Ingredient, Recipe, and Product Inventory Setup

Before starting to work with the menu, you need to determine how exactly you plan to manage your products: using recipes with automatic ingredient deduction or as ready-made products without tracking their components. Further system setup will depend on this choice.

1. Determine whether you need to track ingredients

First, determine whether you need to track the stock levels of products and other components that are used when preparing dishes and drinks.

If you prepare products directly at your establishment and want the system to automatically reduce the stock of used products with every sale, we recommend using recipes.

If you sell ready-made products and do not need to track which ingredients they consist of, use products.

2. If you work with recipes

A recipe is a recipe for a dish or drink that specifies which ingredients are included in the item and in what quantities they are used to prepare it.

For example, when preparing a cappuccino, you can add coffee, milk, and other required components to the recipe and specify the quantity of each. After one cappuccino is sold, the system will know how much of each ingredient needs to be deducted from stock.

Working with recipes allows you to automate several processes at once:

• automatically deduct ingredients from stock when a sale is made;
• track actual product stock levels;
• calculate the cost of each dish or drink;
• determine profit from sales;
• understand which ingredients are used and in what quantities;
• track the need for new supplies.

Example

Suppose you sell coffee with milk. The recipe specifies that one serving requires 10 g of coffee and 150 ml of milk.

If 20 such drinks were sold during the day, the system will be able to account for 200 g of coffee and 3 liters of milk used according to the configured recipe.

This means you do not need to manually deduct every product used — deductions are made automatically based on sales and the configured recipe.

3. If you work with products

A product is a ready-made item that you sell without deducting individual ingredients. In other words, the system tracks the product itself as a finished unit rather than its components.

This option is suitable, for example, for:

• bottled water;
• soft drinks;
• chocolate bars;
• chewing gum;
• packaged snacks;
• other ready-made products that you sell without preparation.

For example, if you sell a bottle of water, you do not need to create a recipe and add water to it as an ingredient. In this case, it is enough to create the ready-made product “Water” and specify its price and other required data.

4. How to choose the right option

For convenience, you can follow a simple rule:

• Do you prepare a dish or drink from several components? Use a recipe.
• Do you sell ready-made products without preparation? Use a product.

If necessary, you can use both approaches in the same menu. For example, manage coffee and sandwiches using recipes, and bottled water and chocolate bars as ready-made products.

5. Create categories

After you have decided on the way you will work, the next step is to create categories.

Categories help structure the menu and quickly find the required items. They should be created according to the assortment of your establishment.

For example, categories can look like this:

• Coffee;
• Tea;
• Cold drinks;
• Fast food;
• Lunches;
• Desserts;
• Breakfasts;
• Salads;
• Ready-made products.

If you use recipes, create categories for recipes. If you work with ready-made products, create categories for products.

6. Create ingredients for recipes

If you choose to work with recipes, after creating the categories you need to add ingredients that make up your dishes and drinks.

For example, ingredients for a coffee shop may include:

• coffee beans;
• milk;
• cream;
• sugar;
• syrups;
• tea;
• lemon;
• other products and components.

For each ingredient, you need to enter the relevant data, including its name, unit of measurement, and other information required by the system.

If the ingredients are not yet in stock

You do not have to wait for the first supply to start setting up the menu. If there is no actual stock of an ingredient when you create it, you can specify quantity 0.

At this stage, you can enter an estimated purchase price. This allows you to complete the recipe setup and avoid postponing menu creation until the products are actually received.

After the first supply, you can record the actual stock levels in the inventory, and the purchase price of the ingredients will be updated according to the actual supply data.

7. Create recipes

Once the categories and required ingredients have been created, you can proceed to setting up recipes.

For each dish or drink, you need to enter all the required information, including the item name, category, and ingredients.

The most important part of a recipe is the list of ingredients and their quantities required to prepare one serving or one unit of the product.

For example

A recipe for the “Cappuccino” item may include:

• coffee beans — the required quantity for one serving;
• milk — the required quantity for one serving;
• other components, if they are used in the recipe.

After saving the recipe, the system will use this data during sales. When a customer orders one serving, the corresponding quantity of each ingredient will be deducted from stock.

8. Create products

If you have chosen to manage ready-made products, create products instead of recipes.

For each product, you need to enter the required data, such as its name, category, price, and other parameters provided by the system.

Unlike a recipe, a product does not contain a list of ingredients that need to be automatically deducted during a sale.

9. Add a supply

After the menu, categories, ingredients, recipes, and products have been configured, if you work with ingredients, we recommend proceeding to create a supply.

A supply is used to record the products and other components actually received and add them to stock.

For example, if you purchased coffee beans, milk, and syrups, when creating the supply, enter the received quantities and actual purchase prices. After that, the corresponding stock levels will appear in inventory.

This also allows the system to use the current purchase price of ingredients for subsequent cost calculations.

10. Recommended setup order

To avoid missing any important steps, we recommend setting up the menu in the following order:

1. Choose your inventory management method: recipes for dishes and drinks or products for ready-made products.
2. Create categories and assign future items to the appropriate categories.
3. If you use recipes — create ingredients. If they are not yet in stock, set the quantity to 0 and enter an estimated price.
4. Create recipes or products and enter all the required information.
5. Check the menu settings to make sure that names, categories, prices, and recipe ingredients are entered correctly.
6. Add the first supply if you work with ingredients. This will allow you to record the actual stock levels in inventory.
7. Check the current purchase prices of the ingredients after recording the supply.

11. What happens after setup is complete?

After all settings have been completed, the system will be ready for daily use.

If you work with recipes, sales will be linked to ingredient usage: the system will be able to automatically deduct the required quantity of products, calculate the cost, and help monitor item profitability.

If you work with products, inventory will be managed at the level of finished products without the need to create and track the components of each item.

Summary

The basic rule is simple: if a dish or drink needs to be prepared from separate ingredients before it can be sold — use a recipe. If you sell ready-made products and do not want to track their components — use a product.

To work with recipes, first create categories and ingredients, then set up the recipes, and after receiving the products for the first time, create a supply. This will allow you to correctly establish inventory levels and use current purchase prices to calculate the cost.

For ready-made products, it is enough to create the categories and the products themselves, and enter the information required for their sale.