        $brand_name = ( $category_info ? $category_info['description'] : '' ) ?: $category_code;
 
         $changed = false;
 
-        // Leaf category -> brand (e.g. "Davines")
-        $brand_name = $category_info['description'] ?: $category_code;
         if ( taxonomy_exists( 'product_brand' ) ) {
             if ( $this->set_product_taxonomy_term( $product->get_id(), 'product_brand', $brand_name ) ) {
                 $changed = true;
             }
         }
 
-        // Parent category -> WooCommerce product category (e.g. "Haircare")
-        if ( ! empty( $category_info['parent_code'] ) ) {
-            $parent_info = $this->get_category_info( $category_info['parent_code'] );
-            $parent_name = $parent_info ? ( $parent_info['description'] ?: $category_info['parent_code'] ) : $category_info['parent_code'];
+        $parent_name = $this->get_mapped_parent_category( $category_code );
 
+        if ( ! empty( $parent_name ) ) {
             if ( $this->set_product_taxonomy_term( $product->get_id(), 'product_cat', $parent_name ) ) {
                 $changed = true;
             }
@@ -678,27 +673,31 @@ class WBC_Product_Sync {
     }
 
     /**
-     * Get category info (description, parent code) from the custom
-     * ItemCategoryHierarchy OData endpoint, cached per sync run.
+     * Get category info (description) from the custom CategProd OData
+     * endpoint, cached per sync run.
+     *
+     * Uses the standard v2.0 itemCategories entity (id, code, displayName) -
+     * no custom endpoint needed for this part, since the display name is
+     * already exposed by the standard API. Only the WooCommerce parent
+     * category grouping needs the manual map (see get_mapped_parent_category()),
+     * because that's the part with no BC equivalent at all.
      *
      * @param string $category_code BC item category code.
-     * @return array|false Array with 'description' and 'parent_code', or false.
+     * @return array|false Array with 'description', or false.
      */
     private function get_category_info( $category_code ) {
         if ( isset( $this->category_cache[ $category_code ] ) ) {
             return $this->category_cache[ $category_code ];
         }
 
-        $escaped = WBC_API_Client::escape_odata_string( $category_code );
-
-        $result = WBC_API_Client::odata_get( 'ItemCategoryHierarchy', array(
-            '$filter' => "Code eq '" . $escaped . "'",
-            '$select' => 'Code,Description,Parent_Category',
+        $result = WBC_API_Client::get( '/itemCategories', array(
+            '$filter' => "code eq '" . WBC_API_Client::escape_odata_string( $category_code ) . "'",
+            '$select' => 'code,displayName',
             '$top'    => 1,
         ) );
 
         if ( is_wp_error( $result ) ) {
-            WBC_Logger::warning( 'ProductSync', 'Failed to query ItemCategoryHierarchy', array(
+            WBC_Logger::warning( 'ProductSync', 'Failed to query itemCategories', array(
                 'category_code' => $category_code,
                 'error'         => $result->get_error_message(),
             ) );
@@ -714,8 +713,7 @@ class WBC_Product_Sync {
         }
 
         $info = array(
-            'description' => $entries[0]['Description'] ?? '',
-            'parent_code' => $entries[0]['Parent_Category'] ?? '',
+            'description' => $entries[0]['displayName'] ?? '',
         );
 
         $this->category_cache[ $category_code ] = $info;
@@ -723,6 +721,38 @@ class WBC_Product_Sync {
         return $info;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Look up the WooCommerce parent product category for a BC category code
+     * from the manually configured map (wbc_category_parent_map option:
+     * one "CODE=Parent Name" pair per line).
+     *
+     * @param string $category_code BC item category code.
+     * @return string Parent category name, or '' if not mapped.
+     */
+    private function get_mapped_parent_category( $category_code ) {
+        $raw = get_option( 'wbc_category_parent_map', '' );
+
+        if ( empty( trim( $raw ) ) ) {
+            return '';
+        }
+
+        foreach ( preg_split( '/\r\n|\r|\n/', $raw ) as $line ) {
+            $line = trim( $line );
+
+            if ( $line === '' || strpos( $line, '=' ) === false ) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            list( $code, $parent_name ) = array_map( 'trim', explode( '=', $line, 2 ) );
+
+            if ( strcasecmp( $code, $category_code ) === 0 ) {
+                return $parent_name;
+            }
+        }
+
+        return '';
+    }
+
     /**
      * Assign a product to a single term in a taxonomy, creating the term if needed.
      *