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Bill of Materials & Build Tracking — Manufacturing Built Into Your Books

If your business buys parts and assembles finished products from them, you need a Bill of Materials system. BizBooks Pro builds it directly into your accounting — define a BOM, run a Build, and stock plus cost plus the journal entry all update automatically. No separate MRP software required.

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Most Small Manufacturers Have Been Underserved

Small manufacturing businesses — custom furniture builders, jewelry makers, gift basket assemblers, kit packers, light-assembly shops, even one-room bike shops — have historically faced a bad choice. Either track Bill of Materials by hand in a spreadsheet (error-prone, no integration with accounting) or buy a dedicated MRP system at $200/month and integrate it with their books (overkill for small operations and a lot to maintain).

BizBooks Pro removes that choice by building real BOM-and-Build workflows directly into the accounting product. Define your assembly with its component parts. Click Build, enter quantity, and BizBooks Pro consumes components from stock, adds finished assemblies, rolls cost up automatically, and posts the journal entry. The component shortage check refuses builds you can't actually do. Everything lives in the same database as the rest of your books.

1

Set Up the Bill of Materials

Create an Inventory Assembly product and add its components — each a regular inventory part already in your catalog — with the quantity needed per assembled unit.

2

Run a Build

Click Build, enter the quantity. A live preview shows every component, what's needed, what's on hand, and total cost — refusing the build if any component is short.

3

Books Update Automatically

Component stock drops, assembly stock rises, the assembly's unit cost recomputes from its components, and a journal entry posts to the audit trail.

📋 BOM Editor Right In The Item

The Bill of Materials editor lives inside the assembly product itself — no separate manufacturing module to navigate. List components, enter quantity per unit, and you're done.

  • Unlimited components per assembly
  • Fractional quantities for materials sold by weight, length, or volume
  • Cycle detection — an assembly can't contain itself transitively
  • Components reorder easily without data loss

🔨 Build Transactions

Record what you've built. Pick the assembly, enter the quantity, add a batch number or note if useful. BizBooks Pro handles stock, cost, and journal entry from there.

  • Live preview of the build's full impact before commit
  • Component shortage detection with exact shortfall per part
  • Each build gets a unique reference number for traceability
  • Runs against the default inventory location

â†Šī¸ Unbuild When You Need To Reverse

Made a mistake or pulled an assembly apart for spares? Click Unbuild on the build history. Components return to stock, assembly count drops, and a mirror journal entry posts.

  • Reverses any prior build cleanly
  • Sanity check — can't unbuild more than you have on hand
  • Clean audit trail of builds and unbuilds together

💲 Cost Roll-Up On Every Build

Each build computes the assembly's unit cost from the sum of its components at build time. The assembly's standing cost updates so the eventual sale posts cost of goods at the right amount.

  • Cost = sum(component cost × quantity-per-unit)
  • Updates the assembly product record on each build
  • Drives correct COGS on the sale
  • Yield-percent column reserved for future recipe-costing features

Live Build Preview With Shortage Detection

Starting a build you can't actually finish is the #1 cause of bad manufacturing data. BizBooks Pro stops it cold with a live preview: as you type the build quantity, the preview shows each component, qty needed, qty on hand, line cost, and a clear status — green check if you can build, red SHORT label with exact shortfall if you can't. The Build button stays disabled until all green.

Build History Per Assembly

Every Build and Unbuild lives in the assembly's own history with date, quantity, unit cost, and reference number. Production managers can see at a glance how many units were built last month, what each batch cost, and which builds were later unbuilt. Invaluable for batch tracking, audit defense, and cost-trend analysis.

Made for Small Manufacturers, Kit Builders, and Custom Fabricators

If your business buys parts and assembles finished products — whether that's a small bike shop, a custom furniture builder, a kit-packing operation, or a jewelry maker — Bill of Materials and Build Tracking in BizBooks Pro is exactly what you'd want from a dedicated MRP system, but inside the accounting software you're already using.

Common Questions

How is an Inventory Assembly different from a Group bundle?

A Group is an invoicing shortcut — picking it expands into editable lines and never touches inventory. An Inventory Assembly is real manufacturing — building one actually consumes component stock and adds assembly stock with a journal entry. Use Group for "Spring Maintenance Bundle"; use Assembly for "Mountain Bike built from frame + wheels + seat + handlebars."

Can an assembly include another assembly as a component?

Yes — sub-assemblies are supported. A high-level assembly can include other assemblies in its BOM. BizBooks Pro detects cycles (an assembly can't include itself directly or transitively) and refuses to save invalid BOMs.

What happens if I try to build more than my components allow?

The live preview catches it before commit. BizBooks Pro shows the exact shortfall per part ("Frame: needed 3, on hand 2, short 1") and disables the Build button until you reduce the build quantity or restock the missing parts. No way to accidentally create negative inventory.

How does the assembly's unit cost get calculated?

Unit cost = sum of (each component's current unit cost × quantity-per-unit). If a frame is $80 and wheels are $60 each, and your BOM says 1 frame + 2 wheels, the assembly unit cost is $80 + $120 = $200. The assembly's product record updates to that cost on each build, so future sales of the assembly post the right COGS.

Are journal entries posted automatically?

Yes. Each Build creates an Assembly Build journal entry — debit Inventory (assembly stock added), credit Inventory (components consumed) — at the company's single Inventory account. Each Unbuild posts the mirror entry. Both appear in transaction history with the build's reference number.

Does this work across multiple inventory locations?

Builds currently run against the first active inventory location (the default). Per-location build selection is on the roadmap; the underlying schema already supports it.

Would this work for restaurant recipe costing?

The mechanics — BOM, consumption, cost roll-up — are identical to recipe costing. The yield-percent column on each BOM line is reserved for restaurant features later (a 50lb case of tomatoes yielding 35lb after trim). Restaurant-specific extras like POS integration and theoretical-vs-actual variance reporting are planned but not in this release.

Stop Maintaining Your BOM in a Spreadsheet

Free 30-day trial. Define your first assembly and run a Build in under five minutes.

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