BOM header row

Just wondering if this is normal behavior:

I am using the standard BOM table (not Excel).  I want to insert a row above Row 1 and want to populate it with info about the final assembly.   It looks like this:

I was able to link the fields for the NUMBER, DESCRIPTION, LENGTH, WITDTH, THICKNESS and OPCOMM to custom properties in the final assembly model.   Then I chose to save the whole thing as a BOM template.   The issue that I run into is when I try to insert the new template into a new item, the whole top row is missing.  I was hoping that by saving it as a template, it would automatically bring over the custom properties for the final assembly that it was being inserted for.

Is there a reason that it doesn't save the row?   I am now trying to see if maybe we can create a macro to put the row in and get the properties written but I am not having much luck there either.

Any thoughts are appreciated.