Create a bill of materials

A bill of materials (BOM) says what goes into one batch of a product: each component, how much of it, and what it costs. Work orders copy the bill as it is when they are created.

Before you start

• Switch on Production & Assembly for your organisation: see Pick your apps.
• You need Manage Production & Assembly. See Roles and rights.
• To use stock, the finished product and the materials must exist in Inventory.

Steps

1. Open Production & Assembly and select the Bills of materials tab.
2. Type a Title and the Batch quantity (how many units one batch makes).
3. Pick the Stock product the batch makes, if the output goes into stock.
4. Select Create record.
5. Open the bill and open Add component. Type a description, pick the Stock product if the component comes from stock, type the Quantity and the Cost, and select Add component.
6. Repeat for each component. Use Remove component to take one out.
7. Open Publish and confirm. Only a published bill can be used by new work orders.

Good to know

• A bill can have up to 20 components. A component cannot be the finished product itself, and each stock product appears once.
• A component without a stock product is recorded but does not touch stock: useful for packaging you do not count.
• Archive stops a bill being used for new work orders; work orders already made keep their copy. Publishing an archived bill again makes it usable again.
• Editing a bill never changes work orders already created: each work order keeps the revision it was made from.
• The batch cost comes from the component costs you type (and the labour cost on the work order). It does not read the purchase cost of your stock, and it does not change the product's cost.
• Next: Run a work order.