Build Runs

A build runBuild RunOne cycle of assembly inside a work order: pick the materials, build the units, then complete (or cancel, or reverse). A work order can have many build runs over its life — each one moves a defined quantity of inventory and writes a row to the audit ledger. Read more → is one cycle of pickingPickThe first half of a build run: reserving the materials needed off the shelf and committing them to that run. After picking, the materials are no longer "available" inventory — they're earmarked for the build until you complete or cancel it. Read more → materials and completing the build. Every work order can have many build runs over its life. Each run identifies itself with a short ID like #BR-00042.

The Build Runs card on the General tab — every run, with status, dates, and items.

On this page

• The three execution modes
• Starting a build run
• The pick → complete cycle
• Cancel vs. reverse
• The inventory ledger
• Multi-item builds
• Round-consumption for fractional units
• Pre-pick warnings

The three execution modes

When you start a build run, you pick one of three modes. The mode decides how Assemblified sequences picking, completion, and QC.

Mode	Pick + complete	QC required?	Output produced
Pick (split)	Two-step: pick now, complete later in a separate action.	Optional.	At completion, immediately.
Pick & complete (Quick Complete)	One-shot: pick and complete in the same action.	Optional.	Immediately at the end of the action.
Pick, complete & QC (Build & QC)	One-shot: pick and complete in the same action.	Required.	Deferred — output only lands in pre-assembled stock once a QC review approves it.

A merchant guide that walks all three modes side-by-side lives at Quick, pick-first, and Build & QC flows.

Starting a build run

On the General tab, the Build runs card has a Start build run button. The dialog asks for:

• Items + quantities — pick one or more items and how many units of each you’ll build in this run. Quantities can total less than the items’ planned quantities; you can build incrementally over many runs.
• Mode — one of the three above.
• Production location — taken from the work order, but you can override per run if needed.

Before you submit, Assemblified previews the merged plan: how much of each material will be picked, from which locations. If any material would go into negative inventory, the dialog tiers the warnings (essential vs. optional materials) so you can decide whether to proceed. Negative inventory does not hard-block the run — you can pick anyway and reconcile later. See Pre-pick warnings below.

The Build Run Preview — review the inventory changes, then choose one of the three modes.

The pick → complete cycle

A build run goes through these states:

picking ─complete──> built ─reverse─> reversed
   │
   ├─cancel──> cancelled

• picking — the run has reserved (or “committed”) the materials but hasn’t consumed them yet. Materials are no longer “available” but still on the books locally. In Pick & complete and Build & QC modes, the run only stays in picking momentarily before transitioning to built.
• built — the materials have been consumed (committed → consumed in the ledger), and the produced units have either landed in pre-assembled stock (Pick + Pick & complete) or are awaiting QC (Build & QC).
• cancelled — you cancelled the pick before completing. Reserved materials go back to available stock; nothing is consumed; nothing is produced.
• reversed — you reversed a built run. Materials go back from consumed to available; produced output is rolled back; the work order’s completedQuantity for the run’s items drops.

You can’t transition out of built except by reversing. You can’t transition out of cancelled or reversed at all.

Cancel vs. reverse

Both undo a build run, but they target different states:

• Cancel is for an open picking run. The materials it reserved haven’t been consumed yet, so cancellation just releases them back into available stock. No consumption ever happened.
• Reverse is for a completed built run. The materials have been consumed, so reversal walks the ledger backwards: materials go from consumed back to committed, then from committed back to available. Produced output is rolled back. If the work order is completed and you reverse all its build runs, Assemblified auto-uncompletes it so totals stay consistent.

If you reverse a run that was synced to Shopify, the Shopify side is also reversed — the original decrement gets a compensating increment, and the completion-time output sync is rolled back. See Shopify sync for the full retry/compensation behaviour.

The inventory ledger

Every material movement on a work order writes a row to the inventory ledger. You don’t normally need to read it directly, but understanding the model helps when you’re debugging a discrepancy.

The “buckets” are:

• virtual_available — local-to-Assemblified inventory at virtual locations.
• preassembled_available — your pre-assembled inventoryPre-Assembled InventoryStock of finished sub-assemblies and BOM items that have already been built and are sitting on the shelf. When a work order needs a sub-assembly, it draws from pre-assembled inventory first and only builds fresh ones if the shelf comes up short. Read more → shelf.
• shopify_available — Shopify inventory (we don’t own a column here; the ledger row records the intent and a Shopify mutation is pushed alongside).
• committed — reserved by a picking run, not yet consumed.
• consumed — used up in a built run. Sink — once consumed, it’s gone.
• produced — newly built output sitting in pre-assembled stock. Source — once produced, it’s part of the shelf.

The “phases” are:

Phase	What moves where
pick	available → committed (per material).
complete	committed → consumed (inputs); null → produced (outputs).
cancel	committed → available (inputs only; no consumed, no produced).
reverse	Two-step: consumed → committed, then committed → available. Plus produced → null for outputs.
qc_approve	For Build & QC mode: null → produced for approved units after a QC review approves them.
qc_scrap	Reverses produced for scrapped units (only in non-deferred output modes).

Every row carries the quantity, source bucket, target bucket, phase, and a stamped unit cost — that last one is what the Actual cost figure SUMs to.

Multi-item builds

You can build several items in one run. Assemblified merges the per-item material plans:

• If two items both need raw material R from location L, the run picks the combined quantity in one go.
• The pick math correctly accounts for the per-item ratio so a partial run still satisfies the right portion of each item.
• After the run completes, each item’s completedQuantity increments by what was assigned to it.

Multi-item builds shine when the items share components — you avoid two trips to the shelf for the same material.

Round-consumption for fractional units

When a work order plans fractional quantities of a raw material — say, 1.5 cans of paint per unit — and you do many incremental builds, the picks would naturally be fractional too. For materials sold in whole units, that’s awkward.

The Materials tab has a per-row Round consumption toggle. With it on:

• Each pick rounds the consumed quantity up to the next whole unit.
• Across all picks on the work order, the last pick takes the residual so the total still equals the planned effectiveQuantity exactly.
• The cost is unchanged — Planned and Actual still agree once the work order is fully built.

Use it for raw materials sold in integer-only units (cases of beer, cans of paint, boxes of nails). Leave it off for materials priced and tracked per fractional unit (kg of flour).

Pre-pick warnings

If a build run’s pick would push a material into negative inventory, the dialog shows tiered warnings:

• Essential materials (raw materials and pre-assembled SAs the build can’t proceed without) are flagged red.
• Non-essential materials (e.g. virtual buffers) are flagged yellow.

You can still proceed — the warnings are informational, not gates. After the pick, a follow-up toast lists every material that actually went negative so you know what to reconcile. If you’re confident the inventory is wrong (untracked donation, stock found in a back room), proceed and adjust the inventory afterwards.

Related

• End-to-end flows guide — the three modes walked through with a worked example.
• Quality Control — what happens after a built run that needs review.
• Shopify sync — pick-time and completion-time pushes, plus retry behaviour.
• Glossary.