Entering material data is an important step for building a complete environmental model of your site. In this article, you’ll learn how to enter material compositions (i.e., BOMs) for your products and link environmental datasets to purchased materials. This ensures your assessments are accurate and traceable to the right sources. This article answers the following questions:
Why does material data entry matter?
How to add product compositions (i.e., BOMs)?
How to connect datasets to purchased materials?
How to search and select (material) datasets in Helix?
Next steps.
Looking for more context? Check out these related articles:
Why does material data entry matter?
Adding accurate material data is an essential step in your modeling workflow. It happens after adding your products and production amounts. Learn more about that here.
Why it matters:
It builds the Bill of Materials (BOM) for each product.
It connects each material to its environmental impact using verified LCI datasets.
It ensures your footprint results reflect real-world inputs, supporting better decisions and more reliable reporting.
How to add product compositions (i.e., BOM)?
Step 1. Navigate to the compositions page
Go to the top navigation bar: Input - Company → 3.Product → 4.Composition
Here, you’ll see a list of all your products. If you haven’t added products and production volumes yet, start with this article.
Step 2. Gather the required information
The following information is required for Product compositions:
A list of materials used in each product.
The weight per material, per unit of product.
Units of measurement (e.g., kg, g, L).
Step 3. Add materials to each product
Click ‘Add material’ under the product name (see Figure 1).
In the pop-up:
Enter the material name.
Enter weight and select the correct unit.
Click ‘Done’.
Repeat for each material used in the product.
Pro tip - Copy function: Use the Copy function to duplicate and adjust BoMs for similar products. It saves time when your products have minor material differences.
Figure 1: Material page overview – Click Add material to open the panel.
Note - Weights: The total weight of materials in the BoM may differ from the product’s listed weight in the ‘Products’ tab. This could be due to gross vs. net weight.
Example: To make a 5 kg wooden chair, your factory might need 8 kg of wood due to cutting losses. In this case, BoM weight = 8 kg; Product weight = 5 kg.
Make sure your BoM weights match or slightly exceed product weights to ensure accuracy.
[Optional]: Export or import BoMs
To import the BOM of your products into Helix:
Go to the Input → 3. Product → 4.Compositions page, click ‘Export’ to download the import template (Figure 2).
Fill in the file. Each row represents a single material/component (flat structure; no nested materials). For each row fill out:
Product (A): Name of the product whose BOM you’re importing.
Material (B): The material in that row.
Amount (C): Quantity of that material in the product (a product can only contain each material once, aggregate amounts if needed).
Unit (D): Unit of measurement (usually expressed in weights).
Import the completed file into Helix.
Before saving, verify the imported data is correct.
Import Failing: Troubleshooting Steps
Import Failing: Troubleshooting Steps
If your import fails or you see ‘ignored lines’:
Confirm all headers are correct and in the right columns.
Remove any formulas.
Ensure no duplicate materials for the same product. A product can only contain a material once, so the total amount for a certain material should be aggregated into one BOM line.
Figure 2: Excel import template of ‘Composition’ Page.
For more context on how to import (composition) data, you can read this article.
How to connect datasets to purchased materials?
Now that you’ve added your materials, the next step is assigning an environmental dataset to each one.
Step 1. Navigate to the purchasing page
Go to the top navigation bar: Input – Company → 1.Company → 3.Purchasing.
Here you’ll see all the materials that appear in your compositions. This is where you link them to LCI datasets.
Step 2. Gather the information that you need
The following information is helpful when adding datasets to purchased materials:
Basic material info (e.g., description, CAS number, technical/safety datasheets).
Optional: CAS number or specifications to refine your search.
Step 3. Add new materials (if needed)
If a material doesn’t show up yet (see figure 2).:
Scroll to ‘New Material’.
Enter the material name.
Click ‘Add’.
Note - Edit and removing materials: To edit or remove materials, use the pencil or ‘x’ icons. Materials used in a composition can’t be deleted until they are removed from the product.
Note - Adding new materials: if a material is not yet in purchasing and you have to add it manually, that means the material is not included in any product BOM! Make sure to add the product in the required BOMs as well.
Step 4. Add a dataset
Click the pencil icon next to a material.
Select ‘Add dataset’ (Figure 3).
In the pop-up, search for a dataset using the strategies below.
Select the dataset and click ‘Save’.
Figure 3: Purchasing page - "Add Material" and "Add Dataset" buttons.
How to search and select (material) datasets in Helix?
Use search strategies to find a representative dataset for your purchased material. General tips and tricks for searching for (ecoinvent) datasets are described here (link), including: interpreting dataset naming structure, understanding market and production datasets, using keywords, checking the geographical scope, and matching the process.
Specific strategies in Helix are:
Understand dataset names
When selecting datasets in Helix, it's important to know how they’re structured. The dataset name contains clues about what the dataset represents, how it was created, and where it applies. This helps you pick a dataset that accurately matches your real-world material or process. Read more about Ecoinvent dataset interpretation here. Below, we describe some specific dataset naming features in Helix.
Most datasets in Helix follow this naming format:
Figure 4: Dataset naming format for Helix datasets.
Key parts to pay attention to:
Process and Product: These define what the dataset actually measures.
Region: Look for labels like GLO (global), RER (Europe), or RoW (Rest of World). These reflect regional assumptions that affect the footprint.
Database Version: More recent versions (e.g., ecoinvent v3.11) often include more accurate or updated data. Be consistent across your model.
Caution - Product name: Always pay attention to the product listed in the dataset name. The same process might yield different products, each with a different impact → wrong product, wrong results.
Example of dataset naming structure:
Figure 5: Example of dataset naming structure for Helix dataset.
2. Use search filters
You can search through the full LCA dataset library in Helix by typing the full or partial name of materials. To narrow down the number of results, you can use the pre-set filters in Helix. The filters are:
Figure 6: Filter options during dataset selection in Helix
Materials: Ecoinvent datasets related to materials.
Energy: Ecoinvent datasets related to energy.
Transport: Ecoinvent datasets related to transport.
Waste: Ecoinvent datasets related to waste treatment.
Next steps
Once your compositions and purchased materials are correctly entered and linked to datasets, your environmental model, especially the product and material aspects, is closer to being complete! Next, you can complete the transport data entry.
This article was written in close collaboration with Fabiënne de Bever:
