How to create a combo product

What a combo actually is

A combo does not hold stock of its own. It points at products you already have, records how many of each go into one combo, and then counts backwards from your real inventory. The component that runs out first decides how many combos you can rent.

Start a product and switch to the Combo tab

A combo is created the same way as any other product. The only difference is which tab you pick before you fill in the inventory.

1. Log in to io.partyrentalstudio.com and click Products in the top navigation.
2. Click Add New Product.
3. Fill in the Name, Slug, Categories and SKU the way you would for anything else. The name is what customers see, so give it the name you want to sell, such as Backyard Birthday Combo.
4. Below SKU, click the Combo tab. The Quantity box disappears, because a combo never has a quantity of its own.

Add the products in the combo

The picker searches your existing catalog. Anything you add stays a normal product: it keeps its own page, its own stock, and can still be rented on its own.

1. Type a name or SKU in the search box, or narrow the list with the All categories dropdown.
2. Click + Add on a product to pull it into the combo. It moves up into the list above the picker.
3. Set how many of that product go into one combo with the plus and minus buttons, or type the number. Twelve chairs per combo means twelve chairs leave the shelf every time one combo goes out.
4. Repeat until the combo is complete. You can add up to six different products, and there is no limit on the quantity of each.

Set the combo price

A combo is flat priced. Whatever you type in Price is what the customer pays, no matter what the individual pieces rent for.

1. Look at the greyed out text in the Price box. It reads Sum of components and adds up every component at its standalone price, at the quantities you set.
2. Type the price you actually want to charge. Most rental companies price a combo below that sum, because the discount is the reason a customer books the bundle instead of picking items one at a time.
3. Leave the rest of the product form as usual: photos, description, delivery settings and the Delivery Sheet tab all work the same on a combo.

Clear the warnings before you save

The combo panel checks itself as you build. There are two kinds of message, and only one of them stops you saving.

Red: this will not save

A combo that holds one product at a quantity of one behaves exactly like a standard product, so Party Rental Studio treats it as a mistake and greys out Save. Add a second product, raise the quantity, or go back to the Standard tab.

Amber: worth knowing, saves anyway

• A component is hidden from your website. The combo still sells. The component simply has no page of its own, which is exactly what you want for chairs or linens you only rent as part of a bundle.
• A component has less stock than the combo needs. Six chairs in stock and twelve per combo means the combo can never be available. Fix the stock count or lower the quantity.

Find and edit the combo later

Combos live in the same Products list as everything else, with a filter to pull them out.

1. Click Products in the top navigation.
2. Open the Type dropdown in the filter row and choose Combo. The list narrows to combos only. Standard gives you everything else, All puts them back together.
3. Click the combo to open it. The components list is right there in Product Information, where the Quantity box sits on a standard product.
4. Add or remove components, change quantities, or change the price, then Save. Changes apply to future orders. Orders already placed keep the products and prices they were booked with.

See what your crew and customers get

One combo is one line to the person booking it and a full parts list to the person loading the truck.

On an order

• In the product picker, a combo carries a COMBO badge, so nobody adds the bundle thinking it is a single item.
• The order shows it as one line at the combo price. Behind that line every component is recorded separately, which is what puts the individual items on the Delivery Sheet and the Packing Slip.
• Removing the combo from an order removes all of its components together.
• A combo goes on an order once. To send two of the same bundle, add the extra pieces as products alongside it.

On your website

Customers see the combo as a single product at a single price, with the contents listed underneath so they know what is coming.