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natalie4
Level 2

assembly items

I use QB Enterprise and the company I work for uses multiple inventory items to make an assembly. For example, we may use a dozen eggs, 5 cups of flour, sugar and so on to make a dough ( this is the assembly), which is then cooked into 100 cookies which we sell individually. what is the best way to make assemblies so I can track my individual inventory items  making up that assembly to set Min/Max reorder points and then sell the "batch" in pieces?

when I build the batch, QB thinks the "cookie dough" is the finished item and will not let me sell 1 of the 100 cookies it made.....

Solved
Best answer January 31, 2019

Best Answers
Rustler
Level 15

assembly items


@natalie4 wrote:

I use QB Enterprise and the company I work for uses multiple inventory items to make an assembly. For example, we may use a dozen eggs, 5 cups of flour, sugar and so on to make a dough ( this is the assembly), which is then cooked into 100 cookies which we sell individually. what is the best way to make assemblies so I can track my individual inventory items  making up that assembly to set Min/Max reorder points and then sell the "batch" in pieces?

when I build the batch, QB thinks the "cookie dough" is the finished item and will not let me sell 1 of the 100 cookies it made.....


The truth is you should not be using an assembly item for this, nor should perishable items be held as inventory items, eggs, etc.

 

Just expense the perishable items when purchased.

 

But if you want to use the assembly item, there is an issue.  An assembly item makes one of something and there is no variable output for an assembly item and no waste either.  So if your assembly always without fail makes 100 cookies fine, but if sometimes you get more or less that does not work.

 

An assembly item takes the qty of each item listed in the assembly BOM to make one of something.  So to make 100 cookies using an assembly item, you have to list the items being used, and for qty you enter 1/100 of the item, 0.01 in other words (for eggs that would be 0.01 of a dozen).  Then when you build the assembly you must always build 100 each time or each batch

 

Then use a service item to sell the cookies, or if you wish create a zero cost inventory item for the cookies, after a batch is made count them, and use inventory adjust, set the adjusting account to a clearing expense account, and increase the qty on hand by the number made, then sell that item.

 

check the clearing expense balance it should always be zero, if is not that means someone entered a cost for the cookie item, and that is wrong when you do it this way

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7 Comments 7
IamjuViel
QuickBooks Team

assembly items

Hello there, @natalie4.

 

Creating your inventory item is  my priority. With that being said, allow me to help walk you through on how inventory management works in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise.

 

To record and manage your inventory items accurately, you can create and build Inventory Assembly item. By doing so, you can keep track of the sub-items you need in baking a cookie. For a more detailed instruction in creating and building assembly items, you may check out this article: Create, build, and work with inventory assembly items.

 

If you're having difficulty building the assembly item on your end, I'd recommend reaching out to our Technical Support Team. A specialist will be able to further check on QuickBooks via secured remote access session.

 

Here’s how you can reach them:

  1. Click this link https://help.quickbooks.intuit.com/en_US/contact.
  2. Choose the QuickBooks Product.
  3. Select your QuickBooks Desktop version.
  4. On the Contact Us page, select a topic.
  5. Click on Get Phone Number button to see the support number.

Please don't hesitate to click the Reply button if you have other questions about creating assembly items. I'm always here to help.

natalie4
Level 2

assembly items

juViel,

Thank you for your reply. I understand how to make the assembly items, that is not the problem, the problem is selling pieces of that assembly.. I create an assembly item and then build 1 unit of it which is the total recipe which makes 100 cookies,,, that makes the "dough" but then I might take half of that dough and sell it leaving the other half in inventory until the next customer.. how do I sell a portion of a built assembly item? 

 

Natalie 

Rustler
Level 15

assembly items


@natalie4 wrote:

I use QB Enterprise and the company I work for uses multiple inventory items to make an assembly. For example, we may use a dozen eggs, 5 cups of flour, sugar and so on to make a dough ( this is the assembly), which is then cooked into 100 cookies which we sell individually. what is the best way to make assemblies so I can track my individual inventory items  making up that assembly to set Min/Max reorder points and then sell the "batch" in pieces?

when I build the batch, QB thinks the "cookie dough" is the finished item and will not let me sell 1 of the 100 cookies it made.....


