1What the Manufacturing module does #
Manufacturing turns raw materials into finished goods at a known cost. A bill of materials (BOM) says what one production run consumes and produces; a production voucher uses it - the raw materials go out of stock, the finished goods come in, valued at what went in plus the charges of making them.
| Step | Record | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Items (Item Master) | Raw materials and finished goods, as Inventory items with their units and alternative units. |
| 2 | Bill of Materials | The recipe: raw materials, sundry charges (labour, power, packing), finished goods, and - with Advanced Manufacturing - the operations, the source of each material and linked BOMs. |
| 3 | Production Order / Production Plan | A plan to make, before anything is used. It moves no stock. Saving a production order can raise the purchase orders, job orders and sub-assembly production orders it needs. |
| 4 | Production voucher (Production Journal / Production Posting) | The run itself: raw materials out, finished goods in, the cost of production shared across the goods made. |
| 5 | Material Issue / Material Receipt | Materials issued to or received back from production outside a production voucher. |
| 6 | Reports | The stock reports show production apart from ordinary movement - what was made and what was consumed. |
The Manufacturing Vouchers menu and every manufacturing voucher type need the licence module Advanced Manufacturing (module code MFR). Without it no manufacturing voucher type is listed, even for an administrator, and the BOM page works without its operations, sources, suppliers, linked BOMs and inventory types.
2Where to find help #
- On every screen: the Help panel on the right of the BOM page, the voucher screen and Voucher Manager - what the screen is for, every field, the keys, why a pick-list can be empty, and what to do when something does not work.
- The manual: at the foot of this guide, the help of every screen the module uses - the BOM master, the voucher screen, Voucher Manager, Bill of Sundries, the Item Master and the item-parameter masters - chapter by chapter.
- The help search box: type a word - a field, a message - and it finds the screen that explains it.
The BOM page's Help has a section Why is a pick-list empty? that names, for every list on the page, the master and the condition an entry must meet. Read it first when a product, stock group, unit, operation or supplier is missing.
3Where things are - the Manufacturing menu #
| Group | Page | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing Vouchers > Start here | Manufacturing Getting Started | Read this guide. |
| Manufacturing Vouchers > Voucher Entry | The manufacturing voucher types | Start a Production Order, Production Plan, Production Journal / Production Posting, Material Issue or Material Receipt - whichever your company has set up and you hold a right on. |
| Masters > Manufacturing | Bill of Materials (BOM) (the BOM Master page) | Create and change bills of materials. |
| Masters > Item Master | Item Master | The raw materials and finished goods, with their alternative units, stock groups and item parameters. |
| Masters > Other Masters | Bill of Sundries | The production charges - labour, power, packing - and how each calculates. |
| Masters > Inventory Masters | Warehouse, Product Parameters, Item Parameter Templates | Storage spaces for semi-finished routing; the size and specification values a BOM line can carry. |
| Masters > Voucher Manager | Voucher Manager | Set up the manufacturing voucher types. |
| Reports > Inventory Reports | Stock Register, Product Inward-Outward Analysis, Movement Analysis, Sundry Analysis | See production in stock and cost. |
4The Manufacturing Dashboard - where things stand #
Manufacturing Vouchers > Manufacturing Dashboard (under *Start here*) shows the module at a glance: production orders still to be made; production this month and this year; production journals not posted; material issued; and, item by item, what was made and what material it took.
- Every tile has a button that opens the page or report behind the figure, and every list has one at its head - the dashboard is where you start, the page is where you act.
- A figure that wants attention reads red; one that is as it should be reads green; a plain figure is just a fact.
- The figures are for the report option you signed in with (All, Branch or Group), shown at the top as *For*, up to today.
- Cancelled entries are never counted.
- The page is read when it opens and on Refresh (F3); it does not refresh by itself. Nothing is changed there.
- The right. The dashboard has a user preference of its own: *User Can View Manufacturing Dashboard* in User Manager > Preferences. It starts unticked for everyone; an administrator ticks it for whoever should see it. Administrators always hold it.
5First-day setup (administrator) #
Do these once per company, in this order.
- Licence. Check that the licence carries Advanced Manufacturing. Add Linked Transactions if production postings should load production orders, and Quality Management if receipts raise quality orders.
- Items. Make every raw material and finished good an Inventory item with Affect Stock on (Masters > Item Master). Only active Inventory items appear in the BOM's item lists - service and fixed-asset items do not.
- Units and stock groups per item. A BOM line offers only the item's own units (its primary unit and Alternative Units...) and the item's own stock groups. Add them on the item first.
- Material rates. Give raw materials a STD. PURCHASE PRICE (or at least a STD. COST PRICE) - the rate a BOM values them at.
- Production charges. In Masters > Other Masters > Bill of Sundries, one sundry per charge - labour, power, packing - each adding (+) or deducting (-).
- Voucher types. In Masters > Voucher Manager, check the manufacturing voucher types: category Mfr for production vouchers (so the Finished Goods tab appears), Use BOM ? on where a BOM is loaded, Affect Stock Register ?, Movement Type and Action Against Neg./Zero Stock. With Advanced Manufacturing, Is Allow Manufacturing Operations ? where the routing is recorded; Allow Job-Order Creation ? on job-order types.
- Manufacturing settings. The voucher types that production orders raise automatically, the transaction class for production journals and the related-documents mode are company settings of the Manufacturing group (see Settings below). Check them before the first production order.
- Bills of materials: one per product (or per variant of a run).
- Rights. In User Manager, give each role the right on the BOM master (Material Composition (BOM)) and on each manufacturing voucher type (Vouchers tab), and tick the menu entries.
Try the whole chain on a spare item first: a BOM, a production voucher from it, and the Stock Register. The stock report shows at once whether the raw materials went out and the finished goods came in.
6Keys #
The BOM page:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| F2 | Find a BOM. |
| F3 | Add a new BOM. The page also opens ready to add, with the cursor on BOM Name. |
| F4 | Modify the BOM on screen. |
| F5 | Save, after a confirmation. |
| F8 | Calc Cost - allocate the production cost to the finished goods (works from anywhere on the page). |
| Esc | Close the dialog, else cancel the edit and return to view. |
| Enter | Next field. Leaving the last cell of a grid's last row adds a fresh row. |
The production voucher uses the voucher screen's keys - F2 Find, F3 Add, F4 Modify, F5 Save, F7 commit a line, F8 Update Summary, Ctrl+P Print, Esc. In the BOM Calculator dialog, F3 is Load and F5 is OK.
7Bills of materials #
Open Masters > Manufacturing > Bill of Materials (BOM). A BOM is a master record - one at a time, View / Add / Modify - and describes one production run. Enter it in cost order: raw materials, then charges, then finished goods.
- Add (F3). Type the BOM Name (required, unique) and a Description.
- Raw Materials - Add Item for each: product, Qty, Unit (from the item's own units), and Rate. The rate fills itself as you pick: the item's price, then the stock group's price if that stock group keeps custom prices, then the unit's price if that unit keeps custom prices - each time STD. PURCHASE PRICE, falling back to STD. COST PRICE, converted to the unit picked. You may overtype it. Amount = Qty x Rate.
- Give each raw material its Value Basis - how its quantity follows the finished goods when a run is bigger or smaller: Proportionate to Finished Goods, Percentage, Static Value or Custom Qty, with Value For Calc. where the basis needs a figure.
- Sundry Charges - Add Charge for each production charge with its rate or amount. A (+) charge adds to the cost, a (-) charge takes from it.
- Finished Goods - Add Item and type the quantity one run makes. The quantity is never calculated; it stays what you type. Mark each row's Inventory Type (Advanced Manufacturing): Primary, By Product, Semi Finished or Scrap.
- Calc Cost (F8). The Total Production Cost - raw materials plus (+) charges less (-) charges - is shared across the finished goods by their Value Basis (Proportionate to Raw-Material, Percentage, Static Value, Custom Qty). A by-product, semi-finished or scrap row keeps its own amount and leaves the pool; the primary goods share the rest. Each finished good's Rate = Amount / Qty and cannot be typed.
- Save (F5) and confirm.
The raw-material footer shows Raw Material, Sundry and Total Production Cost. Changing any raw-material quantity, rate or amount, or a charge, re-allocates the finished-goods cost by itself; F8 forces the same recalculation.
Other things on the page
- Copy makes a new, unsaved BOM from the loaded one, named with "- Copy" - the quickest way to a variant.
- Refresh Lists reloads the stock groups, units and prices if someone changed a master elsewhere. The page loads them once on opening, so picking is instant.
- Params on a finished-goods or raw-material row sets values for the item-parameter template of that item (a size, a grade).
- Size columns - Length, Width, SQM, Depth, Height, Weight - appear only when the company setting Use Size columns (Height, Width etc.) in BOM Master is on. SQM follows Length x Width unless typed.
