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Version: v1.0.0

Production Orders

A production order subcontracts the full manufacture of a product. You place the order with a manufacturer, Pharus explodes the product's bill of materials down to raw materials, and the finished goods come back fully costed — the per-unit production cost plus the cost of the materials consumed.

What problem it solves

A production order is for off-site manufacturing where you care about the landed cost of the product, not just the labor. It captures an explicit production cost per unit, draws material cost from the consumed inputs at receipt time, and stamps the finished goods with the combined figure so finished-goods inventory carries an accurate valuation.

Lifecycle

The states mirror a work order: Draft is inert, Entered commits, Production allocates the materials, Received / Completed close it out, and Cancelled reverses everything.

Fields, line items, and receipts

  • HeaderprodNumber, the production location, expected delivery date, notes.
  • Output items — the products to manufacture, each with a quantity and a per-unit productionCost. The production cost may be left open at first but must be set before you can receive.
  • Inputs — the BOM exploded all the way to raw materials only; component SKUs are flattened into their underlying materials.
  • Receipts — each delivery of finished product back, with its own date and lines.

Inventory effects

WhenLedgerEvent
Entered (and beyond)finished goods, per outputORDER on the products being made
Entered (and beyond)materials, per inputDEMAND on the materials
Production (and beyond)materialsALLOCATE on the materials
Receipt createdmaterialsCONSUME the materials, at weighted-average cost
Receipt createdfinished goodsPRODUCE the products, at material cost + production cost

The receipt is where costing happens: consumed materials are valued at their weighted-average cost, and that per-unit material cost is added to the order's production cost to value each finished unit. Every entry carries the production-order number as its ref.

Work orders vs. production orders

Work orderProduction order
You're paying forConversion / laborThe whole manufactured product
InputsMaterials and component products (BOM one level deep)Raw materials only (BOM fully exploded)
Output costConversion cost onlyProduction cost + consumed material cost
Finished-goods valuationLabor portionFully landed cost
Reach for it whenYou own the materials and just need them assembledYou want a turnkey product costed end to end

Both share the same lifecycle and both write ORDER → DEMAND → ALLOCATE → CONSUME → PRODUCE. The distinction is what counts as an input and how the finished good is valued.

Relationships

See also

Drive production orders through the REST API or the MCP server.