Kit Products in Novulo

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1. Introduction

A kit product is a product in Novulo composed of one or more other products.
The components can be:

  • Inventory products (physical goods)

  • Services

  • Or a combination of both

Kit products are common in many industries:

  • Retail: Smartphone + smartwatch, camera body + lens, table + set of chairs

  • IT & hosting: Virtual machine + additional CPU + OS license

  • Insurance: Car insurance with coverage for liability, theft, and collision damage

Manufacturers often market kits as standalone products, complete with their own EAN/UPC, packaging, and promotional campaigns.

1a. How kit products are identified in Novulo

In the Novulo reference architecture, whether a product is a kit is indicated by the feature:

  • N_Product.N_Is kit (fx) — a Yes/No function feature

The original implementation of this is in M3391 (Novulo Products), where the product type is selected from a dropdown with options like:

  • Service

  • Item (inventory product)

  • Kit

  • Generic

When “Kit” is selected, the feature N_Is kit (fx) returns Yes; otherwise, it returns No.

If needed, this selection mechanism can be enhanced or customized in alternative component implementations to support more complex or simplified product classifications.

2. How kit products work in Novulo

  • Kits are defined at the product level, listing each component and its quantity.

  • Physical stock is only kept for the inventory components — not for the kit itself.

  • When purchasing and receiving a kit, the system can automatically split it into components in stock.

  • When selling a kit, Novulo determines availability based on the components’ stock.

3. Availability calculation

  • Kit availability follows the limiting factor rule: the component with the lowest available stock determines how many kits can be sold.

  • This applies whether the kit contains only physical products, only services, or a mix.

Example:
Kit: Camera body + lens

  • Camera body stock: 15 units

  • Lens stock: 8 units
    Kit availability: 8 units

4. Performance considerations

  • Novulo can calculate available stock for kits in real time.

  • This works fine for internal use (e.g., sales screens, back-office reporting).

  • For high-speed external feeds (webshops, marketplaces, API integrations), this calculation can be too slow — especially when you have many kits and complex component structures.

5. Kits & Publishable Stock

  • When publishable stock is enabled, Novulo pre-calculates the safe-to-promise quantity for kits as well as regular products.

  • This is much faster for feeding external channels.

  • Important: Do not sum publishable stock for kit products when calculating total inventory — kit stock is based on the same components as other products, so totals will be inflated.

For more on how publishable stock works, see Publishable Stock in Novulo ERP.

6. Best practices

  • Use kits when products are marketed and sold together but tracked in stock separately.

  • Avoid creating duplicate stock records for kits.

  • Use publishable stock for external feeds if you have a large number of kits.

  • Always check that kit component availability logic matches your business rules (e.g., allow substitutions or not).

Publishable Stock Explained: Configuration and Best Practices in Novulo