Nobody can say what one finished piece actually costs in material.
A bill of materials is the recipe for one finished piece: every material, the quantity, the wastage you allow for, and the bought-out parts. Hold it in one place and the quotation, the purchase list and the shop floor work from the same numbers. Change the design next month, and last month’s version stays on record.
The estimator keeps his list in a spreadsheet, with a column he added for one customer in 2019. The storekeeper has his own idea of what goes into the same item. When the drawing changes, one of the two finds out late.
One item, one list of what goes under it, carrying a version and a date. A quotation is costed from it, a purchase list is drawn from it, and a work order is released against it. Wastage sits on the line where it belongs, so the edge banding you always lose is priced instead of absorbed.
What bill of materials does.
Parent items and what sits under them
A finished item, its materials, and sub-assemblies under those. The shutter panel sits inside the wardrobe that carries it.
Wastage on the line
An allowance for cutting loss, shrinkage or thread breakage, set per line and in the unit the trade uses.
Versions with a date on them
Each change is saved as a new version, dated, carrying the maker’s name. Jobs already quoted keep the list they were quoted from.
Alternates for what is short
A second acceptable material against a line, so the supervisor knows which hinge may go in when the usual one is off the rack.
Costed at the rate you last paid
Each line picks up the latest purchase rate. The total says what the piece costs before labour touches it.
Explode it for a quantity
Ask for forty units. The screen returns the whole material list, what is on the rack and what has to be bought.
The people who open this every day.
Estimator
Builds the list once and quotes from it, instead of rebuilding it every time the same customer asks for the same cabinet.
Production in-charge
Sees what a job needs before it is released to the floor.
Storekeeper
Issues against the list. Anything beyond it is asked for, in writing.
It is one part of a system, not an island.
A module earns its place by what it passes to the next one. These are the connections we set up most often.
- Production planning
- Work orders
- Purchase orders
- Stock
- Estimates and quotations
How we would put it in.
Questions owners ask about bill of materials.
Every job we make is a one-off. Is this of any use?
Yes, in a lighter form. A fabricator keeps a list for a standard gate or a rolling shutter and changes the sizes per job. The gain is in costing the job against that list afterwards.
Is a spreadsheet still enough for us?
Often it is. It stops being enough the day two people keep copies, or rates move and old quotations go out at last year’s cost. The store issuing from memory is the third sign.
Does it work with Tally?
Your purchase rates and item masters come across from Tally, so the costed list uses what you actually paid. Nothing is keyed twice. Books stay with your accountant.
Can our existing lists be loaded in?
Send the sheets in whatever shape they are in. They are cleaned and imported before go-live. Our free technology audit usually starts with these sheets, because costing errors hide there.
Businesses that ask for this.
Modules that work with it.
Tell us how you handle bill of materials today.
A spreadsheet, a register or another system: say which, and we will tell you plainly what is worth changing.
- No obligation
- We reply the same working day
- Your details stay private