- The + Create new ... footer on Product, Stock Group and Unit creates the master in a dialog and selects it; the unit footer adds an alternative unit to the item with its conversion factor.
- Delete removes a BOM and its rows. The database refuses while any voucher or job order refers to it.
- Find, Modify and Delete may be hidden by a company setting that removes them from transactions.
A BOM must have a name and at least one finished good to save. Every problem is listed at once.
8Advanced BOMs - operations, sources and linked BOMs #
With the Advanced Manufacturing licence the BOM gains an Operations card and three raw-material columns.
Where each raw material comes from
| Source | What saving a production order does for it |
|---|---|
| Stock | Nothing - it is taken from stock. |
| PO | Raises a purchase order to the raw material's Supplier. |
| Job Order | Raises a job order - the material is made outside. |
| Produce | Raises a production order of its own, from the raw material's Linked BOM. |
| Stock Else PO / Stock Else Produce / Stock Else Job Order | Treated like PO, Produce or Job Order for the quantity the production order requires. |
| None | Nothing. |
- Supplier lists active ledgers of the Suppliers category or the Work-Centres group.
- Linked BOM lists saved BOMs whose finished goods are Primary - save the sub-assembly's BOM first.
- What is raised, and on which voucher types, is set by the Manufacturing settings (see Production orders).
Operations - the routing
Each operation is a step picked from the operations master; only operations with a valid work centre are listed. For each: Order, Setup (min), Run (min), Capacity Qty per Capacity Period (Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days), Starting Type (Manual / Automatic), Starting Criteria (no criteria, on work-order release, after the previous operation, after all parent operations), Material Availability (a reserved or consumed percentage that must be reached first), Responsible Users and Completion (Manual / Automatic).
- Equipment - the work-centre equipment and operator for the step. The button shows only when the company setting Use Equipments in Manufacturing is on.
- Semi-Finished - items received from the step, each with an accept action (next operation, a named operation, or a warehouse) and a reject action (warehouse, re-work, scrap).
- Material Usage - which raw materials the step consumes, with the quantity and a usage option: Backflush (taken in the BOM's proportions when production is reported, so keep the BOM quantities and wastage right) or Manual (issued by hand). The quantity is capped at what the raw-material grid still has; Load Raw Materials lists every material with its remaining balance.
- Is Allow Material Consumption?, Is Allow Semi-Finished Goods Receipt?, Is Allow Finished Goods Receipt? say what the step may do.
Operations may never consume more of a raw material than the raw-material grid holds. If you reduce a raw-material quantity later, the save lists every operation that now over-consumes it.
9Record a production #
- Open the production voucher type (for example Production Posting) from Manufacturing Vouchers. Its first tab is Raw Materials and Cost of Production; the second is Finished Goods.
- Check the Transaction Date and the Transaction Class the cost of production posts under.
- In the BOM bar above the narration, Select Bill of Material and press Add. The raw materials fill the first tab and the finished goods the Finished Goods tab, at the voucher's pricing. Refresh beside it reloads the BOM list.
- Made more or fewer than the BOM's run? On Finished Goods, select the row and Edit Qty: the raw materials are recalculated from each one's Value Basis - unless Preserve Raw Material Qty is on, which keeps raw quantities you have adjusted by hand.
- Add or change charges - labour, power - in the sundry grid of the first tab. Adjust any raw-material line you need.
- Press Proportionate Cost of Production: raw materials plus (+) charges less (-) charges are shared across the finished goods in proportion to each row's value (rate x quantity, else its amount, else its quantity), and each gets its rate. The last row absorbs the rounding, so the shares add up exactly.
- Save (F5). The raw materials go out of stock and the finished goods come in at that cost.
The BOM Calculator
BOM Calculator on the voucher toolbar (voucher types with Use BOM, while editing) works out the raw materials a run needs, priced as at the voucher date: pick the BOM, Load (F3), change the finished-goods quantity - every raw material recalculates from its basis with a running material cost - and OK (F5). The raw-material lines are added to the grid at the calculated rates.
Loading from a production order
With Linked Transactions, a production voucher can load the finished goods of a production order. When the voucher type's linked-transaction properties say the raw materials come from the BOM, the raw materials are filled from the newest BOM for those goods, scaled to the loaded quantities.
A BOM on a non-manufacturing voucher
A sales or other voucher type with Use BOM ? but not in the Mfr category loads only the raw materials of a BOM - it has no Finished Goods tab, and the message says how many finished-goods rows were skipped.
