The term 'Composite Item' in Zoho Inventory represents a single commodity that is made up by putting two or more items together. With composite items you can,

 

• Create kits and sell them for customized rates.
  
• Perform assemblies to create finished goods.
  

 

During the past few weeks, we made several enhancements to the Composite Item feature to improve its utility to suit different businesses. We thought we should tell you about it. Read on to know what's new and how you can get the best out of this feature.

So what has changed?

 

The general outlook of the Composite Items page has been retained with a few noticeable tweaks.

 

• Box/Unbox button has been replaced with the Create Bundle button in the composite item details page.
  
• Boxing/Unboxing History section has been renamed as Bundling History.
  
• If your composite item has boxed units, then you can view the boxing history under the Boxes tab within the Bundling History section.
  
• In the composite item creation page, you can find the new Add Services button.
  

 

Introduction to Bundling within Composite Items

By creating a Composite Item, you are only defining it. Doing that has no impact on the stock level. Earlier, you used the Box/Unbox function within the Composite Item feature to increase or decrease the number of available stock for the composite item respectively.

 

As a major part of the revamp, the Box/Unbox function has been completely scrapped and we now introduce the all-new Bundling function in its place.

 

Bundling helps you to increase the quantity of the composite item while the stock of the associated items will drop as per the quantity used by this process.

 

For the most part, bundling works just like boxing except when it comes to its composition. While bundling, you can edit the associated items and its quantities as you see fit at any given time (which was not the case before). 

 

Why bundling over boxing?

 

There were a few challenges posed by the Box/Unbox function which has been overcome with the Bundling function:

 

• Earlier, the COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) entry was posted during the boxing process instead of an actual sale. With bundling, COGS will be posted only during sales (invoicing). In short, Bundling will only affect the Inventory account of the underlying items.
  
• Previously, you were allowed to box composite items even when the quantity of the associated items were insufficient, which practically is not possible. That has been rectified, and now, you need to have sufficient stock for bundling. 
  
• You can flexibly modify the associated items at the instant of bundling which was not possible with boxing.
  

 

What's more?

 

Apart from improvising the existing functions, there are a couple of new additions that would make the enhanced composite items feature a desirable one for your business.

 

1) You can now serialize your composite items in Zoho Inventory. Yes, Serial Number Tracking is available for composite items with this update.

 

2) You can associate non-inventory items (purchase items as well as services) as constituents. This will help you track real time bundling i.e assembling, which you can do by adding the list of items and labour work (service) spent to complete it.

You can also operate this feature from Zoho Books by enabling it as an add-on.

 

Without further ado, try out this improved feature. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

Additional resources: 

• Get more insight on the enhancements done to the Composite Items feature here.
  
• Learn how you can create and manage Composite Items in Zoho Inventory.
  
• Check out our blog on how you can bring a positive impact to your sales using bundling.
  

 

 

Cheers!

Lakshmi

Writer | Zoho Inventory