Assemblies vs. Kits vs. Templates
Assemblies, Kits and Templates are each comprised of a Bill of Materials (i.e. a "recipe" of component items). However, they are treated differently when it comes to manufacturing and sales order fulfillment.
Assembly
Assembly items have physical stock of finished good inventory. In order to ship an Assembly on a Sales Order, it must first be built (i.e. assembled.) This is typically done by using a Work Order although there are some exceptions (see the Auto-build Assembly section).
When an assembly is built, its BOM components are drawn from inventory and the assembled Product is added to inventory. An assembly BOM may include inventory items plus soft costs such as a setup cost, labor and/or overhead. Once they're built, Assembly items are treated just like any other inventoried item with regard to inventory availability and values.
Assemblies are well-suited for traditional manufactured items where there is a fixed assembly process that rarely changes (i.e. not a custom product). One example of an Assembly would be a bicycle, which consists of a frame, wheels, handlebars, etc. where all of those parts need to be assembled before the customer takes it home.
Work Orders allow the user to modify the recipe on-the-fly by adding or removing components, changing component quantities and adding non-inventory expense items.
Auto-Build Assembly
Auto-build Assemblies can be built either on-the-fly during the Sales Order entry process or via Work Order. If there is sufficient quantity of component parts available in the Sales Order line item warehouse, but the assembly item itself is not in stock, AcctVantage will automatically build the quantity necessary to fulfill the line item. Soft costs on the BOM, will be included in the value of the Auto-built Assembly.
Another optional attribute for auto-built assemblies is a setting that will automatically transfer components from a Default Component warehouse to the Sales Order line item warehouse to complete the build if sufficient quantities are not available in the selling warehouse. The Default Component warehouse is assigned on the BOM components' Product Inventory tab.
To enable auto-build assemblies, see this article.
Kits
As with assemblies, Kits are comprised of BOM components that are stocked as Inventory items. However, Kits are not inventory items themselves.
Kit components will be drawn from stock when the Sales Order has been Picked. The Kit product itself will never have inventory quantities of its own. There is no Work Order or other "build" process associated with Kits. This setup allows kit components to remain available as individual inventory units up until Sales Order fulfillment.
Kit BOMs may contain either inventory or non-inventory components (or both). However, they can not contain soft costs such as labor or overhead unless those are setup as non-inventory products.
Kits are especially well suited to products that contain components that could be sold either a la carte or as a package. One example of a Kit would be a bicycle repair kit that contains items such as a pump, tube repair, various wrenches and screwdrivers, etc. These items require no assembly. They can be sold either together or separate.
Templates
As with both Assemblies and Kits, Templates are comprised of BOM components that are stocked as Inventory items. However, Templates are not inventory items themselves.
When a Template is added to a Sales Order, the Template part number is immediately replaced with the BOM components (one line item for each component).
With a Template, you're selling the actual components, not the Template part number. This differs from a Kit, where you are selling the Kit part number and the system draws out the components.
Templates are well suited to products that are commonly sold together but not as a formal as a kit or assembly. Continuing with the bicycle example, one example of a Template would be replacement tires (i.e. a front tire and a rear tire). These items also require no assembly and they can be sold together or separate.