Baskets and containers let you create products made from combinations of other products - like a simplified Material Requirements Planning (MRP) system for assembly and bundling.

What are Baskets and Containers?

Telesto's basket/container feature allows you to create products that are made up of other products. This is perfect for:

  • Assembly products: Items built from multiple components
  • Bundles: Gift baskets, starter kits, or promotional packages
  • Manufactured goods: Products requiring multiple raw materials
Example: Create a "Holiday Gift Basket" containing 2 bottles of wine, 1 cheese wheel, and 3 chocolate bars. When you create the basket inventory, Telesto automatically deducts the individual components from inventory at that time. When you later sell the basket, only the basket quantity is reduced - the components were already deducted when the basket was assembled.
Setting Up a Basket/Container
Create a Container Product:
  1. Navigate to your product details page
  2. Toggle on Mark this product as a basket / container
  3. Click Add Products to Basket button
  4. Select each component product, warehouse, and quantity needed
  5. Save your configuration
How Stock Management Works
Creating Container Inventory
  1. Use the Stock Updater to add container units
  2. Telesto checks if you have enough components in stock
  3. If components are available, container stock is created
  4. Component inventory is automatically reduced at creation time

Why Components are Deducted at Creation:
This approach ensures that when you create a basket, you're actually "consuming" the individual components to assemble it. This prevents double-counting inventory and ensures you can't accidentally sell individual components that are already committed to baskets.

Stock Example: To create 2 gift baskets, you need 4 wine bottles, 2 cheese wheels, and 6 chocolate bars. If you only have 3 wine bottles, Telesto won't allow you to create 2 baskets - you can only create 1. The system ensures you have sufficient stock for each component before allowing basket creation.
Selling Container Products

When you sell a basket or container:

  1. Only the basket/container quantity is deducted from inventory
  2. Individual components are not affected (they were already deducted during creation)
  3. Your inventory remains accurate across all product levels

Planning Ahead:
Since components are deducted when creating baskets, plan your basket creation carefully. If you need to maintain individual component sales alongside baskets, ensure you have adequate stock for both purposes before creating basket inventory.

Managing Components
Editing Container Contents

To modify what's included in a container:

  1. Return to the product's Add Products to Basket screen
  2. Add new components or remove existing ones using the X button
  3. Adjust quantities as needed
  4. Save changes

Baskets and containers provide an affordable way to manage assembled products without requiring a full MRP system, perfect for small to medium businesses with bundling or assembly needs.