About Auto Manufacturing

Learn how to automate your workflows using our auto manufacture feature.


In this article:

About Auto Manufacturing

This feature is available in our INDIE+ plans.

The Auto manufacture feature allows you to automate the creation of your manufactures, based on the orders you receive. It is helpful for situations where products:

  1. Are not created in advance as a batch and
  2. Contain materials that do not change between manufactures and
  3. Do not require lengthy manufacturing stages (i.e. simple assemblies)

A simple example of auto manufacturing would be a charm bracelet in which customers select their desired charm from a list of available options. Since the finished product is only created when the order is received and only involves a relatively insignificant configuration time, this would be an ideal candidate for auto manufacturing.

Auto manufacturing can be configured at the account, product, or variation level.

The auto manufacturing flow can also additionally create any components involved in the product, and this can be configured for multi-level situations.

Automanufacture Rules

It's important to note that auto manufacturing will only occur for a product/variation ordered if:

  • It is switched on (via the account, parent product, or variation)
  • There is a recipe in place for the product ordered (for variations, the recipe needs to exist at either the variation level or the parent product level) and
  • The automanufacture stock level rule indicates that the manufacture should be created based on available product stock levels

If these conditions are met, a manufacture will be created for the quantity ordered, and will use the same date as the order.

By default, this manufacture will be created regardless of the product or variations in the stock levels that are currently available. This can be further configured via your automanufacture stock level rule configurations.

By default, the manufacture will be created with a production status of Not Started. For eligible plans, this default status can be optionally changed See Configuring the default production status for automanufactures for more details.

Note: If the order eligible for auto manufacturing is later canceled, the generated manufacture will be removed automatically if the auto removal feature is enabled.

Enabling Auto Manufacturing

To enable auto manufacturing:

  1. Go to your  Account Settings. (How do I find my Account Settings page?)

  2. Scroll down to the Manufactures section and check the 'Auto manufacture when order is created' box.

  3. Click on Save details.

Configuring only specific products to Auto Manufacture

If you only want to use the auto-manufacture feature for specific products:

  1. Navigate to your Product edit page (How do I edit a Product?)
  2. On the form, under the Sale Information heading, ensure that the Auto Manufacture checkbox is ticked.

Note: The checkbox will be disabled and already ticked if you have already turned on Auto manufactures for your account. In this case, you will need to set this to unchecked and then return to the product edit pages you wish to configure.

  1. Click the Save Product button to save the changes.

Configuring only specific variations to Auto Manufacture

If you only want to use the auto manufacture feature for specific variations under a product:

  1. Navigate to your Variation edit page
  2. Ensure that the Auto Manufacture checkbox is ticked on the form that appears.

  3. Click the Save button at the bottom of the form.

Note: The checkbox will be disabled and ticked if you have configured auto manufacturing at the account or parent product levels. Ensure you switch off account and product-level auto manufacturing settings and then return to the variation edit page to configure.

Configuring components to Auto Manufacture

When included in product manufacture, components can be set to auto manufacture themselves. This is particularly useful for bundling and kitting situations.

This can be configured for any recipe that includes the component or for each manufacture that consumes the component.

Directly underneath the material on the recipe form, a small wizard wand icon with a checkbox will appear. Check the box if you want each manufacture to set the component to auto manufacture automatically.

Removing Auto Manufactures

Once you have auto-manufacturing on, a product manufacture will be created whenever a qualified product is sold via an order.

If the order is eventually cancelled, you can optionally configure Craftybase to remove the product manufacture if this fits your particular workflow.

It is important to note that any downstream auto-manufactures (i.e. components) will not be automatically removed, these will need to be assessed and deleted manually if required.


To enable removing automanufactures:

  1. Go to your Account Settings page. (How do I find my Account Settings page?)
  2. Scroll down to the orders section
  3. Check the Remove auto manufacture(s) when order is cancelled box.
  4. Click on Save details.

Stock Level Rules

This feature gives you more control over when auto-manufactures are created based on your product's available stock levels.


The setting currently offers two options:


All Stock Levels

Switching on this setting will mean that auto manufactures will be created regardless of the available stock levels.


Out of Stock Only

Switching on this setting will mean that auto manufactures will only be created if there is no available stock for the product (i.e. the current on hand stock level is 0).

Example: An order is placed that contains 1 x Red Bag. The stock level for the Red Bag before the order was 0. The stock level after the order is placed is -1 (0 - 1). If the stock level rule is Out of Stock Only, an automanufacture will be created for 1 item.

Example: An order is placed that contains 3 x Blue Bag. The stock level for Blue Bag before the order was 1. After the order is placed, the new stock level is calculated as -2. If the stock level rule is Out of Stock Only, an auto-manufacture will be created for all 3 items, bringing the stock on hand back to 1.

If Out of Stock Only is configured and there is already an amount in stock on hand when the automanufacture is created, the entire quantity will be manufactured regardless. This setting works best for situations where stock on hand is not kept.


Component Stock Level Rules

The auto manufacture rules for components will follow the same logic as regular products based on the selected stock level rule.

Example: If an order contains a Red Bag made from 2 units of Fabric and the Red Bag does not require manufacturing, no Fabric will be manufactured regardless of stock levels. However, if Red Bags must be manufactured and additional Fabric is needed, they will be automatically made.

Configuring an auto manufacture stock level rule

  1. Go to your  Account Settings. (How do I find my Account Settings page?)
  2. Scroll down to the Manufactures section
  3. Look for the dropdown menu labeled Auto Manufactures Settings.

  4. Select your preferred option (All Stock Levels or Out of Stock Only).


  5. Click on the Save details button at the bottom of the form.

Need more help

Are you encountering any issues with auto manufacturing? Feel free to reach out to contact Craftybase Support for help.

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