Link Existing Component to a Bill of Materials

Emily Hawley

Updated 04 August 2025 13:06

Only Product Supplier users can link existing components to a Bill of Materials.

It's common for different products to share a common component.

For example, the same self-adhesive label can be used in an orange juice and an apple juice. e-halo allows components to be linked to multiple Bills of Materials so that suppliers don't have to duplicate them needlessly.

When a Product Supplier user is completing a 'Complete Bill of Materials' task, they might want to use a component they previously used/created instead of creating a new one.

How-to:

1. Go to the 'Complete Bill of Materials' task of the Bill of Materials you wish to link the component to and click on the 'Add Components' button.

2. Select 'Link existing component' on the Add Component popup and click 'Next'.

3. The Link Existing Component popup will appear on your page.

4. Complete the information on the 'Type' tab:

Select the component type (e.g., closure).
Select the component tier (primary, secondary or tertiary).

5. Complete the information on the 'Packaging Supplier' tab.

Select the organisation that completed the component you want to link. This can be your own Product Supplier organisation or it can be a Packaging Supplier organisation you have worked with before.

The Packaging Supplier organisations you see in this list might not be all the Packaging Supplier organisations you are connected to: you will only see the ones that have supplied a component of the type you selected in the 'Type' tab*.

*For example, you might work with 'Packaging Supplier A' and 'Packaging Supplier B' but only 'Packaging Supplier A' has supplied components of type 'closure'. If you selected 'closure' on the 'Type' tab, you will see 'Packaging Supplier A' in the 'Packaging Supplier' tab but not 'Packaging Supplier B'.

6. Select the component you want to link on the 'Component' tab and click on the '+ Add Component' button. The list will show all components matching following criteria:

Component type is the same type selected which you have used in a Bill of Materials before.
Component status is 'Active', or is 'In Progress' but not linked to any Bills of Materials (if the component has a status of 'in progress’ and is linked to other Bills of Materials, it cannot be selected).
(Please note that if the component has been cancelled, it will not appear in the list.)

7. The 'Link Existing Component' popup will close and you will be able to see the existing component linked to the Bill of Materials.

Tier Restrictions

When linking an existing component to a primary tier of a Bill of Materials, users will only be able to select components previously used as primary.
When linking an existing component to a secondary or tertiary tier of a Bill of Materials, users will only be able to select components previously used as secondary or tertiary.
- This restriction has been added to help users avoid mistakes when linking components. It would be very rare for primary packaging to be used as secondary or tertiary packaging; when this happens, it is usually a mistake.

See more:

Common Packaging Terms

Link an Existing Bill of Materials to a Product