What is a composite item and when do I use it?
A composite item is an item that you build up from other items, the components. You mainly use it to have the cost price of something you put together yourself calculated automatically from the cost price of the components. If the price of a component changes, Robaws adjusts the cost price of the composite item itself.
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When do you use a composite item?
Use a composite item if you sell something that consists of different components, but that you charge, order and keep in stock as one whole. For example a cabinet that you assemble yourself and keep ready in stock, or a fixed set that you always deliver together.
On a quotation, a supply order and in your stock, the composite item is one line. You do not order the components with it and they do not leave your stock separately.
Do you want to see the components in your quotation separately, order them and follow them up in the recalculation? Then use a post. You can read the difference in What is the difference between a composite item and a post?
Example: a prewired fuse box
You purchase a cabinet, circuit breakers, two residual current devices and busbars, wire the cabinet in your workshop and keep it ready in stock. You sell the cabinet as one item. The cost price is the sum of the components plus half an hour of work.
If the price of the fuses goes up at your supplier, the cost price of the cabinet goes up with it. With the Margin on costprice sale price strategy, your sale price follows as well.
Creating a composite item
- Switch on Gebruik samengestelde artikelen in the item settings. You then get the Composite item block on the item file.
- Create a new item, give it a name and a unit.
- In the Composite item block, add the components with their quantity. A component is usually an existing item, but you can also add a line without an item, with a description and a cost price.
- Choose the Composite items cost price cost price strategy. Robaws adds up the cost price of the components.
- Choose the Margin on costprice sale price strategy and fill in your margin, or choose Fixed price and fill in your price.
In a quotation
By default, the composite item is one line on your quotation, with its own price. There are two ways to show the components anyway:
How | What happens |
|---|---|
Composite cost type on the item file | In a calculated quotation, the item gets its components as a substructure. Those components then count in your calculation and in Quick order. |
Use composite items as extra lines quotation setting | In a simple quotation, Robaws puts the components as separate lines below the item, each with its own price. They get the default quantity of the component, not the quantity from the composition: so check the quantities. |
Updated on: 05/11/2026
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