If the materials are not in stock the save is refused like a sale would be, when the voucher type's Action Against Neg./Zero Stock says Stop. Post the purchase or material receipt first.
10Production orders, job orders and quality #
Production orders and the documents they raise
A Production Order is a plan to make. It does not move stock. When a new production order is saved, raw materials whose BOM source is PO, Job Order or Produce (or a Stock Else choice), and which the order requires, raise their documents inside the same save:
| Source | Document raised | On the voucher type named by |
|---|---|---|
| PO / Stock Else PO | A purchase order per supplier | Auto Purchase Order Voucher Type |
| Job Order / Stock Else Job Order | A job order | Auto Job Order Voucher Type |
| Produce / Stock Else Produce | A production order from the linked BOM, with the Transaction Class for posting production journal | Auto Production Order Voucher Type |
- Mode of creation of related documents while saving Production Order decides this: Manual raises nothing; Auto Immediate raises the documents for this order; Auto Recursive also passes each material's source, supplier and linked BOM on, so a sub-assembly's own materials are raised in turn. A blank setting is read as Auto Immediate.
- With the mode set to anything other than Manual, a list of the documents raised - numbers, types, parties, statuses, branches - pops up after the save.
- Product Order To Posting Voucher Type names the voucher type a production order is posted on when it is completed.
Job orders
Voucher types with Allow Job-Order Creation ? ask for the job's items during every save - item, quantity, rate (by the Job-Order Rate Option), amount and expected completion date, never before the voucher date. Cancelling that window cancels the save. The Job Order button on the right rail shows it again, read-only.
Manufacturing operations on a voucher
Mfr Operations on the right rail (Advanced Manufacturing and the voucher type's Is Allow Manufacturing Operations ?) records the routing on a saved production voucher: each operation with its work centre and times, the execution order, the scheduled start, and whether it allows material consumption, semi-finished and finished-goods receipt.
Quality
With Quality Management, a voucher type with Create Quality Order ? raises its quality order when it is saved, as set up under Quality Order Creation in Voucher Manager - including, on an inward voucher, an inventory blocking voucher type that holds the received stock until the quality order is completed.
11How production shows in stock and cost #
A production voucher moves two ways at once. Its finished-goods lines are always receipts, whatever the voucher's own Movement Type says; its raw-material lines go out. The Movement Types RM Only, FG Only and Both RMFG exist for manufacturing voucher types that handle one side or both.
- Stock Register has its own Mfr column for production receipts: closing = opening + inward + Mfr - outward.
- Product Inward-Outward Analysis shows a production as its own receipt row for the finished good, beside the raw-material issue.
- Movement Analysis splits a manufacturing voucher type (or voucher group) into two column pairs, Production (made) and Raw Material (consumed), rather than adding kilograms of steel to units of product.
- A Production Order, Production Plan or quotation estimate has Affect Stock Register off - it records quantities but moves no stock. A Production Order keeps Movement Type Outward on purpose (the desktop offers the earliest-expiry lot for Outward) and is still treated as an order; with Warehouse Management its materials are picked ahead and staged for the posting made from it.
- The finished goods come in at the rate the cost of production gave them, so the stock value moves with the cost.
- Sundry Analysis shows each production voucher's charges, one column per sundry.
12Who sees what #
| What | Decided by |
|---|---|
| The Manufacturing Vouchers menu and its voucher types | The Advanced Manufacturing licence, then at least one right on the voucher type (User Manager, Vouchers tab), then the menu tick. Administrators see every licensed voucher type. |
| Operations, sources, suppliers, linked BOMs, inventory types, Mfr Operations | The Advanced Manufacturing licence. |
| The BOM master | The rights on the Material Composition (BOM) master object. |
| Loading a production order into a posting | The Linked Transactions licence and the voucher type's linked-transaction properties. |
| Quality orders | The Quality Management licence. |
| The items a BOM or voucher offers | Active Inventory items shared with your branch (branch visibility), and your product allocation where the preference restricts you. |
13Settings that change the module #
| Setting | Where | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Use Size columns (Height, Width etc.) in BOM Master | Manufacturing settings | The size columns on the BOM's grids. |
| Use Equipments in Manufacturing | Manufacturing settings | The Equipment button on BOM operations. |
| Mode of creation of related documents while saving Production Order | Manufacturing settings | Manual, Auto Immediate or Auto Recursive (see Production orders). |
| Auto Purchase Order / Auto Job Order / Auto Production Order Voucher Type | Manufacturing settings | The voucher types a production order raises. |
| Transaction Class for posting production journal | Manufacturing settings | The class an automatically raised production order uses. |
| Product Order To Posting Voucher Type | Manufacturing settings | The voucher type completed production orders are posted on. |
| Use BOM ? | Voucher Manager, per voucher type | The BOM bar and BOM Calculator on the voucher. |
| Is Allow Manufacturing Operations ? | Voucher Manager, per voucher type | Mfr Operations on the voucher (Advanced Manufacturing). |
| Allow Job-Order Creation ?, Job-Order Rate Option | Voucher Manager, per voucher type | The job-order window during save. |
| Action Against Neg./Zero Stock | Voucher Manager, per voucher type | Whether a run short of materials warns or is refused. |
| Closing Stock Valuation Method | Settings > Inventory Settings | How finished goods and materials in stock are valued. |
The Manufacturing settings are company settings of the Manufacturing group. There is no web page for them yet; ask whoever maintains the company's settings to change them.
