> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.spherecast.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Products, SKUs & BOMs

> Model your catalog and how finished goods are built, so the engine can explode BOMs into true component demand.

## What this page is for

A **product** is one **SKU** (Stock Keeping Unit) — a single item you buy, make, or sell. You model each product here so the engine knows its catalog details, and — for anything you assemble — the **recipe** used to build it.

That recipe is a **BOM** (Bill of Materials): the list of components that go into a finished good. BOMs are what let Spherecast turn demand for a finished product into demand for the parts underneath it.

## Key product fields

| Field                       | Plain meaning                                                                                      |
| --------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Title / SKU**             | The product name and its stock-keeping identifier.                                                 |
| **Category**                | The grouping it belongs to.                                                                        |
| **Price**                   | What you sell it for.                                                                              |
| **Cost (COGS)**             | Cost of Goods Sold — what it costs you.                                                            |
| **VAT**                     | Value-Added Tax percentage.                                                                        |
| **Units of measure**        | Stock unit, purchase unit, and consumption unit (for example, buy by the case, stock by the each). |
| **Flags**                   | Active, replenishable, forecasting enabled, and lot-tracked.                                       |
| **Predecessor / successor** | Links to the product this one replaces or is replaced by, for continuity across a changeover.      |

## What a BOM is

A BOM has a **produced product** (the finished good) and one or more **components** that go into it. There are two shapes:

* **Manufacturing BOM** — components are assembled or transformed into the produced product (a real build step).
* **Bundle** — products sold together but not transformed, such as a gift set.

### Net, Gross, and Yield

For each component, the app shows two quantities and a yield:

| Term          | Plain meaning                                                                         |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Net Qty**   | The theoretical amount of the component consumed if nothing were lost.                |
| **Yield %**   | How much of what you start with survives the process.                                 |
| **Gross Qty** | Net grossed up for scrap and yield loss — the amount you actually have to start with. |

A **Yield of 95%** means 5% is lost to scrap, so you must start with more than the net amount to end up with enough. Spherecast plans against **Gross**, so your component demand reflects real-world loss, not the theoretical minimum.

## Multi-level BOMs

A component can itself be a produced product with its own BOM — that is a **multi-level BOM**. For example, a finished good is built from a sub-assembly, and the sub-assembly is built from raw materials. Each product page shows both directions: **what it is built from** (its components) and **where it is consumed in** (the higher-level products that use it).

## Region- and supplier-specific BOMs

The same product can have **different recipes by region or by supplier** — for instance, a co-man in Europe uses a slightly different formulation than one in the US. You can model a BOM per region or per co-man so each build uses the right recipe.

BOMs that come from your ERP are **read-only** in Spherecast — you edit them in the ERP. BOMs created natively in Spherecast are **editable** here.

## Why it matters for planning

BOMs drive **work-order explosion**: when the engine plans a work order for a finished good, it explodes the BOM to calculate how much of each component that build consumes — grossed up for yield. Multi-level BOMs explode all the way down, so demand for raw materials reflects everything built above them. Without an accurate BOM, component demand is wrong and you either run short on parts or carry too much.

## Step by step: build a manufacturing BOM

1. Open the product that is the finished good.
2. Add a **Manufacturing BOM** with this product as the **produced product**.
3. Add each **component** and its **Net Qty**.
4. Set the **Yield %** per component so **Gross Qty** grosses up for scrap.
5. If a component is itself assembled, give it its own BOM to make the structure multi-level.
6. If the recipe differs by region or co-man, model a region- or supplier-specific BOM.

## Example

A gift box is a finished good built from a candle, a card, and packaging. The candle has a **95% yield**, so its **Net Qty** of 1 grosses up to a **Gross Qty** slightly above 1 to cover wax lost in pouring. When Spherecast plans 1,000 gift boxes, it explodes the BOM: it needs a bit more than 1,000 candles' worth of wax, exactly 1,000 cards, and 1,000 boxes of packaging — and it plans raw-material orders against those grossed-up numbers.

> **Tip:** ERP-synced BOMs are read-only here — fix a wrong recipe in your ERP, not in Spherecast. See [Raw-material planning](/guide/supply-planning/raw-material-planning), [Work orders](/guide/supply-planning/work-orders), and [General](/general).