Manufacturing Settings

Manufacturing settings control four company-wide defaults. Change them deliberately because new recipes, standalone work orders, MRP suggestions, sales-document manufacturing, and operator job starts can all be affected. The settings do not rewrite existing work or post inventory or accounting activity by themselves.

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Open Manufacturing Settings

You need settings.edit. The Manufacturing settings leaf is hidden when your role cannot edit it. Go to Settings > Products & Pricing > Manufacturing. Before changing a value:

1. Confirm you are in the correct company.
2. Review the current summary at the bottom of the page.
3. Identify which creation and floor workflows the change will affect.
4. Tell planners and operators before enabling an automation setting.
5. Save and test one controlled recipe or work order before broad use.

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Choose The Setting To Change

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Set The Timer Labor Fallback

Default labor rate ($/hr) is the final fallback when a stopped timer session is rolled into work-order labor cost. The timer rate is chosen in this order:

1. A valid explicit timer rate, when one was supplied.
2. The work order’s BOM labor rate, when it is greater than zero.
3. The positive company default on this page.
4. The built-in $35/hr timer fallback.

Enter zero or a positive number. A zero value does not create zero-cost timer labor; when no explicit or BOM rate exists, Arcus falls back to $35/hr. Changing the fallback does not recalculate labor already booked. It affects later eligible timer roll-ups.

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Set Overhead For New BOMs

Default overhead % (new BOMs) seeds the overhead plan on BOMs created after the setting is saved. New BOM creation does not ask for overhead, and the current BOM detail has no overhead editor. Set the company default before creating the recipe.

1. Enter zero or a positive percentage.
2. Save the settings.
3. Create a controlled BOM.
4. Verify the overhead percentage in its cost plan before activation.
5. If it is wrong, leave that BOM in Draft, correct the company setting, and create a replacement BOM.

The new BOM receives the current company default. Existing BOMs keep their own overhead percentage and cannot be corrected through the current BOM detail page. For a BOM that uses overhead, Arcus estimates it on materials plus labor and absorbs it through the work-order completion flow. Saving this setting alone does not post overhead.

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Decide Whether To Skip Draft

Turn on Release new work orders immediately (skip draft) only when standalone creation paths are ready to pass directly into Released work. This company setting is independent of the release checkbox on the manual New Work Order page. When enabled, Arcus attempts the normal release workflow immediately after creating a standalone work order. This includes:

• Manual New Work Order creation.
• A work order created from an MRP suggestion.
• Eligible work created through sales-order or invoice Build All.

If a release gate refuses the transition, the work order remains Draft and still needs review. Always verify the resulting status. Combined-run members are an intentional exception. Plan Combined Run always creates its member work orders in Draft so each member can be reviewed and released separately. Automatic release changes work-order status. It does not issue material, start labor, complete output, move inventory, or post manufacturing cost by itself.

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Control Timer Start On Build Start

Start the operator’s labor timer when they start a build controls what happens after an eligible operator clicks Start on a work order. When enabled, Arcus starts the work order and then tries to start that operator’s labor timer when:

• The operator has manufacturing edit access.
• That operator does not already have an active timer on the work order.
• The BOM is not configured to auto-apply standard labor at completion.

When disabled, Start still advances the work order, but the operator must start the timer from the labor controls. If the automatic timer attempt is refused, the work order can still be In Progress. The operator sees a message and must start labor manually after resolving the timer gate.

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Save And Verify Changes

1. Review all four displayed values. The save action sends them together.
2. Click Save manufacturing settings.
3. Wait for Manufacturing settings saved.
4. Confirm the current-value summary matches the intended behavior.
5. Test the affected workflow with one controlled BOM or work order.

Labor rate and overhead percentage must be zero or greater. A missing company selection, invalid number, lost edit access, or save failure leaves the change unapplied.

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Common Scenarios

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Standardize timer labor for BOMs without a rate

Set a positive default labor rate, save, then run and stop a timer on a controlled work order whose BOM has no positive labor rate. Verify the booked labor rate and cost. Manual labor and auto-applied standard labor still require their own rate decisions.

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Review every job before release

Keep Release new work orders immediately (skip draft) off. On the manual New Work Order page, also clear the selected Release immediately checkbox. MRP and Build All then preserve a Draft review, while Combined Run members remain Draft by design.

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Let planners create floor-ready standalone jobs

Enable automatic release only after active recipes, locations, material gates, and responsibilities are consistent. Verify the status of each record because a release refusal can leave it Draft.

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Use standard labor without a timer

Enable auto-applied standard labor on the BOM and set its planned minutes and labor rate there. The job-start timer setting is ignored for that BOM.

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Troubleshooting And Refusals

• Manufacturing is missing from Settings: your role needs settings.edit.
• Save is disabled: no value has changed, or a save is already in progress.
• Default labor rate is refused: enter a finite number that is zero or greater.
• Default overhead is refused: enter a finite percentage that is zero or greater.
• A zero labor fallback still books $35/hr: zero does not override the built-in timer fallback. Enter a positive value for a different timer fallback.
• Manual labor did not use the default: enter the required rate on the manual labor record. This setting is for timer roll-up.
• Auto-applied standard labor used a different rate: review the BOM labor rate and standard-labor setup. The company timer fallback does not control that completion path.
• A new BOM did not use the overhead default: leave it in Draft, verify the saved value and company, correct the setting, and create a replacement BOM.
• A new work order stayed Draft while automatic release was on: the release attempt is best-effort. Open the order, resolve the normal release gate, and release it manually.
• You cleared the page’s Release immediately checkbox, but the order is Released: the company automatic-release setting is on and can release the order independently.
• The company automatic-release setting is off, but a manual order is Released: the page checkbox starts selected and made its own Release request. Clear it when Draft review is required.
• A combined-run member stayed Draft: that is expected. Release combined members individually.
• The job started but the timer did not: check edit access, active timer state, BOM standard-labor automation, and the displayed timer message. Start the timer manually when appropriate.

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FAQ

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Are these settings retroactive?

No. They do not rewrite existing BOMs, work-order snapshots, booked labor, inventory movements, or accounting entries.

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Does automatic release start the work order?

No. Released and In Progress are different states. The floor still starts the job through the work-order workflow.

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Which control wins, the company setting or the New Work Order checkbox?

They are independent release paths. The company setting can release a standalone order even when the page checkbox is cleared. The selected page checkbox can release a manual order even when the company setting is off. Turn off the company setting and clear the checkbox to request Draft, then verify the resulting status.

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Does the default overhead change every BOM?

No. It seeds new BOMs created after the setting is saved; existing BOMs keep their own value, and the current BOM detail has no overhead editor.

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Does the timer setting start labor for every user?

No. It applies to the operator who starts an eligible build and still respects access, active-timer, and BOM labor gates.

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Why did MRP create a Released work order when its button said draft?

The standalone automatic-release setting applies after MRP creates the work order. Verify the status every time this setting is on.

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