Folio/Combo Item are used to build products in your business from Inventory Items. The accounting method you use to track Inventory and Combo Items is an important decision you make with your accountant so before proceeding ensure you know and understand what method you want to use.

Combo Items are normally finished goods that are made up of other Inventory Items. We will use an example to illustrate how you can use this feature. Suppose that we sell a computer package that is made up of a CPU, Motherboard, and two hard disk drives. All of the items making up the computer package are Inventory Items. Here’s how you would setup a Combo Item

Example

Step 1 - Setup Inventory Items

Setup the Inventory Items making up the Combo Item if you haven’t already done this then see the help item for the inventory Items. You create one Inventory Item for CPU, one for motherboard, one for hard-disk drive.

Step 2 - Setup Combo Items

1. Click on the add icon adjacent to Folio/Combo in the Main Menu. The Folio/Combo Item screen will appear.
2. Enter a Code and Description for the Folio/Combo Item. If you are moving from another accounting package you may wish to use the same code structure else think carefully about your new structure. There are many websites and books that can provide information on name conventions for inventory.
3. Setup the Folio/Combo Item. On the Items to build section, you will enter:
   • 1 x CPU
   • 1 x Motherboard
   • 2 x Hard Disk Drive
4. Select an Asset Account. For example “Asset:Stock at hand”
5. Under the ‘I buy this item’ section:
   1. select the appropriate Purchase Tax Code you will use.
   2. enter a minimum quantity for restocking alert
   3. select a default primary supplier and their item code (if you wish to track this)
6. Under the ‘I sell this item’ section:
   1. enter your Recommended Retail Price (RRP) including any tax
   2. select an Income Account where sales income will be booked to e.g. “Income: PC Sales”
   3. select a tax code that you will use when selling this Combo Item.
   4. select a cost of sales Account. e.g. “Cost of Sales: Desktop Computers”
7. Click Save or Save and Close to complete the setup of a Combo Item

Step 3 - Build Combo Items

Assume that:

• you don’t have any stock for the computer package.
• You have enough spare parts to build two units of that computer package

To sell this computer package, you will need to build it first. To build two units of this computer package:

1. Open the Folio/Combo Item.
2. On top of the ‘items to build’ section, enter 2, then click Build.
3. You will be taken to Item Transfer screen, which basically shows the movements of stocks required to build this Folio/Combo Item.
4. Click the Save and Close button and you should be taken back to the Combo Item screen.

You now have two units of the computer package on stock that can be sold.