Composite Resource Types and Components
How composite resource types let you request a group of resources as one line, such as a semi or an audio rack, and how each component is scheduled and priced.
A composite resource type is a type assembled from other resource types, called its components. It lets someone request "a semi" without knowing it is a tractor, a trailer and a driver, while the people filling the request still work with the real parts.
Why Composites Exist
What a customer asks for and what you own are often different things. A customer orders a semi, but your inventory holds tractors, trailers and drivers. The knowledge that those three travel together would otherwise live in a coordinator's head, and a trailer could be booked with no tractor and no driver.
A composite writes that knowledge down. A composite is never held in inventory. Procurement asks for the composite, and fulfillment schedules its components.
Examples
A Semi is a composite of a tractor, a trailer and a driver. Requesting one semi adds a need for each of the three.
A Main Stage Rack shows the same idea with equipment. A rack that needs a mixing console, a microphone and an amplifier is one composite with those three components. The person requesting it asks for the rack, and each piece is sourced and scheduled on its own.
How Components Work
Each component points at another resource type, optionally at one variant of it, and has a quantity. A component can be left out for some variants, for example a refrigerated trailer variant that does not need load straps. A component cannot itself be a composite.
When a composite is requested, it fans out into one need for each component. The composite is covered and priced as one unit, and its components share a schedule: you set the schedule once on the composite and it is applied to every component. The composite reads as unfilled until every component is filled.
Pricing a Composite
A composite can carry its own rate card. When it does, each component shows a dash for its charge, with a tooltip explaining that the composite replaces it, and the composite is billed as a single line. Without a card of its own, a composite is priced as the sum of its components.
Build a Composite
Create the type
Add a resource type and set its tracking type to Composite. The type needs no inventory, so a type that already has resources cannot be switched to a composite.