14Reports to use #
| Question | Report (Reports > Inventory Reports) | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| What was made and what was used? | Movement Analysis / Movement Analysis - Voucher Group | Production and raw-material columns per manufacturing voucher type or group. |
| How did one item move, production included? | Product Inward-Outward Analysis | Every receipt and issue with a running balance. |
| What was produced into stock? | Stock Register | The Mfr column. |
| What did the charges come to? | Sundry Analysis | Charges voucher by voucher. |
| What is in stock now, and its value? | Stock Report | Closing stock, rate and value. |
| What did a voucher type produce, by item or party? | Analysis By Voucher reports, filtered to the production voucher type | Item-wise or party-wise totals. |
There is no separate production register, cost-of-production or variance report on the web yet. Manufacture Analysis in the Transaction Analysis reports is sales by make (brand) - it is not a production report.
15Moving from the desktop #
The web uses the same company database: the same BOMs, voucher types, settings and stock. Not on the web yet:
- The Work Order Manager and its consumption, receipt and completion of work orders.
- The operations, work-centre and equipment masters, and creating an operation, a supplier ledger or equipment from the BOM's pick-lists (they say "coming soon").
- A page for the Manufacturing settings.
- The BOM Calculator's not-using-BOM-master mode, sundry import, operations and semi-finished import, and cost-per-unit split.
- On the voucher's Mfr Operations: man and machine allocation, the semi-finished and material-usage windows, sub-operations, costing reports and Excel import.
- Production reports.
16If something does not work #
For anything on one screen, open that screen's Help panel - it lists every message it can show, with the fix.
| You see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "BOM name is required." | The BOM has no name. | Type the BOM Name. |
| "Add at least one finished-goods item." | A BOM must make something. | Add the finished goods. |
| "Operations consume ... but the Raw-Material grid quantity is only ... Adjust the Material Usage quantities." | The routing uses more of a material than the BOM lists. | Correct the Material Usage quantities or the raw material. |
| A product, stock group or unit is missing from a BOM list | Only active Inventory items, and only the item's own stock groups and units, are listed. | Fix the item, or use Refresh Lists after changing a master elsewhere. |
| "Please select a BOM first." | Add was pressed with no BOM chosen. | Pick the BOM, then Add. |
| "... Skipped ... finished-goods row(s)" ... "voucher is not a Manufacturing type." | The voucher type is not in the Mfr category. | Use a production voucher type. |
| "No finished goods to proportionate over. Add at least one finished-goods row first." | Nothing on the Finished Goods tab. | Add the finished goods first. |
| "Cost of production is ..." ... "nothing to distribute." | No raw materials or charges. | Add the raw materials and charges. |
| "Select a finished-goods row first, then click Edit Qty." | No row selected. | Click the row, then Edit Qty. |
| "Save cancelled" ... "job-order dialog dismissed." | The job-order window was closed during the save. | Save again and fill the window. |
| No manufacturing voucher types in the list | Advanced Manufacturing is not licensed, or you hold no right on them. | Ask your vendor or administrator. |
| No Operations card or Source column on the BOM | Advanced Manufacturing is not licensed. | Ask your vendor. |
| A production order raised no purchase or job orders | The mode is Manual, the materials' Source is Stock or None, the order requires nothing, or it was an existing order being altered. | Check the Manufacturing settings and the BOM's Source column. |
Last revised 2026-10-03. Menu names are those of InvoiceNET® ERP; what you see depends on the modules of your licence.
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