Initial setup

The first time you open Assemblified, the home page shows a setup guide with five steps and a progress bar, already open. Once you have made a start it folds away behind a Finish setup pill under the search field, which carries the running count and expands the guide inline again when you click it. Nothing is blocked while you work through it: the rest of the app is available from the moment the app is installed, and every step links to the page where that task belongs.

Two of the five steps are settings work — a default location, and a set of shop-level choices that drive how every BOM executionBOM executionEverything Assemblified does when a Shopify order containing a bill-bound variant is created, edited, cancelled or refunded: draw down pre-assembled stock, deduct or restore components, push the changes to Shopify, and cascade dynamic adjustment. It runs in the background, writing one execution log row. Read more → behaves. This page covers both, plus what each choice changes. All of them are reversible from Settings → General at any time.

On this page

• The five setup steps
• Finding your way around Settings
• Default location
• Multiple locations
• Location-sensitive dynamic adjustments
• Returns handling (refunds and cancellations)
• Negative inventory
• When setup is complete

The five setup steps

#	Step	Where you complete it
1	Set your default location	On the home page, in the step itself
2	Review your sync preferences	Settings → General
3	Create your first bill of materials	Bill of Materials
4	Link a bill of materials to a product	Bill of Materials
5	Add your raw materials	Raw Materials

Steps tick themselves once Assemblified can see the work is done — there is no “mark as complete”. Steps 3 to 5 are walked through in Build your first BOM; the rest of this page is step 1 and step 2.

Nothing is preselected for you while there is a choice to make: the default location applies only when you choose it and press Save location. A shop with a single Shopify location is offered that location as the answer, and still confirms it with Save location.

Finding your way around Settings

Settings is not one long page. It is a sidebar of separate pages in five groups, and every “Settings → X” instruction in these docs names one of them:

Group	What lives there
Store	General, Company, Shopify Printing, Localization
Catalogues	Additional costs, Units, Tags, Metafields, Work orders, Assignees, Bill versions
Connections	Integrations, API & agent access, Multi-store
Tools	Import templates, Historical Orders, Inventory Health, Reservation backfill, Reporting
Account	Billing, Help

Everything on this page is under Settings → General, the first entry in the first group.

Default location

Pick the Shopify location Assemblified should treat as its anchor. Even a shop with one location has to choose it once, on the setup guide’s first step or on Settings → General.

• What it does. Sets the fallback location used whenever a more specific one isn’t available.
• Default. None — until you choose one, Assemblified has nowhere to write inventory adjustments.

Execution impact.

• When an order or fulfillment event lacks an explicit location, the default locationDefault locationThe Shopify location Assemblified falls back to when an order or fulfillment webhook doesn't carry a more specific location. Inventory adjustments, dynamic recalculations, and per-location records all use this as their anchor. Read more → receives the inventory adjustment in Shopify.
• When multi-location modeMulti-location modeA shop-level setting that lets Assemblified prefer the location carried by the incoming order or fulfillment event. When off, every adjustment targets the default location regardless of payload. Read more → is off, every adjustment targets this location regardless of what the event carries.
• Dynamic BOMBill of MaterialsA bill of materials tells Assemblified how to build one unit of a finished good. When a customer orders the finished-good variant, Assemblified deducts the right component quantities from inventory automatically. Read more → recalculation reads from this location as a single shared inventory pool unless you also turn on location-sensitive dynamic adjustments.
• Per-location residual rounding for raw materialsRaw materialThe atomic component of a bill of materials or an assembly bill. Two flavours: a Shopify-linked variant, whose inventory Shopify tracks, or a virtual material, which Assemblified tracks on its own and Shopify never sees. Both sit in the same component picker and are consumed the same way. Read more → uses this location for any record that wasn’t created against a more specific one.

Use it for. Every shop. Assemblified treats it as required; without it, BOM execution can’t sync inventory back to Shopify.

Multiple locations

Under Settings → General → Multi-location sensitive adjustments, the switch Respect order and fulfillment locations when available. Tell Assemblified whether your shop fulfills from more than one inventory location.

• What it does. When on, BOM execution prefers the location carried by the incoming order or fulfillment event over the default. When off, every event targets the default location.
• Default. Off (single-location mode).

Execution impact.

• On. Assemblified reads the location from the incoming event and applies the adjustment there. Raw materialRaw materialThe atomic component of a bill of materials or an assembly bill. Two flavours: a Shopify-linked variant, whose inventory Shopify tracks, or a virtual material, which Assemblified tracks on its own and Shopify never sees. Both sit in the same component picker and are consumed the same way. Read more → availability checks become location-aware too — a material is “available” only at the location the event names. If no location is available, it falls back to the default.
• Off. Faster, simpler. Assemblified skips the per-event lookup and treats all inventory as one pool anchored on the default location.

Caution

Shopify often only exposes the final fulfillment location when the order is fulfilled, not when it is created. Turning multi-location mode on can therefore shift the moment of inventory reduction from order-payment time to fulfillment time. If you need the deduction to happen at checkout, keep this off or pre-assign locations on order creation.

Use it for. Shops that ship from multiple warehouses, retail stores that double as fulfillment points, or any setup where stock isn’t physically shared across locations. Single-warehouse shops should leave it off.

This setting also unlocks location rules, which let a single BOM use a different recipe, or stop being fulfilled at all, at one location.

Location-sensitive dynamic adjustments

The switch Use location-sensitive dynamic BOM recalculation, in the same section and greyed out until multi-location mode is on. It decides how dynamic BOM recalculation handles multiple locations.

