I'm evaluating ATUM again for our business and I'm checking out the new features and improvements.
Unfortunately ATUM Product Levels still doesn't seem to be suitable for us, but I wanted to ask if there is a chance that the features we need are maybe on the roadmap.
1. Our business relies on variable products that in turn have variations that are made from 2-3 product parts, which are sometimes shared between products. This is obviously achievable with ATUM. But the inventory management that ATUM provides is kind of "the wrong way round" for us. We need to be able to update WooCommerce stock (either manually or via POs) of the BOM parts which then tells us how many of the "parent products" can be purchased. This can simply be a calculation like this:
sellable stock of a product = lowest free-to-use stock amount of any of its BOM items
I understand that ATUM can't update WC stock, but at the moment it's not helpful to us that we only know how many products we have available to sell after we have manually committed x number of product sets.
2. We have a lot of variations (1000+) that would need to be "converted" to have ATUM BOM parts, which at the moment is a manual process. It's pretty impossible for us to do this without some level of automation, like importing the BOM data from a dataset/CSV. Is this possible or planned, even via another plugin like WP All Import?
I am sorry ATUM PL is not ready for you. We have come accross several missing features within WC before we can say YES to one. These features are being completed as we speak. The answer to your points below:
1. Yes, next big update of PL will include this. More difficult to develop than some may think. There is too many business models to consider. Expected release end of Summer.
2. Bulk change of product types will be available too - we hope this will come with point 1 in the same update.
Thank you for clarifying those points. I appreciate that there are many different ways customers use their inventory and that you don't want to 'shoe-horn' a feature into your system that is only required by a few users. To us it seems perfectly natural that a manufacturer would want to know how many items they can build with their materials before committing to a number to put into stock, but maybe this isn't the case.
As for point 2, that's great to hear but please also consider the functionality to import product type data, as well as being able to bulk change the product type. That is helpful, but the main time-consuming task is not the changing but the assigning of BOMs to the products.
I'm looking forward to giving ATUM another go when that update is released. We have kept our subscription going (even though we didn't use ATUM) because we see great potential in your plugin and were happy to fund the development. We might take a little break now though... :)
Yes, sure that is a must to have a feature like that. We understand that some of our Premium users (not just you) will benefit from the reverse system. When this is released we have an existing subs bonus going to all affected users.
2. Mmm interesting one - bulk commiting of BOM ( will bring it up in my next meeting).
Import from an external file will come after the release of our Export Pro addon - it is already being worked on. It’s a massive think and will affect a lot of PL too.
We've just paid for another quarter for the ATUM PL plugin. As I said before, we're happy to invest in this because it seems a product that could be very useful for us.
But we'd really appreciate an update on development progress. There hasn't been a new release since the end of July, when before there were 3 to 5 releases a month. In your message below you said that the next major release, addressing both issues we have, would be "end of summer", which is sort of now. I appreciate that you've been busy launching another plugin (multi-inventory) but that shouldn't affect your only properly released and paid-for plugin.
Could you let me know what the schedule is for PL?
I appreciate your support and yes the initial update was due end of Summer. Let me try to apologise, but development never goes the way we want. I will try to split my reply into 2 points.
1. There was no update due to the fact there was no issue, plus the fact that we have had to give our devs time off in this month. They are only on hand for critical issues.
2. Product Levels is and will always be the biggest and most worked on add-on, however during the development in May we have realised that the development of another feature will have to be released before any other PL update. You can see that we are now beta testing Multi Inventory addon. There is no way we could release PL major upgrade before this is done as it contains some necessary code that will be major part of PL. I am not going to give you any date for PL upgrade as it would be a wild guess. The only think I can say is that after MI is released the PL will be an addon worked on and updated daily.
All our users will be granted one year extension to their existing licences upon the 2.0 PL release.
Once again, I am very sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Thank you for your honest answer but not to have a reasonably reliable date for PL 2.0 is a bit disappointing. After all we're currently paying a fee for a product that we don't/can't use, so the offer of a free licence for a year doesn't really help us now, if that release is very far off. Just roughly, are we talking a couple of months to release, 6 months, a year?
