The "Calc. Unit Price" feature for Assemble-to-Order (ATO) items in Business Central is designed to calculate the sales unit price of the ATO item based on the sum of its assembly components and resources.
How it works:
- Based on Assembly BOM: When you click "Calc. Unit Price," Business Central looks at the Assembly BOM (Bill of Materials) of the ATO item.
- Sums Component Costs: It sums up the "Unit Cost" of all the components (items) and resources listed in that Assembly BOM.
- Includes Overheads (if configured): If you have defined any overhead costs on the resources or work centers used in the assembly process, those can also be factored into the calculation.
- Updates Unit Price: The calculated total becomes the new "Unit Price" on the Item Card for that ATO item.
Why this feature exists (and why it's useful even if you can manually enter a Unit Price):
You can indeed manually enter the Unit Price on an item card. However, for Assemble-to-Order items, the "Calc. Unit Price" feature serves a specific and crucial purpose:
- Cost-Plus Pricing for ATO: Many businesses that sell ATO items want to price them based on their underlying cost. Since ATO items are assembled after a sales order is placed, their "cost" isn't a simple purchase price. It's the aggregate cost of their components and assembly resources.
- Dynamic Pricing: Component costs can change. Manually updating the sales price every time a component cost fluctuates is tedious and prone to error. "Calc. Unit Price" automates this, ensuring your sales price reflects the latest component costs.
- Ensuring Profitability: By basing the sales price directly on the assembly cost, it helps ensure that you are covering your material and assembly expenses, allowing you to easily apply a desired margin on top of that calculated cost.
- Consistency: It ensures consistency in pricing across all ATO items that follow a cost-plus model.
- Flexibility (Override): You can still manually override the calculated unit price if needed, for strategic pricing, promotions, or market adjustments. The "Calc. Unit Price" just provides a quick, cost-driven baseline.
In short: "Calc. Unit Price" for Assemble-to-Order items automatically calculates the sales price by summing the costs of its assembly components and resources, providing a dynamic, cost-plus pricing method to ensure profitability and consistency, even though you can manually set the price.
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