Bill of Materials (BOMs)¶

Loupe Factory helps sales, production, and finance teams create order-ready Bills of Materials directly from a sales order or an order line.

Use a BOM when your team needs a controlled record of the materials, services, charges, rates, quantities, selling amounts, and notes behind an order. Instead of rebuilding spreadsheets for each customer request, you can start from the order, pull in the right inventory or production context, add cost rows, review the totals, and download a PDF formatted for the job at hand.

When to Use a BOM¶

Create a BOM when you need to:

estimate the cost and expected selling value of an order line
prepare a customer-safe quote
give production teams the materials, lots, stages, and work context they need
compare planned cost with actual production cost
support invoice preparation with selling-only rows
keep an internal costing record with full margin and audit detail

For manufacturers and wholesalers, this is especially useful when order pricing depends on changing material rates, selected inventory, production stages, service charges, freight, duties, packaging, overhead, or customer-specific requirements.

Create a BOM for an Order¶

To create a BOM:

Open the sales order that needs costing or review.
Open Create BOM from the order or from the relevant order line.
Choose the BOM type that matches the purpose of the document.
Link the BOM to the correct order line, especially when the order contains multiple products or customer requirements.
Review the order, inventory, and production context Loupe Factory brings into the modal.
Add BOM rows from saved cost components, component rate profiles, production stages, or manual entries.
Check quantities, units, rate basis, currency, exchange rate, effective date, costing method, cost, markup or margin, sell amount, and notes where they apply to the selected BOM type.
Review the final BOM summary.
Save the BOM, then download the PDF when you need a shareable document.

Tip

Start from the most specific order line available. This helps the BOM use the right customer requirement, inventory selection, production job, and quantity context from the beginning.

Add BOM Rows¶

BOM rows can come from several sources. Choose the source that best matches how your team controls that cost.

Row source	Use it for	What to check before saving
Saved cost components	Materials, labor, packaging, freight, duties, service charges, or overhead already attached to inventory.	Confirm the component quantity, unit, cost, and linked inventory are still correct for the order line.
Component rate profiles	Reusable rates such as metal rates, supplier rates, internal price sheets, labor rates, or service rates.	Confirm the rate basis, currency, rate value, effective date, and whether the rate should stay locked.
Production stages or jobs	Work tied to a production stage, job, or actual manufacturing outcome.	Confirm the stage, job, actual quantity, waste, scrap, rejection, and cost context where available.
Manual entries	One-time charges, adjustments, customer-specific fees, or costs that are not yet saved as reusable records.	Use a clear description and notes so another team member can understand why the row was added.

Choose the Right BOM Type¶

Each BOM type is formatted for a different workflow. Select the type based on who will use the document and what information they should see.

BOM type	Use it when	Review view	Generated PDF
Estimate	Your team needs an internal estimate before final pricing or production planning.	Shows component, type, source, description, quantity, unit, rate basis, rate currency, rate, exchange rate, costing method, locked cost, cost, markup or margin, sell total, effective date, and internal notes.	Shareable estimate view. Hides cost, markup, margin, source, exchange rate, and internal notes.
Quote	You need a customer-safe quote based on selected BOM rows.	Shows customer-visible rows only, including component or category, customer-safe description, quantity, unit, external notes, sell amount, currency, and quote subtotal.	Uses the same customer-facing view. Hides cost, locked cost, rate source, source reference, inventory tags or locations, rate currency, exchange rate, costing method, markup, margin, internal notes, visibility controls, and invoice controls.
Production	Production teams need execution details for the order line.	Shows component, type, description or work instruction, quantity, unit, source inventory or lot, production stage or job, effective date, internal notes, and related inventory.	Uses the same production execution view. Hides sell total, markup, margin, customer visibility controls, invoice controls, and external notes.
Actual Cost	Finance or operations needs to review actual production cost after work is completed or updated.	Shows component, type, source, production job, actual quantity, unit, actual cost, waste, scrap, or rejection context when available, effective date, internal notes, and cost total.	Uses the same actual-cost view. Hides customer-facing sell fields, external notes, visibility controls, and invoice controls. Sell data may remain available for margin analysis, but it is not shown in the primary actual-cost document.
Invoice	Finance needs rows that should be included on or support an invoice.	Shows invoice-included rows only, including component or product description, quantity, unit, external notes, sell amount, currency, and invoice subtotal.	Uses the same invoice disclosure view. Hides cost, locked cost, source rate, rate currency, exchange rate, costing method, markup, margin, internal notes, source references, and inventory location or rack details.
Internal Costing	Your team needs the full internal audit view for pricing, margin, sourcing, or operational review.	Shows source, component, description, quantity, unit, rate currency, rate, exchange rate, costing method, locked cost, cost, markup, margin, sell, effective date, internal notes, external notes, customer visibility controls, and invoice controls.	Uses the same full internal audit view. This BOM type is not customer-facing by default.

Check the BOM type before downloading

Customer-facing PDFs hide sensitive cost, margin, sourcing, exchange rate, inventory location, and internal note details. Internal BOMs keep the full costing and operational trail for teams that need it.

Review a Saved BOM¶

Use the BOM Summary modal to review a saved BOM without rebuilding it.

The summary gives your team a read-only view of:

the linked order and order line
the BOM type and purpose
related inventory, lots, or production context
notes and effective dates
totals, currency, and subtotals
row-level quantities, units, costs, selling amounts, and descriptions allowed by the selected BOM type

This helps sales, production, and finance work from the same controlled record. Sales can confirm the customer-facing amount, production can confirm the materials and work context, and finance can review totals without asking teams to rebuild the calculation in a spreadsheet.

Recommended Workflow¶

For best results:

Create or review the sales order first.
Open the BOM from the order line that needs costing.
Choose the BOM type based on the audience and purpose.
Pull in saved cost components and rate profiles where possible.
Add production or manual rows only when they represent real work or charges.
Use internal notes for team context and external notes only for customer-safe information.
Review the BOM Summary before downloading the PDF.
Keep customer-facing BOMs limited to the details customers should see.

Next Steps¶

Order Management: Create and manage the sales orders that BOMs are created from.
Cost Components: Break inventory value into materials, services, charges, rates, and quantities that can support BOM costing.
Component Rate Profiles: Store reusable rates before applying them to BOM rows or inventory cost components.
Production Tracking: Track production jobs, stages, waste, scrap, and actual output connected to an order.
Invoicing: Generate invoices after the commercial order details are ready for billing.