I understand your frustration and I am truly sorry.
I wish it would be as simple. Remember we are a plugin for WooCommerce and we have to make sure ATUM works with its latest releases. Same goes for any other plugin ATUM supports. Any change in the free ATUM affects Product Levels too as it has to sync. We can not predict issues, bugs and we can not set our users aside to keep developing.
Our project is based on customer service first and that is what we are trying to achieve with the very limited resources we have. Giving you a date of release would be pointless as I simply have no idea. Look around to any development team that takes care of its customers and is as cheap as we are - they have no release dates either.
Pls, tell me how can I support you in the mean time?
So it's nearly 5 months after we discussed this and the last PL updates have mostly been cosmetic or general housekeeping. Is there a release schedule for PL 2.0 that we can plan around now? I take all your points about software development and limited resources but we really can't wait any longer.
You may not know but after we last spoke WooCommerce announced new core changes in the table system. Advanced plugins as ATUM certainly is pay the price every time this happens. However, the full team worked 2 months to get it all ready when the above core change happens. ATUM 1.5 includes the change.
Even though you said only cosmetic changes happened, not very true because the above change was done in Product Levels as well.
To follow up your question - the BOM control of stock is only weeks away. Our senior dev is completing the logic we have worked on for months.
You seem a reasonable guy so I will tell you that the word simple is no where near this feature. I go back to your "sellable stock of a product = lowest free-to-use stock amount of any of its BOM items" request. Please, understand we have to keep in mind all users and all industry possibilities.
Each BOM can be part of more than one item plus it can be part of another BOM and that just makes the above irrelevant.
I hope you like the new PL that will most definitely release in the first half of February.
Hi Pavel,
I'm evaluating ATUM again for our business and I'm checking out the new features and improvements.
Unfortunately ATUM Product Levels still doesn't seem to be suitable for us, but I wanted to ask if there is a chance that the features we need are maybe on the roadmap.
1. Our business relies on variable products that in turn have variations that are made from 2-3 product parts, which are sometimes shared between products. This is obviously achievable with ATUM. But the inventory management that ATUM provides is kind of "the wrong way round" for us. We need to be able to update WooCommerce stock (either manually or via POs) of the BOM parts which then tells us how many of the "parent products" can be purchased. This can simply be a calculation like this:
sellable stock of a product = lowest free-to-use stock amount of any of its BOM items
I understand that ATUM can't update WC stock, but at the moment it's not helpful to us that we only know how many products we have available to sell after we have manually committed x number of product sets.
2. We have a lot of variations (1000+) that would need to be "converted" to have ATUM BOM parts, which at the moment is a manual process. It's pretty impossible for us to do this without some level of automation, like importing the BOM data from a dataset/CSV. Is this possible or planned, even via another plugin like WP All Import?
Thank you for any advice you can give.
Wolf
Hi W,
Thank you very much for the ticket.
I am sorry ATUM PL is not ready for you. We have come accross several missing features within WC before we can say YES to one. These features are being completed as we speak. The answer to your points below:
1. Yes, next big update of PL will include this. More difficult to develop than some may think. There is too many business models to consider. Expected release end of Summer.
2. Bulk change of product types will be available too - we hope this will come with point 1 in the same update.
Hope this helps.
Pavel
Morning Pavel,
Thank you for clarifying those points. I appreciate that there are many different ways customers use their inventory and that you don't want to 'shoe-horn' a feature into your system that is only required by a few users. To us it seems perfectly natural that a manufacturer would want to know how many items they can build with their materials before committing to a number to put into stock, but maybe this isn't the case.
As for point 2, that's great to hear but please also consider the functionality to import product type data, as well as being able to bulk change the product type. That is helpful, but the main time-consuming task is not the changing but the assigning of BOMs to the products.
I'm looking forward to giving ATUM another go when that update is released. We have kept our subscription going (even though we didn't use ATUM) because we see great potential in your plugin and were happy to fund the development. We might take a little break now though... :)
Wolf
Hi W,
Thank you for your quick reply.
