How to keep a bill of materials

A bill of materials is the recipe for one product you make: every component that goes into one unit, and how much. Recipes live at Buying › Bills of materials. A production order for that product copies its recipe when it starts, per How to run a production order.

At Fairgreen Golf Co., the recipe for a Classic headcover in Navy is 0.4 m of canvas, one zip and one woven label. Priya Raman wrote it once, and every headcover run since has started with those three lines.

Before you start

You need the Store and Bills of materials modules on in Settings › Modules, per How to switch parts of Tideswell on and off. Bills of materials has its own switch, so a workspace can track runs without keeping recipes.

Recipes use the production order rows on Settings › Permissions: View production orders to read them and Edit production orders to write them. Both start at member.

How do you write a recipe?

Press New recipe on Buying › Bills of materials, search for the product the recipe makes, and pick it. The recipe opens headed "What it takes to make one" and the product's name.

1. Press Add component.
2. Type the Component name, such as Canvas, and the Amount for one unit, such as 0.4.
3. Type the Unit, such as m. Leave it as each for things you count.
4. Pick the Usual supplier if you buy it from one, or leave No usual supplier.
5. Add the other components the same way, then press Save.

Each product has one recipe. Picking a product that already has one is refused with "This product already has a recipe."

How do you type amounts?

As a plain number with a full stop for decimals, such as 0.9. Amounts can be fractions, like 0.9 m of canvas. A decimal comma such as 0,9 is refused, with "Write the amount as a number, like 0.9."

What happens to runs when you change a recipe?

Nothing, for runs already started. The recipe says so: "A run copies this list when it starts. Changing it here only affects runs started afterwards."

To bring a run in line with a changed recipe, open the run and press Reload from recipe above its components, per How to run a production order.

How do you reuse a recipe for another colour?

Press Copy to another colour on the recipe and pick the other product, such as Classic headcover, Green. The new recipe gets a copy of the same components, ready to adjust.

Save your changes first. Unsaved changes are not copied, and the window says so.

How do you start a run from a recipe?

Press Start a run on the recipe. The New production order window opens with the product already picked and its components listed. See How to run a production order.

What does the recipe list show?

One row per recipe, with Makes, SKU, Components and Updated. A recipe's own page also lists its Open runs by order number, and under Finished how many runs have finished and how many units they made.

Do recipes go to Shopify?

No. A recipe lives in Tideswell only. When a run finishes, only the finished units are added to Shopify, never the components.