Assembly items are created when you combine two or more existing items or multiple quantity of one item to create a new item. You will use the Assembly item type when you want to "build" several of the new items to have on hand in your inventory. You can create Assembly Items using Inventoried, Non-Inventoried items and other Assembly items.
Kit Items vs Assembly Items:
While these two item types are used to accomplish similar goals - the grouping of items - they are used for different reasons.
Kit Items - Kit Items are a collection of items that are sold together, but are listed separately in the transaction (similar to a bill of goods) and continue to be tracked as separate items. A Kit Item is created at the time of sale. You cannot Add inventory in order to have multiple Kit Items on hand. Inventory amounts for the component parts are reduced when the Kit Item is Removed from inventory.
Assembly Items - Assembly Items are a collection of items that, once grouped, are considered to be a new, single item. The inventory quantities for the individual component items are reduced at the time the Assembly Items are built and the quantity for the Assembly Item is increased. You can build several Assembly Items and keep them on hand in your inventory. In addition, you can move and check in/out Assembly Items. Example:
Sebastian sells modular cabinets. Each cabinet is made of several different sizes of wood panels and hardware. Sebastian tracks each piece used to build these cabinets as a separate piece of inventory in his system, so he will know when he needs to reorder a particular size of panel or piece of hardware. He builds several of each type of cabinet to have on hand to sell as well. When he does this, he creates an Assembly Item in InventoryCloud that is made up of each piece of inventory used to build the cabinet. InventoryCloud will then deduct the on hand amount for each piece of inventory used in the assembly, and increase the amount on hand of the assembled item.
The flow of Assembly Items is provided below:
Create Your Assembly Item: Use the Create New Assembly screen to create your Assembly Item. Keep in mind that after you create your Assembly Item, the quantity for that item is zero and the on hand amounts for the included items have not changed. As with other Items, creating the Assembly Item simply tells InventoryCloud basic information about the Assembly Item and indicates what other items you want included with it.
Build your Assembly
Item: This is a similar process as Adding
Inventory to other item types. In this process you will
tell InventoryCloud how many of this Assembly Item you want to build. Inventory
Cloud will check the on hand amounts for each item included in the
build to make sure you have enough to complete the desired amount. After
the build is complete, the on hand amounts for each item included
in your Assembly Item will be reduced by the number built, and the
on hand amount for the Assembly Item will be increased.
Detailed instructions on how to create Assembly Items and Build them are provided in the links below: