Assembly Manager Concepts

Enterprise & Corporate Edition Only

The Assembly Manager is designed to provide you with a formal way of assembling a series of stock items, and optionally labour and other expenses, into one or more finished stock items. For example these products:

Item List Cost In Store Price

Product A $1,000.00

Product B $15.00

Product C $110.00

Could be converted into a single product:

Item List Cost In Store Price

Product F $1,125.00

Similarly, an assembled stock item could be disassembled into a series of components if necessary.

The Assembly Manager adds up all stock items that are to be converted into finished good(s), as well as any allocated supplier expenses, and optionally labour, in order to determine the total stock item cost price. Assembled stock is deducted from Stock Control, and finished stock is added. If finished stock items already exist, the total Cost In Store price is evenly averaged into the existing stock.

Even if you have not specified average stock as your stock costing method, the Assembly Manager will always average stock, regardless. Always assign new finished stock codes if you do not wish this to occur.

Managing Assemblies

Stock assemblies may be added, edited, copied or deleted. The next available assembly task number will be issued to new assemblies automatically as they are created. Once an assembly has been 'built' it cannot be edited. However, assemblies can be copied at any time.

Work Orders

Work or 'production' orders may now be raised for suppliers where special work or 'out plant' needs to be performed on your assembly. You may enter supplier details, reference and date information, as well as special work instructions for suppliers. It is then possible to print a work order for the task or tasks to be performed.

Materials/Stock

Enter stock items and kits that are to be deducted from stock (converted) into finished goods here.

It is recommended that you first establish a series of stock kits to act as "bills of materials" (lists of parts that make up finished goods) before you begin working with the Assembly Manager. Dividing your materials into components and sub-components that can be referred to by kit codes will make managing the assembly process considerably easier.

For more information on this topic see: Stock Kit Concepts

Labour

Labour overhead will usually be credited to an expense account in order to offset your wages overhead. (Otherwise labour/wages would be claimed as a deduction twice -- once when you paid your wages bill, and again as the cost of your inventory during a sale.) Labour is essentially converted from an operating expense into an asset.

Expenses

Direct expenses are recorded by allocating existing supplier invoices to assemblies. These cover such things as contract work by a third-party, i.e., cutting, dyeing, powder coating, welding, etc., that is not performed by your own business.

You may allocate portions of an expense (supplier invoice) across multiple assemblies if you wish.

It is recommended that you initially allocate these expenses to a Work-In-Progress expense code or asset account. When these expenses are converted to finished goods they should be transferred from Work-In-Progress to either your Purchases For Manufacturing or Finished Goods account.

Below are three suggested ways of allocating your expenses depending on your set-up:

Non General Ledger Users (optional)

1. Allocate your manufacturing expenses to a Manufacturing Costs expense account.

2. After allocating and assembling stock, allocate the expenses portion of the assembly against a Manufacturing Control Account.

The above is optional for non-GL users. As soon as finished goods are sold, their costs will be correctly recorded in the "cost of sales" column on your Trading Statement anyway.

General Ledger Users Running a Periodic Inventory System

1. Allocate manufacturing related expenses to a Work-In-Progress Assets account. (This will be a debit, much like a regular purchase.)

2. After allocating and assembling stock, allocate the expenses portion of the assembly against a Manufacturing Purchases account. (The Work-In-Progress account will be credited.)

General Ledger Users Running a Perpetual Inventory System

1. Allocate manufacturing related expenses to a Manufacturing Purchases Control Account upon entering expenses.

2. After allocating and assembling stock, allocate the expenses portion of the assembly back against the Manufacturing Purchases Control Account (a credit). Finished Goods or your regular inventory account should be debited.

Finished Stock

Enter the stock codes of the finished stock(s) you wish to increase/create and cost. At least one finished stock entry is required.

Batch Numbers & Unique Properties

Unique Stock Tracing Component Only

The Assembly Manager is fully serial number, batch number and unique property aware and will prompt you for additional information relating to properties belonging to products being assembled during materials or finished stock entry.

For background information on this subject see the topic: Stock Tracing Concepts

Stock items assigned under the Materials/Stock section are allocated to the assembly as they are entered in the system. Assignments placed under the Finished Stocks table do not appear as allocated as they do not exist until the assembly is built.

The Assembler tries to cross-match stock items that reference the same properties, and assign finished goods to those items. For example, if a particular raw material is assigned the property "batch 50" then any finished goods that also have the "batch" property setting, will be allocated to "batch 50". This can be overridden when entering finished good codes and quantities.

If you do not want CAPITAL to try to cross-match properties, access the Assembly Options window and untick Automatic Assignment.

The Assembler does not attempt to cross-match items that have serial number properties. As these are unique entries, operators must always create new serial numbers as they are needed.

It is possible to over-assign a finished item. For example, if product ABC is made from 1 item from batch 50 and 1 item from batch 60, and only one finished item is made, the new item will be assigned to batch 50 and batch 60.

EFG (Batch 50)

HIJ (Batch 60)

Result: ABC (Batch 50 & Batch 60)

It may not be possible for a single item type to be assigned to two batches at once, especially if items EFG and HIJ share the same batch number property sequence. If this situation arises you could:

1. Create a new batch series, then assign a new batch number manually to the finished item.

2. Assign different batch number properties to the items that clash. For example, you could have "Batch Series #1" assigned to EFG type products and "Batch Series #2" to HIJ type products. The product ABC would also have to be assigned to both series.

3. Deselect the non-relevant batch number(s).

For information on keyboard navigation see: Keyboard Short-Cuts.

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