How to Create Assemblies on Estimates and Invoices

Assemblies on Houzz Pro refer to individual items that are grouped together to create one parent line item on your estimate or invoice. The assembly components can include multiple units of measurement, from linear feet to hours of work per unit of the parent item. Typically the assembly components will not be shown to the client as it's too much information, but it will provide your team with a detailed breakdown of everything you need for the job.

For example, an assembly for a single door would include the slab, doorknobs, hinges, labor and other materials that would be combined to calculate the cost of one door. By changing the quantity of the overall assembly, the component quantities and overall cost will automatically update to let you know the exact amount you'll need for multiple doors, without any manual calculations.

By default all your client sees is the main line item of the assembly, while the full list of components remains visible only to your firm on the internal version of your document(s).

You and your team will see this:

While your client will only see this:

Create an Assembly From Scratch

You can build out assemblies from scratch either within a document or directly in your My Items library. Let's take a look at both options:

From My Items Library

Your My Items library can be found in the Library section under the Company icon in the left navigation. From here you can click Create New in the top right, then select Assembly to build one from scratch.

Fill in the relevant information for your new assembly, including Name, Category, Description and Unit. You can upload any images to represent the assembly here as well.

Start adding items to the assembly by using the the My Items icon in the right panel to select existing library items, or add items from Brand Catalogs. You can also click into an empty line item to search and select from existing items, or create a new item.

It's important to fill out the correct quantity, unit, cost etc for your assembly items, as this will be the basis for automating calculations when you use assemblies in your documents. Your changes will automatically save.

The really important (and sometimes tricky) part is getting the correct quantity. You need to set the quantity for each line item per 1 unit of measurement of the parent item so the system can correctly calculate the materials at a later stage. Let's look at an example:

Creating Assemblies per 1 Square Foot:

Using “Internal Walls ½ Inch Drywall” as our example, we set the parent unit to Sq. Feet. For our first component, Drywall Sheets, we know that a sheet of drywall is 4ft x 8ft, which is a total coverage of 32 sqft. Each Assembly is based on a quantity of 1, so to see our drywall assembly per square foot, we'll need to do some math. You'll need to divide 1 by 32 sqft to calculate the amount of a drywall sheet needed per square foot. That equals 0.03125. 

Now that we know this number, that's what we'll enter in as the quantity of each drywall sheet needed per 1 sqft. Later on, when you measure a project and know that you need drywall to cover 472 sqft of Internal Walls, the system will tell how much you need of each item to cover the square footage you measured.

Repeat the process for any other materials where one piece covers multiple square feet. In this example we also have Joint Compound (5-gal bucket), Drywall Tape (500-ft roll) and Corner Beads (8 Ft) that all need to be calculated to determine the quantity per 1 sqft.

Once you've done a takeoff and have measured that you need 472 sqft of Drywall, you'll enter that as the main quantity on the assembly and the system will multiply the square footage by the percentage of drywall sheets needed. This means it will divide 472 by 0.03125 to give us 14.75 sheets of Drywall, at a rate of $18 per sheet. Including all other labor and materials, it will cost $1,330.80 for 472 sqft of drywall.

From an Estimate or Invoice

If you're working on an estimate or invoice that doesn't currently have the items you want to group, simply click Create Assembly in the Items toolbar.

This will create the assembly structure so you can easily fill in the title and description (what the client will see) then add the line items below (what you and your team will see).

Make sure that you are using the "Add item below" icon either on the assembly title or on a line item within the group (1.1, 1.2 etc) when adding an item to the assembly. If you want to add an existing line item to the assembly that is not currently grouped, you can drag and drop it into the desired assembly using the 6 dots to the left.

Create an Assembly From Existing Line Items

If you're working on an estimate or invoice that already contains the items you want to group, simply use the checkboxes to select the items, then click Create Assembly in the Items toolbar, or right-click and select +Create New Assembly under the Assembly option, type the name and hit the enter/return key.

You'll see the selected items now numbered as components of the assembly (1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc). You can now add an assembly title and description for the client, as well as click on the photo to select which one you want to use as the cover image (this is only applicable if you are using and showing photos).

If you want to add more line items to the assembly, make sure that you are using the "Add item below" icon either on the assembly title or on a line item within the group (1.1, 1.2 etc) when adding an item to the assembly.

If you want to add an existing line item to the assembly that is not currently grouped, you can either drag and drop it into the desired assembly using the 6 dots to the left, or right-click the item and select the desired assembly under the Assembly option.

Adjust Quantity & Total Cost For Entire Assembly

Once you have created an assembly and input all the relevant unit, quantity and cost information for each component, you'll see the total assembly cost on the main line item. By default, the quantity for this line will be set to 1 unit. To accurately represent to the client the quantity they will be receiving and the total cost, input the quantity and the totals will adjust automatically. You can also hover over the Quantity column and click the calculator icon. In the pop up, you will notice that the "Recalculate the total cost" is selected. Notice the rate does not change in this case.

Save Assemblies to Library from Documents

After you have created an assembly within an estimate or invoice, you can save it to your library for future use. To do so, click on the three dots to the right of the main assembly line item and select Save to Your Library. The assembly will now be available for use on your documents and accessible from your My Items page for edits and updates.

Show Assembly Items to The Client

By default, the components of an assembly are hidden from the client's view. In the case that you want to show the assembly items to the client, all you have to do it click the eye icon on one of the line items. If you hover over the eye icon you will see whether you have the visibility set to only you or to the client as well.

Click Preview at the top of the page to see exactly what the client will see when the grouped assembly items are visible to them.

Create Purchase Orders from Assemblies

When you're ready to create purchase orders for your assembly components, you have 2 options.

Create POs for all items at once: Select all items in the assembly using the checkboxes on the left, then choose Create Purchase Order(s) from the Actions menu at the top of the page. In the modal that pops up, select the relevant vendor for each item then click Create Purchase Orders. Separate POs will be created for each vendor.

Create POs one at a time: On the line item that you wish to create a PO for, either right-click or click the three dots to the far right, and select Create > Create Purchase Order(s) from the menu. In the modal that pops up, select the relevant vendor then click Create Purchase Order.

Manage Assemblies

Any assemblies you have created and saved are accessible on your My Items page, which you can get to via the Company icon in the left navigation. Click on Assembly from the item types at the top to just show your assemblies.

From here you can create new assemblies and manage existing ones, including edit, rename and archive. Simply click the three dots to the right of the assembly you want to manage and choose from the menu. You can also edit select assembly details directly in-line on the item, like Title, Category and Unit — to make additional changes you need to be in the edit view of an assembly.

Use Assemblies in Takeoffs

Once you have saved an assembly to your library, it will be accessible in Takeoffs anywhere the Groups or Counts functions are available. For example, instead of creating a new group measurement under the This Takeoff tab, you can select the Assemblies tab and choose an existing assembly.

Note that only assemblies with compatible unit types will be available for use. We recommend using the preset units when creating assemblies, as custom units will not be compatible with takeoffs.

Once an assembly has been selected for use within a takeoff, it will become available under the This Takeoff tab for quick access.