Inventory Assemblies

SME has a few ways to handle inventory assemblies, however SME is focused on service/inventory/equipment management and not so much for manufacturing. Here are a couple options for assemblies:

1. Packages: SME Packages have features similar to QuickBooks groups and assemblies. SME has options for how to price the package (by included items or fixed pricing). It also handles inventory management for the components. This approach is good if you have more fixed packages.
2. Order Hierarchy (see Service & Install_Orders#Add_Text_for_Grouping_and_Subtotaling_Items: Orders in SME allow hierarchical structure. You can add the top level item "Widget Assembly" and then add unlimited material, service, and labor items within the assembly. Each sub-item can be set to hide in the report forms. This approach is good for dynamic assemblies that are built to order or unique for each order.
3. Packages AND Hierarchy: When you add a package to an order it shows it in hierarchical form. You can then add additional special items to that assembly. This approach is good if most of the assembly is standard but a few items are special.
4. Internal Order and PO: Create an internal Order for your company will all the sub-parts for an assembly (this would deplete the parts), then create an internal PO for the finished assembly to add the finished system into your inventory (this would add the assembly to your stock). This approach is good if you want to track labor and costs for building the assembly and you want strict control and tracking of the internal order and PO, however this approach add some overhead.

Note on QuickBooks sync with SME: SME will only sync Inventory groups into SME as packages. Inventory assemblies in QB are NOT synced into SME.