Tired of rounding? The rounding this article is about belongs to the old catalog experience. The new experience supports up to 10 decimal places for quantity and currency fields, reducing rounding error; repeating fractions still require approximation and can affect calculated bundle availability. Decimal display preferences are set under Settings › Inventory. See Enhanced Decimal Place Support. Read on if you are still on the old experience, or if you want to understand why the rounding mattered.
Deciding how to set up a Bundle can be tough, and many factors must be considered. Which product should you make the Bundle? And which product should the Bundle ultimately pull from?
Most of the time, companies order cases (or units of purchase) from their vendors. Then, using Bundles, they’ll break the case into single items to sell to customers.
But the reverse could also work, where you’re ordering the single units from your vendor and using Bundles to sell cases.
Each setup is possible but depends on your business’s needs.
Glossary
Before we get too far, let’s define some terms to make sure we’re on the same page:
Bundle - the sellable product made up of a single or multiple components.
Component(s) - the products that make up a Bundle. Components can be Active or Inactive and can be made partial or whole units.
Singles - individual units of a case.
Case - a group of singles that are purchased from a vendor, or arrive at your store as a singular unit.
To keep this article simple, we will assume that your Bundles have just one component (either the single item or the case).
The typical setup we see is a business ordering cases from their vendors and selling single items to customers using Bundles.
This is perfect for utilizing purchase orders and allows you to easily enter the exact number of cases you have received into Thrive for accurate cost tracking.
On the other hand, the old editor accepts up to 3 decimal places for a component quantity, which can frustrate customers if the case quantity used can not be divided evenly into the singles.
Next, we’ll dive into a real-life example to illustrate this point.
Example of the single unit as the Bundle
Let’s say you receive 1 case with 24 single sodas. You can sell the case of 24 sodas as a whole, or you can break down the case and sell single sodas individually.
To sell single sodas from the case, make the Bundle the soda, and the component 1/24th of the case. 1/24th of the case rounds to 0.04166666666. You can round to either 0.042 or 0.041, but this can lead to differences in the total single quantity.
For example, if you round the component to 0.042, then 0.042 x 24 singles = 1.008 cases or 23 bottles. There will be 23 sodas in stock since you received 1 case, not 1.008.
Alternatively, you can enter 1 soda as 0.041 of the case. 0.041 x 24 singles = 0.984 cases or 24 bottles.
On the old experience, if the number of units in a case does not divide within 3 decimal places, the total amount of singles will not be 100% accurate. High volume will exacerbate errors.
Example of the case as the Bundle
Now let’s say you do the opposite setup, and use the case as the Bundle and singles as the component. 24 singles will always be divided evenly into the 24-count case.
However, with this method, there are nuances to be aware of for cost.
Let’s say you purchase a 24-pack of soda at $8.18. The single soda lot cost is calculated as $8.18 / 24 = $0.3408333333 for each single. Costs are held to up to ten decimal places, so the single is not cut back to $0.34.
The cost of the case is calculated back from the components: 24 × $0.3408333333 = $8.1799999992, which rounds to the $8.18 you paid at two decimal places. This is the case cost the old Products list shows. On the new product page, Total Bundle Cost adds up the components' default costs instead, not their lot costs, plus any assembly cost. With a $0.30 default cost on the single and no assembly cost, that page shows $7.20 for the case. A figure you see on screen is rounded to the number of decimal places your account is set to. Increasing display precision does not restore digits already lost from older data.
Pros and Cons
Single as the Bundle & case as the component
Pros:
The case can be added to Purchase Orders. The PO cost can populate from the product's default cost, when one is set.
The case gets default and lot costs for accurate cost tracking/order history.
This process follows the typical business flow of ordering cases and selling singles.
Cons:
On the old experience, the 3-decimal-place limit on a component quantity can cause an error in the component and case quantity, unless the number divides evenly within those 3 places. The new experience supports up to 10 decimal places, reducing rounding error; repeating fractions still require approximation and can affect calculated bundle availability.
High volume exacerbates errors.
Case as the Bundle & single as the component
Pros:
Single quantity is always accurate.
An exact case count can be calculated from the single quantity.
Cons:
Potential for a small error in the calculated case cost: component costs are held to up to ten decimal places, so multiplying back up can land a fraction of a cent away from what you paid. Increasing display precision does not restore digits already lost from older data.
Bundle cases can still be received via Purchase Orders. For the ordered quantity received on a vendor PO, a nonzero calculated unit cost is divided among the units of a single component. Zero or missing cost, and bundles built from several different components, use component default costs instead; excess receipts follow separate rules.
Reporting on Bundles
The Product Sales Report will show the sale of the Bundle, not the Bundle's components.
The Vendor Sales Report will show the sale of the Bundle in regards to which vendor is assigned to the Bundle, and it will not show the sale of the components under the individual component's vendor(s).
The Inventory Change Report will show the change in quantities of the components. Choose only to show Bundles or filter them out using the "Filters" button.
The Inventory Report, will not show Bundles. Only a Bundle's tracked components will show, to ensure we aren't double-counting products in your inventory.
The Bundle Report can be used to see Bundle and Component information.
Features for components vs. Bundles
Features | Components | Bundles |
Can be added to Stocktakes | ✅ | ❌ |
Can be added to Purchase Orders | ✅ |  |
Can edit quantity, cost, PAR, and Re-order | ✅ | ❌ (Bundle amounts are based on the component) |
Can edit price | ✅ | ✅ |
Shown as a sale when the bundle is sold | ❌ | ✅ |
Shows on Inventory Report | ✅ | ❌ |
Shows on Inventory Change Report | ✅ | ✅
|
On the old experience, if you leave a bundle line's cost blank, the purchase order is still placed, with the line saved at $0.00. For the quantity you ordered, the components come in at their default costs. A bundle line with a cost follows the single- and multiple-component rules above.
Priorities / Conclusions
If easy re-ordering is the priority, make the case your component. And keep in mind, you can always adjust the components count directly if rounding it is causing major discrepancies in quantities — and on the new catalog experience you can enter up to 10 decimal places instead of 3.
If accurate quantities are the priority, make the single unit your component and the bundled case will pull complete quantities from the single quantities.
Keep in mind:
On the old experience, component quantities that need more than three decimal places will have errors in quantity.
Component costs support up to ten decimal places.