The Build feature of LightSpeed is used to "fold in" component Products, their quantities, and their Costs into a finished, "built" Product. It can be used by a warehouse or workshop that creates finished goods such as jewelry from raw materials like chain and pendants, or a final Product that has many component pieces, such as a bicycle or computer that is built to order.
If the Product is built from other Products, like a build-to-order computer, a custom piece of furniture or even a gift pack, the Build button will open the Build Inventory tool and load the constituent Products so that they can be built into the finished Product.
If you wish to add other constituent Products to build more of the finished Product – adding RAM to a built-to-order computer, for example – you can click the Edit Build Settings button, which will take you to the Related for Build tab. You can then add more constituent Products that can be used to build more finished Products using the Build feature. The costs of the constituent Products will be added to calculate the cost of the “built” Product.
Instructions
This process will "create" the quantity of final Product you indicated, and will decrease the component Products by the appropriate quantity. The costs for the component Products will be added together, resulting in a Cost Average of the final Product.
Building a Fence
You have Nails, Paint, and Wood set up as Products in your inventory, and you want to create a Fence with them. You create a Product called “Fence”, save it, and click the Build button in the Inventory tab. Then, call up Nails, Paint, and Wood in the search field, click them to add them to the Build Inventory window, and enter the quantities needed for each Product to build one Fence. Enter the amount of the finished Product you want to create, and click Build. The total of the Costs associated with the constituent Products becomes the Cost of the Built Product.
Once built, the quantities of the constituent Products will be decreased, and the quantity of the finished Product will increase. If there aren’t enough constituent Products to build the finished Product, you will get a warning.
Unbuilding
The Build feature can also be used to "unbuild" Products back into their components, by building a negative number of final Products. This will positively affect the component Products, returning them into inventory at the appropriate Cost Average.
Products cannot be serialized, nor can their constituent Products.
Break Apart
The Break Apart feature allows you to break a primary Product down into individual quantities. For example, you have a Product in your database that is a case of 10 DVDs, and you want to break it into 10 individuals that you can sell. Create a second Product with a unique Product Code and Description. You may choose to enter the cost of an individual unit in the Supplier Costs grid. Save it. In the primary Product’s profile, find the new Product in the Break Apart tab, double-click it, and enter the quantity 10. Save it. In the Tools menu, choose Break Apart Product, and find the primary Product. In the Amount to Break Apart field, enter the quantity of boxes you want to break down. Click Break Apart. Your primary Product quantity will decrease, and the new Product quantity will increase.
Pre-mapping of the Break Apart individual Product can be done in the Break Apart tab of the Case Master Product as described above for the Build feature. This pre-mapped Product will auto-populate when the Break Apart tool is used.
