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BOMs

A bill of materials (BOM) defines how a SKU is produced: the components it consumes, the outputs it yields, and which output is primary. Manage BOMs at /principal/boms in the Principal Catalog section.
Your organization may use a different name for BOMs. Administrators can rename catalog terms in Settings → Terminology. See Terminology.

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BOM list

The list page shows every BOM with its Name, what it Produces, the output’s SKU type, Notes, a Status badge, and a component count. Status distinguishes Top-level BOMs (the output isn’t consumed by any other BOM — a finished good) from Sub-assembly BOMs (consumed as a component by other BOMs, with a count).
  • Search by name, notes, or output SKU.
  • Filter with chips for Size (component count ranges), Usage (Sub-assembly or Top-level), and Type (the output’s SKU type).
  • Export the list to CSV from the table settings menu.
  • Click New BOM to create one.
Each row’s menu offers Open, Edit metadata, and Delete. Deletion asks for confirmation and can fail if a policy still references the BOM.

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Grouped and flat views

The table settings menu has a View setting with two options:
  • Grouped (the default) — BOMs are organized into collapsible sections by demand-aggregation SKU group, based on each BOM’s output SKU, with an Ungrouped section for outputs not in such a group.
  • Flat — a single table of all BOMs.
Your choice is remembered between visits.

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Creating a BOM

1

Open the dialog

Click New BOM on the list page.
2

Name it and pick the output

Enter a Name and optional Notes, then choose the Produces SKU — the primary SKU this BOM produces. Additional co-product outputs can be added later from the detail page.
3

Add line items

Click Add line item for each component. Pick the component SKU with the searchable picker, then set its quantity, unit, and optional notes.
4

Create

Click Create BOM.
When editing an existing BOM from the dialog, only the name and notes are editable — line items are managed on the detail page.
You can also build a BOM from a SKU’s detail page: on its BOM tab, adding the first component creates a BOM automatically with that SKU as the primary output. See SKUs.

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BOM detail page

The detail page has a main column with three sections, a Used by panel on the right, and an Export CSV header action for the line items.

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Metadata

Edit the BOM’s Name and Notes. A badge shows whether the BOM is Top-level or a Sub-assembly, and a yield rate line appears when a yield-rate policy targets an output SKU.

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Outputs

The Outputs section lists what the BOM produces: each row has the SKU, a Yield qty, a Primary radio selector, and a remove button. Click Add output to add a co-product via the component picker. Exactly one output is primary; to remove the current primary while other outputs exist, mark another output as primary first. Output changes save immediately.

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Line items

The Line items section lists components with position, quantity, unit, and an optional flag. Click Add component to add one, drag rows to reorder, and edit quantities and units inline. Removing a component marks it for removal (struck through, with Restore) until you commit. Line item edits are staged: a sticky bar tracks unsaved changes with Discard and Save all.

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Component picker

The picker used for outputs, line items, and the SKU detail BOM tab is a searchable dialog: type a code, name, or description, and results appear grouped by each SKU’s primary group. Click a SKU to select it. SKUs already used in the BOM (and the BOM’s own outputs) are excluded, and circular references — a component that directly or indirectly consumes a SKU this BOM produces — are blocked.

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Used by panel

The Used by panel shows which SKU variant preferences reference this BOM: each entry links to the SKU, shows its rank and reason, and links to the policy that declares it. If nothing references the BOM, the panel says so — and when the BOM also has no outputs, it flags the BOM as safe to delete. When no variant preference exists, the primary output SKU defaults to this BOM when producing.

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Best practices

The primary output is what the BOM is “for” — co-products are secondary. Set the primary deliberately, especially on multi-output BOMs, since production defaults follow it.
If several finished goods share a built component, give that component its own BOM. The list’s Status column and Usage filter make the top-level versus sub-assembly structure easy to audit.
A line item’s unit must be one the component SKU actually defines. Set up unit conversions on the component SKU first so quantities mean what you intend.
A BOM referenced by variant preferences or policies is load-bearing. The panel tells you when a BOM is safe to delete.

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Troubleshooting

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Next Steps

SKUs

Manage the SKUs that BOMs produce and consume

SKU groups

Organize outputs into groups that drive the grouped BOM view

Attributes

Define the attributes behind your variant SKUs

Supply planning

See how BOMs drive production planning