Collections and Purchase Planning

A collection is a regional project built from existing watches. It can track desired quantities, purchases, actual spending, a budget, and an optional notification when all remaining items qualify. Watches and their alert rules are shared; quantities and payment records belong to each project.

Create and edit

1. Open Watchlist > Manage collections. In the current dev checkout, use Watchlist > Manage > Manage collections; import and bulk selection are grouped in the same panel.
2. Create a collection, give it a name, and optionally enter a project budget.
3. Select watches in the searchable list with thumbnails and variant details.
4. Choose Create collection or Save changes. Checkbox selections are drafts until saved; cancelling discards them.

You can also select Watchlist cards and use Add to collection, or choose an existing/new collection directly when adding a product from Browse. Existing watches and memberships are reused, preserving their rules and purchase records. Collection membership saves are applied together with the name.

If saved selections disappear, restart the updated GearBeacon process and refresh the browser. The current editor checks server support and verifies the returned membership before reporting success. See Troubleshooting.

Cards and grouping

Collection cards use the same grid size as product cards, preview up to four products, and show the estimated project total in the price position. Open the image/name for totals and an always-visible list of member thumbnails, variant/SKU details, prices, and readiness. View items, Alerts, and Edit remain available on the card. Member badges read Collection: name.

Enable Group items in collections to use collections like folders. The All collections view shows collection cards and ungrouped watches, with no duplicate individual cards for assigned items. Use View items or select a collection to see its members. Search finds matching collection names or products inside them; removing an item's last collection restores its individual card. This browser remembers the option, and resetting filters keeps it. Grouping changes presentation only: watches, alerts, history, and the monitored-item count stay intact.

Quantities, purchases, and budgets

Collections also serve as purchase plans. Set an optional Project budget in the collection editor. Open the collection image or name to see Spent, Remaining cost, Budget, budget status, and purchased-unit progress. Each always-visible item row includes:

• Edit item: desired quantity (1–1,000), purchased quantity, combined amount actually paid, and the per-unit target price. Quantities and payment records belong to this collection; target prices are shared with the item's watch and all its collections. Clearing a target also turns off that watch's available-at-target condition.
• Record purchase: starts with all desired units purchased and suggests the remaining catalog cost plus any previously recorded payment. Adjust the quantity and combined total to match the actual purchase, then Save item. Previously purchased units with an unknown cost leave this suggestion empty. Editing or cancelling does not save until submitted.
• Store: opens the product or exact variant on the UniFi Store.
• Remove: removes the item and its purchase record from this collection while retaining its watch, rules, history, and membership in other collections.

Project estimates use recorded spending plus the current confirmed catalog price multiplied by each remaining quantity. Recorded payments stay fixed as catalog prices change. Unknown payments and missing prices are disclosed; the app does not claim an under/over-budget amount until all costs are known. Entering zero paid is valid. Budget and payment amounts use the selected store's currency with two decimal places; GearBeacon does not convert currencies or calculate shipping and additional checkout costs. Quantities help plan purchases; catalog availability does not confirm how many units can be ordered. Renaming a collection or saving its selected items preserves quantities and payments for retained members.

For example, a project with two desired units, one purchased for 80.00 total, and a current catalog price of 90.00 for the remaining unit has estimated spending of 170.00. Enter 80.00, not the unit price multiplied again, in the combined paid-total field. If a purchased unit's actual cost is unknown, the app marks the estimate incomplete.

Budget-aware alerts (current dev)

Open the existing Alerts button and enable Only notify when this collection is within budget. Also enable Notify when all remaining items qualify to send notifications. Enter the budget in Edit collection. These additions are in the current dev checkout, not the published v1.2.0 downloads.

The condition requires every remaining item to meet its stock/target conditions and recorded spending plus remaining units' confirmed prices to be at or below the project budget. For example, 250.00 already spent plus two remaining units at 375.00 qualifies for a 1,000.00 budget. Zero is a valid known payment or budget. Purchased units with an unknown payment, missing or pending prices, stale observations, or an unset budget block qualification. Clearing the budget retains the enabled condition and asks you to set a budget again.

For Any variant, the alert estimate uses the lowest-priced available variant that meets the shared target; an unavailable cheaper option cannot satisfy the budget. Unknown or pending prices on available alternatives keep the estimate uncertain. Select an exact variant to narrow the condition. The alert estimate may differ from the general collection catalog estimate, which can include unavailable variants; the readiness explanation names the budget result. Shipping, additional taxes, and checkout costs are excluded, and availability does not prove the desired quantity is in stock.

Cards and details explain blockers such as an over-budget amount or a missing confirmed price. Enabling or changing the condition, budget, quantities, payments, or targets establishes a fresh baseline and cancels obsolete pending/failed collection jobs. Saving a qualifying plan does not send a catch-up alert. A later confirmed transition from not qualifying to qualifying sends once; unknown observations do not rearm it. Empty, completed, and archived projects do not notify. The condition leaves individual watch rules intact and continues to honor the collection's chosen item-alert mode.

Archive and restore

Use Archive collection in the editor or Archive in Manage collections to set a project aside. Archiving preserves its members, desired/purchased quantities, actual spending, budget, and saved alert settings. It removes the collection from the default cards, active destinations, and readiness overview, cancels its pending/failed collection deliveries, and releases its collection-only override. Shared watches remain monitored under their saved rules; another active collection may still suppress their individual notifications. With grouping enabled, archived memberships remain grouped away from the default individual cards. Manage collections > Archived > View watches opens them explicitly. Restore returns the project to active views and reapplies its saved alert mode with a fresh readiness baseline; it does not send an immediate readiness alert or replay cancelled jobs. A delivery already in progress may finish.

Remove, undo, or delete

After Remove on a collection item row, Undo restores its exact desired quantity, purchased quantity, and combined payment. Undo stays in the collection manager until dismissed or the page is refreshed; closing and reopening the manager keeps it. It does not expire on a short timer. Undo cannot overwrite an item added again after removal, and it cannot recreate a deleted watch or collection. Shared target prices and alert rules are not rolled back. Removing a watch from the Watchlist still removes its memberships from all collections, including archived ones.

Deleting an entire collection keeps its watches, alert rules, and history, but removes that collection and its project records. The dialog closes after deletion. Archive a project instead when you want to retain its spending and purchase history.

Readiness and alerts

Watchlist collections show how many remaining items qualify, which items are waiting for stock or a target price, which need fresh confirmation, and how many are purchased. Each remaining watch must be available and at or below its target price, if one is set. An Any variant watch needs one specific variant to meet both conditions. Collection readiness does not establish stock quantities or reserve inventory.

Open Alerts on the card, at the bottom of details/editing, or beside the project in Manage collections. Collection alert settings save automatically in their separate view. New collections must be created first; opening alerts from an editor applies to the saved collection and preserves pending edits for Back to editing > Save changes.

The default mode lets item and collection notifications coexist. Collection alerts only can suppress individual member alerts without deleting saved item rules. Overlapping collections and queue cancellation have specific behavior: read Collection alert rules before choosing the override.