Items

An Item defines a type of product, component, material, or anything else you need to track. Items serve as templates—they describe what something is, while Instances represent specific physical occurrences of that item.

Key Properties

Items have the following properties:

• Name: A descriptive name (e.g., "Servo Motor", "M3 Screw").
• Part Number: Your internal part number.
• Manufacturer / MPN: The manufacturer name and their part number.
• Description: Detailed notes about the item.
• Units: The unit of measure (each, meters, kg, etc.).
• Reorder Quantity: The threshold at which you typically reorder.
• Serialize by default: Whether new inventory should be tracked as individual serialized instances (see below).
• Custom Fields: Any custom fields you've configured for items.

Serialized vs. Unserialized Inventory

Inventory for each item can be tracked in two ways:

Serialized (Individual Tracking)

Each unit receives a unique serial number and becomes an Instance. This allows you to track:

• The history of that specific unit
• Which components were installed (for BOM items)
• Status, issues, and notes per unit

When to use:

• Items with a Bill of Materials (required—each build is unique)
• Expensive items worth tracking individually
• Items with firmware/modifications that differ per unit

Unserialized (Quantity Tracking)

Inventory is tracked as a simple quantity. Individual units are fungible (interchangeable).

When to use:

• Commodity items like screws, resistors, brackets
• Low-cost, high-volume parts where individual tracking is excessive

Bill of Materials (BOM)

A Bill of Materials defines the components required to assemble one unit of a product. BOMs are hierarchical—a parent item's BOM can include sub-assembly items that have their own BOMs.

Example BOM for a "Quadcopter Drone":

Items with BOMs are intended to be built, resulting in BOM Instances that track the specific components installed in each unit.

Revisions

BOM items support Revisions. When you need to update a BOM (add a component, change a quantity), you can create a new revision rather than modifying the existing one. This preserves history:

• Existing instances remain tied to their original revision
• New instances can be created on the new revision
• Instances can be migrated between revisions if needed

Item Editor

Click on any item to open its editor with five tabs:

Info Tab

Edit the item's basic properties (name, description, part numbers, etc.) and delete the item if no longer needed.

Inventory Tab

View and manage all inventory for this item:

• Serialized instances: Listed individually with their serial numbers, status, and (for BOM items) completion progress
• Unserialized inventory: Shown as aggregate rows with quantity totals

From here you can:

• Create new instances
• Bulk delete selected instances
• For BOM items with multiple revisions, migrate instances between versions

The table includes special "All Serialized" and "All Unserialized" summary rows that show totals across all inventory.

Bill of Materials Tab

Define and edit the BOM for this item:

• Add components by searching for items
• Set quantities and units for each line item
• View the recursive hierarchy (sub-assemblies expand to show their components)

Usages Tab

See everywhere this item is used:

• As a BOM component: Which parent items include this in their BOM
• In purchases: Purchase orders containing this item
• In deliverables: Deliverable line items referencing this item

This is useful for impact analysis before modifying or deleting an item.

Procurement Tab

Manage vendor sources for this item:

• Add vendors and their pricing
• Set vendor part numbers, lead times, URLs, and notes
• Define quantity-per-unit (e.g., "box of 100") and minimum order quantities

Items with vendor information configured here can be automatically included in purchase orders generated by Inventory Analysis.

Creating Items

Items can be created in several ways:

1. Manually: From the Items tab, click New item.
2. Bulk Import: Use the bulk import feature to create many items at once from a spreadsheet, including their BOMs and vendor sources.
3. During attachment: When attaching a part to an instance, you can create a new item on the fly if it doesn't exist.

Adjusting Inventory

To adjust unserialized inventory levels:

1. Navigate to the item's Inventory tab
2. Click on the unserialized row to expand its detail
3. Use the Add or Remove buttons to adjust quantity

For bulk adjustments across many items, use bulk import—export your items to a spreadsheet, modify the nUnserialized column, and re-import.