Is it possible to do backorders while using Product Levels?

proawedan

Just as my title asks. Is it possible to do backorders? I couldn't get it to work. I want customers to be able to do backorders and still update inventory. Certain parts we have on hand, certain parts we get on a per order basis. I want to be able to track inventory we have on hand and include the costs of the parts we don't carry on the same BOM. Thanks!

Salva

Hi proawedan

If you have a product with linked BOMs, the only way to enable backorders on the final product is by enabling backorders on all its BOMs first. So all the BOMs tree must have backorders enabled.

Best Regards,
Salva.

proawedan

Thanks for letting me know. If it's possible to make a feature request so backorders on individual products are an option in the future, I would like that. Thanks!

Salva

Hi proawedan

Mmm. Please, note that we did this intentionally because, technically, it must work in that way to avoid problems with stock calculations.
You can have backorders on individual products but not if these are part of the BOM tree.

Let me describe an example:
If you have BOM stock control enabled, all the final products have their stock calculated by their BOMs, and multiple products can share the same BOMs (for example, product A and product B). So if you sell product A and its BOMs go to minus, how would we calculate the stock for their parent to reflect the backordered product?
And how we would calculate at that time the stock for product B that is sharing the BOMs with negative stock in this case and is not really backordered?

Best Regards,
Salva.

proawedan

I understand the concern, but backorders can be allowed at the Product Part level to solve any concerns on my end. That way only certain Product Parts can be backordered and others not. This would be perfect for me because we just have 2 Product Parts that are on BOMs that are custom made by a third party per order to the customer's specifications.

Salva

proawedan

Perhaps you can achieve that by sacrificing the BOM stock control functionality. If you disable it, the final product stock and the BOMs stock will be handled separately and you can set the backorders as needed.

Best Regards,
Salva.

proawedan

Yes, that's what I am doing now, but each time I sell the product, I need to manually update the the product part inventory as it impacts other items we sell.

Salva

proawedan

I don't understand that. No matter whether you have the BOM stock control enabled or not. The BOM products are always deducted when a final product is sold.
I guess you meant that you have to update the stock for all the rest of the products that are sharing the same BOMs (that is what the BOM stock control really does), right?

Best Regards,
Salva.

proawedan

I didn't know Product Parts within the BOM still where deducted if BOM stock control wasn't enabled. I assumed that the BOM stock controller button disabled all Product Part features. I understand now and that seems to be a viable solution. I will give it a shot and report back if I have any other issues. Thanks!

Salva

proawedan

Indeed. Makes no sense to use the Product Levels add-on if the plugin doesn't do adjustments to the linked BOMs (no matter the options selected).
The only difference with the BOM stock control is that the final product stock is calculated according to the BOMs' stocks. But the linked BOMs are always deducted on any purchase according to the configuration.

Best Regards,
Salva.

proawedan

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed to know. I appreciate the info!

Salva

proawedan

You're welcome 😉