Inventory Assemblies
QB Premier and higher allow inventory assemblies. An assembly is nothing more than a group of inventory items that when put together make something you sell. QB will allow you to build an assembly and then include that assembly in another assembly - something I think you should stay away from if at all possible.
QB does not auto-build assemblies (it should IMO, it’s competitors do, but many are against it and that is a whole ‘nother discussion as they say), so you have to build the assembly before selling it. Well you should build it before selling it, QB will sell it even if there are zero built, QB will warn you that there are not enough, but it will still sell it.
Selling something you do not have will cause problems down the road, try to avoid it if at all possible.
When you create an assembly, there is a list spot to select the items that make up the assembly, you enter each one and tell QB how many of that item to use when it builds one assembly. If you leave the quantity blank or enter a zero, QB will still use a quantity of one. The list of items in the build also shows the cost of the items, and that cost is what is totaled to determine the overall cost of the assembly.
But, what QB does is take the cost from the cost block on the item screen that is below the description block and display it in the build list. Sounds good huh? The problem is, that is misleading, the cost in that block most often reflects your most recent cost to buy the item, that recent cost is not necessarily the average cost. And guess what? QB uses the average cost when building an item, and when expensing it to COGS when sold.
The list of items in the build is usually referred to as the BOM (Bill of Materials) and QB does not have a way to print it, other than printing the assembly item itself which includes a lot of financial data you may or may not want on the print out.
As I said QB leaves it to you to remember to build the assembly before selling it. And if you try to build it, and one or more of the items in the BOM have an insufficient quantity for the number you wish to build, QB will not build that number. It will tell you there is not enough of an item to complete the build, but it will not tell you which item or items. Well in a way it does, when the build assembly screen is up, the BOM is listed with available quantities for each item, you can scroll down the list and look for a balance that is below the number you wish to build. You would think in this day of computers that QB would highlight the item for you, but it doesn’t.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
May 30th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Why would you recommend that someone stay away from using an assembly as a component in a higher level assembly? There are many good reasons to do this. QB doesn’t make it easy for some businesses, as it doesn’t deal with multiple level assemblies, but that isn’t necessarily a reason to stay away from them.
The inability to print a bill of materials without cost information (such as for a shop order) is a major drawback in QB. That is why I’ve written a plug-in program that will allow you to configure the BOM printout the way you want.
rustler Says:
May 30th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Because QB allows you to sell when you do not have an item, or an assembly, I think having sub assemblies invite errors. In real life you can’t sell what you do not have, you can take an order, and the parts get put on a back-order status, but QB lets you sell what isn’t there. If QB had integrated an back-order function (in versions that most people use rather than just the high dollar ones) where the build or sale went on back-order when there was not enough, as it does in real life, then I could see it.
And like you said it doesn’t make it easy either.
May 30th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
OK, I understand where you are coming from. You are concerned about a management issue, essentially.
In some cases I’ll agree with you. However, there are a number of situations where using subassemblies can save a tremendous amount of hassles, so I wouldn’t make a blanket statement about not using subassemblies myself.