• What it does. When on, dynamic adjustmentDynamic adjustmentA per-bill toggle that recalculates the bill's Shopify-displayed quantity after every order: the bottleneck-resource count plus pre-assembled stock. One of three mutually exclusive toggles — switching it on switches only-sell-pre-assembled and maintain inventory level off. Read more → recalculates per location using that location’s specific inventory. When off, it uses a single shared default-location pool even though multi-location mode is otherwise active.
• Default. Off.

Execution impact.

• On. Dynamic recalculation reads inventory at the event location and computes “how many BOMs can we build here?” Different locations can show different sellable quantities for the same BOM.
• Off. Dynamic recalculation always reads from the default location, even when other adjustments use the event location. This is useful when locations share the same physical stock, or when you want one global “how many can we build” number across all of them.

Use it for. Multi-location shops whose locations don’t share inventory (separate warehouses, regional fulfillment hubs). Skip it if your locations all draw from the same physical stock — the global pool gives a more accurate buildable number than any single location would.

See Dynamic adjustment for the full formula and worked examples.

Returns handling

Under Settings → General → Inventory sync. Two independent switches, one for refunds and one for cancellations. Each decides whether the corresponding event reverses the raw-material consumption that the original order triggered.

Both are worded as opt-outs, so leaving them off is what restores materials:

• Disable refunds sync to inventory — off (the default) means a refund reverses the components back into inventory. On means a refund leaves them consumed.
• Disable cancelled orders sync to inventory — off (the default) means a cancellation returns the components. On means it leaves them consumed.

Each switch restates its own effect underneath itself as you flip it, so you never have to reason about the double negative on screen.

• Default. Both off, so both restore.

Execution impact.

• When restoration is on for an event type, Assemblified reverses every component change the original execution made — Shopify-linked materials, virtual materials, and any cascading sub-assemblySub-assemblyA reusable assembly block that composes into bigger bills: define it once, include it in any bill of materials, and Assemblified expands it into its own components at execution time. The app now calls it an assembly bill. Read more → consumption.
• When restoration is off, the original consumption stays put. The order’s executions still log; the inventory just doesn’t roll back.
• These choices only govern reversal. Whether materials are consumed at order creation or order edit time is a separate setting.

Common patterns (written as “restoration on/off”, which is the opposite of how the switches read):

• Both restoring (typical). A returned customer order should look like it never happened — materials come back, you re-sell them.
• Refunds restoring, cancellations not. Treat cancellations as scrapped, donated, or otherwise written off; a refund is still a real return of unsold goods. Turn Disable cancelled orders sync to inventory on.
• Neither restoring. Manual inventory reconciliation lives elsewhere (spreadsheets, ERP, accountant). Assemblified records what was executed and leaves restocking to a human.

See Refunds & cancellations for the per-BOM toggles that interact with this shop-level choice (notably “Keep assembled on return”).

Negative inventory

Under Settings → General → Inventory sync, the switch Allow negative inventory in Assemblified calculations. It decides whether Assemblified-managed quantities can drop below zero or stop at zero.

• What it does. When on, virtual raw materialsRaw materialThe atomic component of a bill of materials or an assembly bill. Two flavours: a Shopify-linked variant, whose inventory Shopify tracks, or a virtual material, which Assemblified tracks on its own and Shopify never sees. Both sit in the same component picker and are consumed the same way. Read more → , pre-assembled stockPre-Assembled InventoryStock of finished goods and assembly bills already built and on the shelf, counted per location. A work order draws assembly bills from the shelf first, building fresh only if it runs short; an order consumes a finished good's shelf before its components. Read more → , and dynamic capacity calculations can carry negative values. When off, those values clamp at 0.
• Default. Clamp to zero.

Execution impact.

• Allow negativeAllow negative inventoryA shop-level setting that decides whether Assemblified-managed quantities — virtual raw materials, pre-assembled stock, dynamic capacity — can stay below zero, or get clamped at 0. Read more → . A virtual material at -50 means you owe 50 units — useful for backorder visibility, debt tracking, or shops that record consumption faster than receipts. Pre-assembled stock can read -3 if three more units shipped than the shelf had recorded. Dynamic capacity can stay informative even when one component runs out.
• Clamp to zero. Quantities never display negative numbers. When a material reaches 0, Assemblified stops drawing from it; if a BOM execution would push it below zero, the draw is blocked or skipped depending on the surrounding rules.

Use it for.

• Allow negative suits manufacturers who pre-ship against inbound stock, or anyone who treats inventory like a running account that can be reconciled later.
• Clamp to zero is the safer default for storefront-facing shops — you only ever sell what’s actually on hand, and reports never show confusing negative numbers.

See Virtual materials and Pre-assembled inventory for the surfaces this setting affects.

Other shop-level preferences

• Currency. Choose the currency Assemblified displays costs and margins in under Settings → Localization.
• Auto-update on inventory change. The fourth switch on Settings → General → Inventory sync. When an inventory update arrives for a raw material Assemblified knows, it reruns dynamic BOM recalculation for the affected BOM variants.
• Order reservations. Track BOM materials as Shopify-reserved between routing and fulfillment, under Multi-location sensitive adjustments and available once multi-location mode is on. See Order reservations.

When setup is complete

Once all five steps are done, the setup guide collapses into a single Setup complete line showing the last order Assemblified processed and when it last confirmed its connection to Shopify. You can dismiss it for good at that point. The Finish setup pill is then replaced by the counts that need attention, such as low stock or failed executions, and the home page leads with search.

None of the choices above are one-way doors — change any of them from the Settings page at any time.

Where to next

• Home page — what the home page shows once setup is done, including the search field.
• Settings reference — the per-BOM toggles you’ll meet next, and how they interact with the shop-level choices made here.
• Refunds & cancellations — how the returns choices cascade through assembly bills and pre-assembled stock.