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All parts in the Crows Nest library must be catalogued by at least a ‘Category’. Additionally, you can catalog your parts at an even more granular level by including them in a ‘Sub-Category’.

Parts library can grow very quickly resulting in hundreds, or even thousands of parts. Keeping parts categorized helps when filtering your search results and/or reports throughout Crows Nest.

1. Using the ‘Search’ field allows you to quickly find a category as your list of categories grows longer over time.

2. Right-click in the category list panel to pop-up a context menu with the option to ‘Add’ a new category, ‘Rename’ an existing category, or ‘Delete’ a category.

B. Select a Subcategory

If the subcategory of the part you are adding/editing already exists in the list, simply select the subcategory and click ‘OK’.

However, if you need to ‘Add' a new ‘Subcategory’, ‘Rename’, or ‘Delete’ an existing subcategory:

1. Select the desired Category or Subcategory and right-click to pop-up a context menu.

2. To add a new subcategory to an existing category, select ‘Add Sub Category’. You can also manage the list by renaming or deleting existing subcategories.

1. Use the ‘Search’ field to find the manufacture of the part you are adding/editing in your part library. Or, if the company that manufactures the part doesn’t exist in Crows Nest:

2. Right-click anywhere in the business list panel to pop-up the ‘Add Business’ option.

3. Click ‘Add Business’

4. Click ‘OK’
   
   
   

Having the manufacturer’s Part Number or SKU can be invaluable. Whether you find it on a supplier/vendor’s packing slip, invoice, or the manufacturer’s website (shown in this example), take the time to enter this information into the ‘Manufacturer ID' field.

Whether your team loves the part, or hates the part, having the manufacture ID/SKU can eliminate confusion or ambiguity when it comes time to re-order.

As mentioned above, having the manufacture’s Part Number of SKU can be invaluable when verifying that you have the right part when you place an order.

The Project description field pretty much speaks for itself. It should contain enough narrative to provide a description to the end-user and is also a great source for Crows Nest’s powerful search tool to find the part you’re looking for by any word or string in the description field.

As you’re entering the part, think about how it’s sold to you by your supplier/vendor.

Is the part sold as an individual piece (each)? ‘Per Pack’ (i.e., two-rolls-to-a-pack)? By the lineal foot (LF)?

1. Select from the list of UOMs, or to add a new UOM:

2. Right-click to pop-up the context menu with ‘Add’, ‘Rename’, and ‘Delete’ options.

3. Select ‘Add’, enter a name for your UOM, and click ‘Enter’.

4. Click ‘OK’
   

The friendly name field is designed to used as a short description field. Or if your team has a particular nickname for a part, you can enter that in the ‘Friendly Name’ field.

For this example, not much thought or creativity went into it, it’s simply just enough information to know what the part is at a quick glance.

The ‘Keywords’ field is designed to be one more place where you can put key words that aren’t already in the ‘Category’, ‘Subcategory’, Manufacturer’s name, Manufacturer’s ID/SKU, or the ‘Friendly Name’ fields.

When you’re searching for parts, Crows Nest’s powerful search engine will conduct a thorough search across multiple data fields delivering results with amazingly fast speed.

For this example, the ‘Description field’ and ‘Friendly Name’ fields were populated from copying-and-pasting text from a supplier’s website. Nowhere in either of the fields was the phrase ‘Cabinet Screw’.

Now, when doing a search for a part, typing ‘Cabinet Screw’ in the search field reduces the list from potentially thousands of parts, down to a handful.

The options ‘Track Inventory’ and ‘Use Stock' are to be selected as one, or the other, but not both.

When you select ‘Track Inventory’, items consumed during the fabrication/manufacturing process are tracked. When consumed, the quantity on-hand is reduced by the quantity consumed (think: “used”).

Example (We’ll stick with the cabinet screws as our part of choice:
You’ve purchased ten (10) boxes of PHZ8.3 PowerHead Wood Screws. Each box contains 1,500 screws. So, you have 15,000 individual screws.

You ‘Track Inventory’ on the part that represents the BOXES of screws. When you have consumed a box, you open the second box and now you have nine (9) boxes of screws on hand.

So, in theory, you started with 15,000 screws and you’ve consumed 1,500. But in reality, screws fall on the ground, roll under material, get into cracks in the floor, stuck in your boot, etc. The point being, we really don’t want to keep track of how many individual screws we have on-hand. We only care about how many BOXES of screws we want to keep on-hand.

Therefore, in your Parts library, you’ll have a second “Use Stock” part that will be exactly the same as the “Track Inventory” part. In this example, it’s the very same PHZ8.3 PowerHead Wood Screw. However, its part record will have a UOM of ‘Each’, instead of “Per Pack”. If you paid $150 for the box (per-pack) of screws, the cost of EACH screw = $0.10.

Your materials budget for a single cabinet might include, let's say a dozen screws to assemble the cabinet. That’s While that’s only $1.20 worth of “Stock” material being used. That’s not a lot of money. However, over time, it adds up . Suppose instead of screws, we were talking about 4x8 sheets of 11/16” Particle Board. Instead of $1.20 in cost, we’re now talking closer to $30 for each partover time. Use of these stock items in your Estimates and Project Budgets allows for you to account for some allocation of the cost of these stock materials, without the burden of having to keep track of number of actual individual screws on-hand.

Another way to think of “Stock” materials such as screws, dowl, biscuits, glue, shop rags, etc., - is as flour, butter, milk, eggs, salt, and salt & pepperpepper are in relation to a recipe. You “Stock” and consume portions of these items for use on many different recipes.

Click here to learn more about Inventory vs. Stock.

The ‘Category Notes’ field is used to store notes about the Category that you’ve selected your part to be catalogued in.

1. Enter information that your users (especially new employees) will find useful in defining one category from another.

2. Format the text by controlling the font size, Bold, Italic, and Underscore. Use the left/right arrows to scroll through the various categories.
   Click the ‘Save’ button to save your changes.

1. Give your users a visual aid of the part. Upload an image by right-clicking anywhere in the image panel and selecting ‘Change Image…’