The truth is you should not be using an assembly item for this, nor should perishable items be held as inventory items, eggs, etc.

 

Just expense the perishable items when purchased.

 

But if you want to use the assembly item, there is an issue.  An assembly item makes one of something and there is no variable output for an assembly item and no waste either.  So if your assembly always without fail makes 100 cookies fine, but if sometimes you get more or less that does not work.

 

An assembly item takes the qty of each item listed in the assembly BOM to make one of something.  So to make 100 cookies using an assembly item, you have to list the items being used, and for qty you enter 1/100 of the item, 0.01 in other words (for eggs that would be 0.01 of a dozen).  Then when you build the assembly you must always build 100 each time or each batch

 

Then use a service item to sell the cookies, or if you wish create a zero cost inventory item for the cookies, after a batch is made count them, and use inventory adjust, set the adjusting account to a clearing expense account, and increase the qty on hand by the number made, then sell that item.

 

check the clearing expense balance it should always be zero, if is not that means someone entered a cost for the cookie item, and that is wrong when you do it this way

Jules8435
Level 1

assembly items

Hello,

 

We use QBES 19 Desktop and we sell commercial food-service equipment.  We have a warehouse, so we have some equipment ship here and we consolidate it and deliver it to our customer when they're ready for it on-site.  However, we also have quite a bit of equipment drop-ship, third-party from our suppliers to our customer's locations.  There are many items that we sell which are technically kits - for example a rolling rack, sold to our customer with a model number we create based on the dimensions of the rack, but the rack actually consists of multiple true inventory items (shelving).  So, we JUST started to use inventory assembly items/assembly builds and I'm not sure if using them will work for us because many of the assembly items are kits that are ordered and drop-shipped from our suppliers - so we are sometimes not assembling them; instead the customer is assembling them.  So my questions are:

1. Should we even use assembly items if they are often not assembled here?

2. If the customer wants to see an annual report showing how many rolling racks they bought in 2019, NOT how many 24x48 shelves and posts (the items that make up the rolling rack), we can't use groups, I assume.

3. Would we have to essentially double our inventory by creating identical NON-inventory parts for the items we have drop-ship?  Even though we sell all equipment both ways - bring into inventory and later deliver and invoice, as well as drop-ship.

4. We use sales orders when we enter an order in QB, and usually PO's are created from the sales order.  If we put an assembly item on a sales order, I assume we would need to manually create a PO for the items needed to complete the assembly build.  Then we would wait for the PO to be received, then "build" the assembly?  Is that the correct process? And how should that be handled if this is a drop-ship order from the manufacturer to the customer?

 

Thank you!

 

jaapkrijger
Level 4

assembly items

What would happen if you make a single biscuit an assembly of the batch? Can do the same for a dozen, etc.? Just dividing the batch as per. You can put quite a number of digits behind the dot, so can tweak over time to account for losses as well.

SmokinBandit
Level 2

assembly items

Thanks Rustler,

 

I am in a similar situation (BBQ Sauce not cookies) but your explanation is not computing, my fault I just don't understand. 

1. When you have made 100 cookies how do you put them in inventory (and assign a cost to them)? 

2. How do you handle COG for tax purposes?

3. I have to bottle and label my sauce, would those items be expensed as well?

4. I am starting to make and sell sandwiches, I made a non inventory item 'concessions' and create an invoice for that item, is that correct? ( I assume I need a corresponding expense account 'concessions' if not let me know).

 

Thanks in advance!  it's much appreciated.

jaapkrijger
Level 4

assembly items

Think you need to 'play' with units of measure, sounds very similar to me buying a bottle of something serving 'shots' to clients...

 

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