Assembling a Product

QuickBooks Premier includes a cool tool for accounting for the manufacture of items. Suppose that Saskia’s Knick Knacks Ltd, the example business we use in this book, mostly just buys and resells coffee mugs and other knick knacks. But also suppose that, once a year, Saskia’s Knick Knacks Ltd assembles a romantic collection of red coffee mugs into a boxed St Valentine’s Day gift set. In this case, QuickBooks can record the assembly of a boxed gift set that combines, for example, six red coffee mugs, a cardboard box clad in shiny red foil, and some red tissue paper.

Identifying the components

Each component that makes up the assembly – in this example, the St Valentine’s Day boxed gift set – needs to be an item on your Item list. Chapter 3 describes how to add items to the Item list, so we don’t repeat that information here. The weird thing about assembly items, however, is that the New Item window identifies the parts that make up the assembly. For example, the St Valentine’s Day boxed gift set assembly includes these items: six red tea mugs, a cardboard gift box, and some tissue paper that loved ones can use when they become emotionally overwhelmed by the generosity of this thoughtful gift. These items get listed as the pieces that make up the boxed gift set.