How Threadline works

Setting up your organisation

When you create an account you become the admin for your organisation. The first thing to do is upload a sample BOM so Threadline can learn your column structure. This is a one-time setup — once done, every future upload follows the same format automatically.

Inviting your team

Go to Settings > Members and enter each person's email address, department, and role. They will receive an invite link by email which expires after 7 days. When they click the link they set their name and password and join your organisation.

Threadline accepts CSV, Excel (.xlsx), and PDF files up to 50MB.

On your first upload you will be asked to map your columns. Threadline needs to know which column is the part number, which is the supplier, which is the quantity, and which is the description. Everything else is treated as additional data. You only do this once — the schema is then locked in for your organisation.

On future uploads you choose one of three modes:

• New BOM — a completely fresh BOM with no connection to previous ones. Use this for a separate job.
• New version (diff) — Threadline matches lines by part number. Parts that stay carry their full thread history forward. New parts get new threads. Parts no longer on the BOM have their threads archived.
• New version (replace) — the previous BOM is archived in full and a fresh version starts. Use this when your part numbers have changed significantly.

Every BOM needs a name (up to 200 characters) and a build due date.

Once uploaded, your BOM appears as a table with one row per line. Each row shows the part number, supplier, quantity, description, receipt status, owner, and expected delivery date.

• Renaming a BOM — click the pencil icon next to the BOM name. Any team member can do this.
• Editing the build due date — click the pencil icon next to the date in the KPI strip at the top of the BOM. Any team member can do this.
• Archiving a BOM — hover over the BOM card on the main BOM list and click the archive icon. The BOM moves to the archived view and all threads are frozen.

Every line starts unclaimed. Claiming a line means you are responsible for answering questions about that part.

• Buying team members can claim any line
• Production team members can claim lines marked as made in house
• Admins can claim any line regardless of department
• All other departments cannot claim lines

To claim a line click the circle icon on the left of the row and select Claim this line. To release it, open the same menu and select Release.

If a line is marked as made in house and has no owner, all production team members are automatically notified and asked to claim it.

Each line has one of six statuses. You can update it by clicking the status pill on the row or on the line detail page. Any team member can update any line's status. Every change is logged with who made it and when.

• Not received — the default. Part has not arrived yet.
• In stock — the part is already in your inventory.
• Received, not checked — arrived but not yet inspected.
• Received, all OK — arrived and verified.
• Made in house, not made — being manufactured internally, not started.
• Made in house, ready — manufactured internally and ready to use.

Each line has an optional expected delivery date — separate from the BOM's build due date. Set it on the line detail page. Lines where this date has passed and the part is still showing as not received appear in the Overdue filter and count. Any team member can set or clear it.

Every BOM line has its own conversation thread. To open it, click the line to go to the detail page and scroll down to the thread.

• Posting a message — type in the composer at the bottom and press Send. You can attach one image per message (JPEG, PNG, WebP, or GIF, up to 8MB). Messages can be up to 10,000 characters.
• Replying — click the reply icon on any message to reply directly to it. Replies are one level deep only.
• Reactions — hover over a message and click the emoji button to react. Available reactions: 👍 ❤️ 😀 😢 🥳
• Frozen threads — when a BOM is archived or a line is removed in a version diff, its thread is frozen. Existing messages remain visible but no new messages can be added.

Type @ in any message composer to mention someone. A dropdown will appear showing your team members and departments. You can mention:

• An individual — e.g. @Carly Piper — they receive a notification
• A department — e.g. @buying — everyone in that department receives a notification

Available departments: Sales, Buying, Production, Engineering, Marketing, Management.

If you need information about a line, click Request update on the line detail page. You can add an optional message up to 2,000 characters.

• If the line has an owner — they are notified immediately by both in-app notification and email.
• If the line is unclaimed — the request is escalated to the relevant department (Buying for most lines, Production for made in house lines). Once someone claims the line the request is automatically forwarded to them.

If the owner does not respond within 24 hours, Threadline sends them an automatic reminder. There is only ever one reminder per request.

The request closes automatically when the owner posts in the thread. They can also manually close it by clicking Mark as responded in their notification.

If two BOM lines are related — for example they share a supplier or a delay — you can link their threads together.

On the line detail page scroll to the Linked threads section and click Link thread. Enter the part number of the other line and an optional reason. Both threads will show the link and you can navigate between them directly. Only the person who created a link can remove it.

To send a direct message to a teammate, go to Messages in the navigation or click the Message button on their profile page. DMs are one-to-one.

When composing a message you can optionally link it to a specific BOM line for context — this shows the part reference in the thread summary so both people know what it relates to.

Every notification arrives in your inbox (the bell icon in the header). Notifications are grouped into today, yesterday, this week, and earlier. You can filter by:

• All
• Unread
• Mentions — times you or your department were @mentioned
• Requests — update requests sent to you
• Replies — replies to your messages

Click any notification to go directly to the relevant line or message. Use the Mark all as read button at the top of the inbox to clear everything at once.

• Members (admin only) — invite new members, view open invites, and update a member's department or role.
• Billing (admin only) — view your current plan, trial status, seat count, and renewal date. Manage your subscription via the billing portal.
• Schema — view your organisation's column structure. If you are an admin and no schema has been set up yet, this is where you configure it. The schema is locked after your first BOM upload to keep your data consistent. If you need to change it, contact support@threadlineonline.com.

Admins can invite members, manage billing, configure the schema, and claim any BOM line regardless of department. There must always be at least one admin in the organisation.

Members can post messages, claim eligible lines, request updates, and update receipt status.

Departments determine which lines you can claim and which escalation notifications you receive. Buying and Production are the two departments with the most functional impact. All departments can message, mention, and receive notifications.

Your organisation starts on a free 14-day trial with full access. After the trial you need an active subscription to continue making changes. Subscriptions are billed per seat with a minimum of 5 seats, on a monthly or annual basis.

If a subscription lapses there is a 7-day grace period during which the app is read-only. After that it remains visible but no changes can be made until the subscription is renewed.