Yes, sure that is a must to have a feature like that. We understand that some of our Premium users (not just you) will benefit from the reverse system. When this is released we have an existing subs bonus going to all affected users.
2. Mmm interesting one - bulk commiting of BOM ( will bring it up in my next meeting).
Import from an external file will come after the release of our Export Pro addon - it is already being worked on. It’s a massive think and will affect a lot of PL too.
Import module will be free.
Pavel
Hi Pavel,
We've just paid for another quarter for the ATUM PL plugin. As I said before, we're happy to invest in this because it seems a product that could be very useful for us.
But we'd really appreciate an update on development progress. There hasn't been a new release since the end of July, when before there were 3 to 5 releases a month. In your message below you said that the next major release, addressing both issues we have, would be "end of summer", which is sort of now. I appreciate that you've been busy launching another plugin (multi-inventory) but that shouldn't affect your only properly released and paid-for plugin.
Could you let me know what the schedule is for PL?
Wolf
Hi W,
Thank you very much for your message.
I appreciate your support and yes the initial update was due end of Summer. Let me try to apologise, but development never goes the way we want. I will try to split my reply into 2 points.
1. There was no update due to the fact there was no issue, plus the fact that we have had to give our devs time off in this month. They are only on hand for critical issues.
2. Product Levels is and will always be the biggest and most worked on add-on, however during the development in May we have realised that the development of another feature will have to be released before any other PL update. You can see that we are now beta testing Multi Inventory addon. There is no way we could release PL major upgrade before this is done as it contains some necessary code that will be major part of PL. I am not going to give you any date for PL upgrade as it would be a wild guess. The only think I can say is that after MI is released the PL will be an addon worked on and updated daily.
All our users will be granted one year extension to their existing licences upon the 2.0 PL release.
Once again, I am very sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Pavel
Hi Pavel,
Thank you for your honest answer but not to have a reasonably reliable date for PL 2.0 is a bit disappointing. After all we're currently paying a fee for a product that we don't/can't use, so the offer of a free licence for a year doesn't really help us now, if that release is very far off. Just roughly, are we talking a couple of months to release, 6 months, a year?
Wolf
Hi W,
Thank you very much for your reply.
I understand your frustration and I am truly sorry.
I wish it would be as simple. Remember we are a plugin for WooCommerce and we have to make sure ATUM works with its latest releases. Same goes for any other plugin ATUM supports. Any change in the free ATUM affects Product Levels too as it has to sync. We can not predict issues, bugs and we can not set our users aside to keep developing.
Our project is based on customer service first and that is what we are trying to achieve with the very limited resources we have. Giving you a date of release would be pointless as I simply have no idea. Look around to any development team that takes care of its customers and is as cheap as we are - they have no release dates either.
Pls, tell me how can I support you in the mean time?
Pavel
Hi Pavel,
So it's nearly 5 months after we discussed this and the last PL updates have mostly been cosmetic or general housekeeping. Is there a release schedule for PL 2.0 that we can plan around now? I take all your points about software development and limited resources but we really can't wait any longer.
Thank you,
Wolf
Hi Wolf,
Good to hear from you again.
Yes, it has been a rocky road in deed.
You may not know but after we last spoke WooCommerce announced new core changes in the table system. Advanced plugins as ATUM certainly is pay the price every time this happens. However, the full team worked 2 months to get it all ready when the above core change happens. ATUM 1.5 includes the change.
Even though you said only cosmetic changes happened, not very true because the above change was done in Product Levels as well.
To follow up your question - the BOM control of stock is only weeks away. Our senior dev is completing the logic we have worked on for months.
You seem a reasonable guy so I will tell you that the word simple is no where near this feature. I go back to your "sellable stock of a product = lowest free-to-use stock amount of any of its BOM items" request. Please, understand we have to keep in mind all users and all industry possibilities.
Each BOM can be part of more than one item plus it can be part of another BOM and that just makes the above irrelevant.
I hope you like the new PL that will most definitely release in the first half of February.
Pavel