Kits

An Odoo Manufacturing kit is a type of bill of materials (BoM) used to sell a set of unassembled components as one product. Kits suit businesses that bundle items, such as a gift set or a product with cables and accessories, without running them through a full manufacturing process.

What a kit does

Odoo breaks a kit down into its components at the point of delivery rather than assembling it beforehand. This keeps inventory control and traceability at the component level, and kits can also be nested inside more complex, multi-level BoMs to organise sub-assemblies. Kits do not need work orders unless they form part of a larger BoM. To use kits, both the Manufacturing and Inventory apps must be installed.

Before you start: create the kit as a product

1. Go to Inventory app > Products > Products and click New.
2. Name the product, and under the General Information tab set the Product Type to Goods.
3. Tick Track Inventory if the kit itself needs stock tracking, or leave it unticked if not.
4. Configure each component as its own product via Inventory app > Products > Products. Components need no special configuration.

Tracked or untracked: which to choose

Leaving the kit untracked suits businesses that expense costs on purchase, since reordering and replenishment happen at component level. Tracking the kit’s inventory suits businesses that need to record cost of goods sold at the kit level, though serial numbers still only track the shipped components, not the kit itself. Either way, stock adjustments cannot be made at kit level, the stock value is unaffected by the tracking choice, and an internal transfer of a kit breaks it into its components.

How to set up the kit BoM

1. Go to Manufacturing app > Products > Bills of Materials and click New.
2. Select the kit product in the Product field.
3. Set BoM Type to Kit.
4. Under the Components tab, click Add a line for each component and set the Quantity.
5. Click Save.

If the kit is only sold as a product, only the Components tab needs completing; no manufacturing operations are required. On a quotation or sales order the kit appears as a single line, but each component is listed separately on the delivery order.

Using kits for complex BoMs

Kits can also nest inside other BoMs to manage complex, multi-level products, with each procurement and production step defined separately. This improves traceability for sub-assemblies and semi-finished items.