Assembly FAQ

Assembly FAQ

1.) I read somewhere that you have assemblies. What the heck is an assembly?

★ AccountingSuite™ has Assemblies or Bill of Materials functionality commonly used in the manufacturing industry, among others. The Bill of Materials in AccountingSuite allows you to define a group of items in your inventory that you use to make another item. Defining a Bill of Materials is the first step in using the more advanced inventory features such as assembly builds and creating assemblies within assemblies.

In AccountingSuite, the Bill of Materials is defined on the item card that is created for the final product. Before starting, ensure that all components or “ingredients” of the final product have been entered as inventoried items.

2.) How do you enable Assemblies in AccountingSuite™?

★ To enable Assemblies,
  1. Navigate to Quick Menu → Settings.
  2. On Inventory Settings tab → Check the Assembly checkbox.
Note:
It will allow you to create assembly items and make assembly builds. Just take note that if you already created an assembly, you cannot disable this feature.



The Assembly checkbox on Inventory Settings

3.) How do you add a bill of materials?

★ To add or create a bill of materials,
  1. Create a new item by navigating to Inventory → Item. (This item will be the final product).
  2. Check the Assembly check box. (The Assembly tab will appear).
  3. Click the Assembly tab. Here is where we will build the list of raw materials needed to build the final product.
  4. Click Add.
  5. Enter the Product Code or select it from the drop-down list.
  6. Enter the quantity needed for the final product.
  7. Enter the Unit of Measure, if applicable.
  8. Enter the estimated waste percentage of the item upon production of the final product.
  9. Repeat steps 4-8 for each item needed to assemble the final product.



Once done adding raw of materials for the final product. You can check more information about the materials / sub-assemblies / products by clicking the Assembly Tree build button.


4.) Do assemblies have waste and residuals?

★ Yes. Waste is material that is wasted during an Assembly Build. A Residual is a by-product of making an assembly - a brand new product that came out as a result of the build that can be inventoried and can be sold separately.

5.) How about labor?

★ Labor/Services may also be included as items on a Bill of Materials. Enter the number of hours needed to finish the final product in the quantity field. As a reminder, service items are not tracked in inventory.

To add a service item on a bill of materials,
  1. First check the "has Labor" check box on the Assembly item card. (Labor tab will show)
  2. Click Add button to add the Service item.Enter the Quantity and the Units of Measure.



6.) How do you build an assembly?

★ To build an Assembly,
  1. Navigate to Inventory → Assembly Builds.
  2. Choose the Item to build from the drop-down menu. The list of raw materials needed will auto-populate.
  3. Choose the Location of the build.
  4. Change the Build Date, Promise Date, Quantity, Unit of Measure if needed.
  5. If your assembled item will be assigned a lot or a serial number, click the Lots/Serial Number tab and assign them.
  6. Click the Project / Class tab and add a project and / or a class if desired.
  7. Enter the Waste Account, if applicable.
  8. Enter a Memo (optional).
  9. Click Save to save a draft or Post and Close to finish the Assembly Build.

Notes:
  1. The Assembly Build will fail to post if there are not sufficient raw materials in stock.
  2. On an Assembly Build, individual items may be added, changed or removed to reflect the actual use at the time of manufacturing.
  3. An assembly item may contain another item that is an assembly, that has its own Bill of Materials (Sub-assembly). There is no limit to how far deep you can nest assemblies but they must be built in order from the deepest nested assembly on up.

7.) Can you disassemble an assembly?

★ Yes. You can disassemble items by Disassemblies. When you disassemble an assembly, it will increase the number of raw materials and will decrease the number of the final product.

Disassembly function can be used to "tear down" assembled goods and reintroduce the respective raw materials into stock. This is common used in cases where an item needs to be broken down for spare parts.

To disassemble an an assembly;
  1. Make sure that the "allow item to be Disassembled" check box on the Assembly item card (item that you will disassemble) is checked.
  2. Navigate to Inventory → Disassemblies.
  3. Click Create button.
  4. Select the Assembly item to disassemble.
  5. Change the Location, Disassembly Date, Quantity and Units of Measure (UoM) if needed.
  6. Click Post and Close.

8.) How can you tell which items are your final product and which are the raw materials?

★ The primary difference is that raw materials are used in the production of goods and final product is what the company produces and eventually sells to the market. Raw materials are the inputs or resources that a company uses to manufacture its finished products, final products are products which have completed the assembly process but have yet to be sold to customers.

You can tell if an item is a final product if the item has a check on Assembly field/column on Item List or if the Assembly check box is checked on the Item Card.



9.) Can you do sub-assemblies?

★ Yes. An assembly item can be added as well as a a raw material. An assembly item may contain another item that is an assembly (Sub-assembly) on its Bill of Materials. There is no limit to how far deep you can nest assemblies but they must be built in order from the deepest nested assembly on up.

10.) Do your sub-assemblies automatically build or do you have to build them first?

★ There's an option to automatically build sub-assemblies on Assembly tab. Just check the Allow Auto - Assembly check box to auto-assembly sub-assemblies.



11.) Do you track assembly costs?

Assembly costs are tracked automatically. The Assembly Build will show the Planned and Actual Material Costs once it is posted.



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