Replace Manufacturer in FieldGroove
Swap a manufacturer on a single line item, or roll a new manufacturer across every line item on a work order. This guide walks through what changed in the latest release, how the live preview works, and what stays the same after the swap.
FieldGroove has two ways to change the manufacturer behind a line item on a work order:
| Feature | What it does | When you'd use it |
|---|---|---|
| Assign Manufacturer | Replace the manufacturer on one line item | You delivered a different brand than what was estimated for a single product |
| Change Manufacturers | Roll a new manufacturer across every matching line item on the whole work order | You delivered an entirely different brand and need to update every product on the order at once |
Both flows:
- Match line items to the new manufacturer's product catalog by product name
- Create new replacement rows pointing at the new manufacturer's products
- Flag the original rows as replaced (so the history stays for audit)
- Regenerate kit child rows under the new manufacturer's coverage rules
- Keep your customer-facing invoice showing the originally invoiced products
This release rewrote how Replace Manufacturer talks to the database and to QuickBooks / Intacct. Real-world examples from a typical Insulation tenant:
| Operation | Work order size | Before | After |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assign Manufacturer (one line item) | n/a | 1+ minute | a few seconds |
| Change Manufacturers (bulk) | ~50 line items | ~1 minute | under 5 seconds |
| Change Manufacturers (bulk) | ~400 line items | 10+ minutes | under 15 seconds |
If you sync invoices to QuickBooks or Intacct, the speed-up is even bigger. The integration now pushes a single update at the end of the change, rather than pushing once for every line item — which on a 400-item work order saved several minutes of pure waiting on the accounting integration.
SQL_AddReplaceManufacturerIndexes.sql was run.When you open the Change Manufacturers window on a work order and pick a manufacturer from the dropdown, an impact preview appears immediately — showing exactly what's about to happen, before you press save.
- 5 kit(s) (creating 18 new kit child row(s))
- 3 item(s) have no matching product for this manufacturer and will be skipped
Why this matters: before this release, bulk-changing manufacturers on a 100-line work order was a leap of faith — you picked a manufacturer, pressed save, waited several minutes, and then found out a dozen items didn't have a matching product. Now you know up front.
The preview is read-only — nothing changes until you submit the form.
When the operation finishes, the success message gives you the real story instead of a vague count.
Before
After
You get an immediate, clear picture of what just happened — including any items that needed your attention.
A snappier page refreshAfter a manufacturer change completes, the page refreshes the panels that may have been affected.
In this release, the Invoices panel only reloads if an invoice was actually touched. If the work order doesn't have a linked invoice yet (the most common case), the page comes back faster because we skip the unnecessary refresh.
This is invisible to you — nothing to configure — but it's a noticeable difference in how snappy the page feels after a change.
Where to find itThe feature locations haven't moved. Both flows are in the same places they always were:
- Single line item replacement: Open a project, open a work order, and on any line item click Assign Manufacturer.
- Bulk replacement across a work order: Open a project, open a work order, and click Change Manufacturers at the work order level.
These behaviors are preserved exactly as they were before — this release is a pure speed and visibility improvement, not a behavior change:
- Pricing. Margin and customer-facing totals on replacement items follow the same rules as before. Job costing and profit calculations are unchanged.
- Replaced-item history. Original line items are flagged as replaced (not deleted) and retained for audit. You can always see what was originally on the work order.
- Kit handling. Kit child rows are still regenerated using the new manufacturer's product structure and coverage rules.
- Integration sync. QuickBooks and Intacct still receive the same invoice data. They just receive it once at the end of a bulk change instead of once per line item.
- Permissions. No new permissions. Anyone who could change manufacturers before can change manufacturers now.
- Use the preview. If the preview shows more “no matching product” items than you expected, you probably want to adjust inventory settings (so the products you need exist for that manufacturer) before continuing.
- Bulk over individual. For changing multiple line items on the same work order, the bulk Change Manufacturers flow is much faster than running Assign Manufacturer repeatedly — it batches database and integration work into one operation.
- Large work orders are now realistic. Previously, a bulk change on a 200+ item work order was something you'd start before going to lunch. It now finishes in seconds — feel free to use it on your largest jobs.
Q: Will old replaced line items disappear?
No. The history of replacements is preserved. Original line items are flagged as replaced and remain in the database for audit. Invoices and reports continue to display the original line items as they always have.
Q: Will my customer-facing invoices look different?
No. The customer-facing invoice continues to show the original line items at their original pricing. Replacement items are used for internal job-cost reporting; they don't appear on customer invoices.
Q: Do I need to do anything to turn this on?
No. The feature is on for everyone automatically once your account is on the new release.
Q: My Change Manufacturers operation still seems slow. What should I check?
Check with your administrator that the supporting database indexes for this release were applied. If the index script wasn't run, the speed improvement won't take effect. You shouldn't need to do anything yourself — this is something your administrator or hosting provider handles during the release deployment.
Q: I'm a QuickBooks Desktop user. Does this affect me?
This release improves the QuickBooks Online and Intacct sync timing. QuickBooks Desktop sync is unaffected (it batches differently).
Q: I changed a manufacturer and the change didn't seem to apply to my invoice. Is that a bug?
No. By design, manufacturer changes affect job costing and inventory tracking, not the customer-facing invoice. Your customer invoice continues to show the products as originally invoiced. To change what the customer is being billed for, edit the invoice directly.
| Action | Where |
|---|---|
| Replace the manufacturer on one line item | Project → Work Order → line item → Assign Manufacturer |
| Bulk-replace across an entire work order | Project → Work Order → Change Manufacturers |
| Preview the impact of a bulk change | Pick a manufacturer in the Change Manufacturers window — preview appears automatically |
| See what happened after a change | The success message at the top of the page after the operation completes |
That's everything you need to know about Replace Manufacturer in FieldGroove. Questions? Reach out to support@fieldgroove.com.