Ways Octopart Can Make Your BOM Great

At Octopart, we understand just how important an efficiently organized BOM is to maintain your project’s timeline. We created this comprehensive guide to help you navigate the Octopart BOM Tool so you can spend more time on building electronics rather than searching for each part’s pricing and availability individually. Enjoy and let us know if you have any questions.

 

Getting Started is Easy

To navigate to the Octopart BOM Tool, click “BOM Tool” in the upper right corner from anywhere on Octopart. You can also upload a BOM from the homepage.

The BOM Tool allows you to either create a new BOM from scratch or import an existing BOM from a file. Let’s go over both.

Create your BOM

On the BOM Tool page, click “Create a New BOM”. The BOM Tool will open a blank BOM that you can start adding part numbers to. To add parts individually, type in a MPN, SKU, or keyword into the search box under Part Number.

Tip: You can click on “paste” in the same box to paste multiple part numbers at once.

Import your BOM from a file

Uploading data from a file is easy — just drag and drop a file (.ods, Excel, .cvs, .txt, Eagle 6, .sch) into the dashed section on the right or select a file from your computer to import. The BOM tool will populate a blank BOM with imported information and ask you to verify that all of your column headers are correct. You can customize the columns or click “Done” to skip this step. When everything looks good, you can click “Done importing” to check out your BOM.

Whether you type in a part number or import data from an existing file, the BOM Tool will automatically match your part numbers with MPNs in our database (of over 40 million parts!) making component procurement for your project a lot faster.

Tip: You can add components directly from your search on Octopart to a new or existing BOM in the BOM tool. Click the “Add to BOM” button on the upper right of each search result or from the detail page of an individual part. Note that this feature is only accessible if you sign in. Find out more about this feature here.

You can name your BOM buy clicking the box that says “Untitled BOM” and typing the new name in. Click “OK” to save.

 

Quickly See Part Availability

Once we match the part numbers and quantities in your BOM with MPNs in our system, you will see colored boxes appear next to each MPN. Each square indicates how easy or difficult it is to find that part from authorized distributors. Green indicates good availability, orange indicates low availability, and red indicates no availability.

Tip: You can hover over the colored boxes to see how many distributors have that part in stock and at your quantity.

In the BOM tool, you may see a red triangle with an exclamation mark denoting that multiple matches for that part number were found in our system. Clicking on the triangle will reveal the manufacturer names, the part numbers, and if they are available, and the descriptions of the parts that match. Click on the part that best matches your requirements to add it to your BOM. Find more information about this feature here.

 

Manage Distributor Information

If you move over to the Preferred Distributors and the Shopping List sections, you will see stock and pricing information for your parts from authorized distributors that carry those parts.

In the Preferred Distributors section you can select your favorite distributors so  only their pricing and stock information is displayed. Click “edit” to add distributors to your list or scroll down to remove.  

Clicking “More” next to a part’s price and stock information under Preferred Distributors will display a dropdown menu of available packaging options.

In the Shopping List section, you can sort by the lowest price throughout all distributors, only your preferred distributors, or just select one of your preferred distributors. Click on the default “Lowest Price (Overall)” option to see the dropdown menu and set your sorting preference.

Did you know that the Octopart BOM Tool supports international currencies? Click Currency in the upper right corner to see the options. Once you select the currency of your preference, click “Save” and the BOM Tool will automatically convert all prices in your BOM to that currency.

If you would like to see how much a unit of your BOM costs at different quantities, type in your desired quantity into the Batch size box. The BOM Tool will automatically adjust your entire BOM to reflect the unit cost given the distributors’ price breaks and stock.

 

Keep Your BOMs in One Place

To save your BOM, click “Sign in to save to BOMs” on the upper right hand corner and login or create an account. This will allow you to access your BOM again in the future to make edits or see price changes.

You can also duplicate your BOM by clicking “Make a copy” at the bottom right of any saved BOM in the BOM Tool.

If you’d like to delete your BOM, hover over any saved BOM in the BOM Tool. An “x” will appear; by clicking it you will be prompted to confirm whether or not you would like to delete your BOM.

 

Share or Collaborate in Real Time

You can share your BOM by clicking “Share” in the upper right hand corner to grant edit or read-only access (via email or link) or disable BOM sharing altogether.

Adding custom notes under Notes on the far right can help you keep track of any updates to your BOM and share them with your team.

The BOM Tool displays all edits in real time so you can easily track the progress if multiple people are working on your BOM.

Tip: You can see how many people are viewing your BOM at the same time by hovering over the

 icon next to the “Share” button.

The BOM Tool also lets you easily export your BOM into a .csv file by clicking “Export BOM as CSV” on the top right.

 

Format Your BOM

Columns and Sections

The Octopart BOM Tool lets you sort your BOM by column headers. Hovering over the column headers in the Matched Parts, Line Item Details and Shopping List sections will let you sort by that column. You will see the headers turn pink, with a carrot indicating sort order.

Tip: You can click on the header again to reverse the sort order.

Column headers stick to the top of the screen and follow when you scroll so you know exactly what each column is.

You can also hide sections that aren’t applicable to your project by clicking “hide” on the right of each section or clicking the gear icon on the far left to organize the sections all at once.

Rows

You can reorder rows by clicking and holding the “sandwich” icon on the left of each part number. Drag the row to place it anywhere in your BOM.

If you’d like to delete one or more rows, click “edit” on the far left and mark all the rows you would like to delete. Before processing the action the BOM Tool will give you an option to undo in case you clicked “x” by mistake.

We hope this guide helps you navigate our BOM Tool easier! Let us know if you have any questions, additions, or concerns at contact@octopart.com.