Subcontracting a build

A subcontracted build is one you don’t make yourself — a manufacturer makes it for you. Logistified tracks what you own at their location, both the materials you send or buy in there and the finished goods they produce, until you bring those finished goods into one of your own locations. Manufacturing orders are an Elevate plan feature.

Getting materials to the manufacturer

When you create a subcontracted build you answer a Materials question, and the answer names the route you’ll normally use:

Answer	What it means	The document you’d raise
Already at the manufacturer	They’re on the manufacturer’s shelf, or you buy them in from a supplier who delivers straight to the manufacturer.	A purchase order delivered to the manufacturer.
From my stock	You ship your own inventory out to them.	A transfer order addressed to that supplier, which they receive and hold as stock that’s still yours.

Either way, the materials end up counted as supplier-held stock: goods you own that physically sit at the manufacturer. The supplier stock releases overview explains that balance in general.

The answer is a default, not a rule. From the build card’s Allocate materials action a subcontracted build can raise either document whenever it needs to — a purchase order to the manufacturer, or a transfer out of one of your locations. Releasing supplier-held stock isn’t offered on a subcontracted build: the materials need to reach the manufacturer, not come home.

Sending the production order

Once the plan is right, Send to manufacturer emails the build its own production document — a PDF, XLSX or CSV — to the manufacturer’s contact. It’s offered only on a subcontracted build with a manufacturer assigned, and the first send moves the order from Draft to In Progress. A production document never shows a price.

Full detail, including resending, the email history and rolling a mistaken send back to Draft, is on Documents, exports & manufacturer email.

Recording production

When the manufacturer tells you units are finished, select Record production on the build card and enter how many units they built.

Unlike an internal build — where inventory is tracked in whole units and fractional material draws get rounded — a subcontracted build accepts exact quantities. 2.5 kg of foam is submitted as 2.5. The material figures are pre-filled from units times per-unit quantity, and you can correct them to whatever was actually used.

Recording production does two things in one step:

Draws down the materials the build consumed from what the manufacturer is holding for you.
Credits the finished units back onto the manufacturer’s shelf, as stock you now own at their location.

If there isn’t enough of a material at the manufacturer to cover the draw, the submission is refused with the shortfall named per item and nothing is written.

Recorded entries are listed on the build’s Materials tab, each with a Reverse action. Reversing writes a paired, opposite entry that undoes the draw-down and the credit together, so the history stays a full record rather than an edited one. An entry that has already been reversed can’t be reversed twice.

Tracking a work order

If the manufacturer also uses Assemblified, Track a work order on the build card’s Build menu links their work order so you can see its status here. A build can track more than one.

Getting finished goods back

Finished units credited at the manufacturer aren’t in one of your locations yet. Distribute finished goods opens the Release finished goods dialog, which creates a supplier stock release for the units the manufacturer has built and is still holding, addressed to a destination location you pick, and links it to the build.

Quantities pre-fill with what’s been built but not yet sent or received, so running it again after a partial release suggests exactly the remainder. The release then behaves like any other — see Supplier stock releases for shipping and receiving it.

A build only counts units as distributed once the release has been received. Units on their way show separately as in transit.

What this does to your Shopify inventory

Nothing, until the goods land in one of your locations.

Materials shipped out on a transfer order to the manufacturer leave your location’s stock and become supplier-held; buying them in on a purchase order delivered to the manufacturer never touches a location at all. Recording production moves quantities between two supplier-held balances at that manufacturer. Only when you receive the supplier stock release does stock arrive in a Shopify location.