Managing Ingredients

What this page does

The Ingredients page is the master list of every raw material used in your recipes. Each ingredient you add can then be:

Linked to a batch recipe (a prepared sub-component, e.g. tomato sauce) or a menu recipe (the full ingredient list for a product on the menu).
Optionally linked to a supplier, so stock orders know which supplier the ingredient comes from.
Optionally stock-tracked, so back-office knows how much of it is on hand and warns you to reorder.

Each ingredient has a calculated unit cost (cost per unit of volume or yield) which flows through into recipe costs, food-cost margin reports and menu engineering reports.

Where to find it

In the left sidebar go to Management > Stock Control > Ingredients.

Note: This is a dual-level page. Where you manage ingredients depends on whether your stores share a Company Menu:

Company Menu enabled — manage ingredients at Company level (clear the store switcher). All stores share the same ingredient list.

Company Menu disabled — manage ingredients at Store level (select the store in the switcher first). Each store has its own ingredient list.

The page header tells you which mode is active.

Adding an ingredient

Click Add Ingredient in the top right.
Fill in the form:
- Name (required) — how the ingredient appears in recipes and on stock orders.
- Tax (required) — the tax rate that applies when this ingredient is purchased. Pick from the company's taxes.
- Type (required) — the ingredient type (e.g. Vegetable, Dairy, Dry Goods). Manage the list under Setup > Inventory Setup > Ingredient Types.
- Volume (required) — how much of the ingredient comes in the pack you buy (e.g. 5 for a 5kg bag).
- Yield (optional) — the effective volume you get from one pack after waste / trim / cooking loss. Leave blank if your yield equals your volume.
- Unit (required) — the unit of measurement for Volume and Yield (e.g. kg, g, l, ml). Manage the list under Setup > Inventory Setup > Ingredient Units.
- Cost (required) — what you pay for one pack at the stated volume.
- Unit Cost (read-only) — calculated automatically as cost ÷ yield (or cost ÷ volume if you don't set a yield). This is the per-unit price used by recipe and margin reports.
- Supplier (optional) — the supplier you buy this ingredient from. Manage suppliers under Management > Stock Control > Suppliers.
- Supplier Product Code (optional) — the supplier's reference code for the ingredient. Included on purchase orders.
- Track Stock — turn on to keep a running stock balance for this ingredient. See What Track Stock does below.
Click Save.

The ingredient appears in the list immediately.

How the unit cost is calculated

The unit cost is what flows through into every recipe and margin report. The formula is:

If you set a Yield: unitCost = cost ÷ yield
Otherwise: unitCost = cost ÷ volume

This means yield is the right place to record cooking / trim loss. For example: you pay £12 for a 5kg bag of potatoes, but after peeling you only get 4kg of usable potato.

Volume 5, Yield 4, Cost 12 → unit cost 3.00 per kg of usable potato.

The number is rounded to 4 decimal places.

What Track Stock does

Turning Track Stock on for an ingredient:

Creates a stock record for the ingredient (at every store that shares the Company Menu, or for the single store if you are managing at Store level).
Makes the ingredient available in the Stock Adjustment page so staff can record current quantities and adjustments.
Lets the ingredient be added to Order Stock purchase orders.
Enables low-stock alert emails when the balance falls below the alert threshold.

Turning Track Stock off later removes the stock records for the ingredient.

Duplicating an ingredient

Click the copy icon on any row. A clone is created with " (copy)" appended to the name. Useful when you need a near-identical ingredient (e.g. same supplier, slightly different pack size).

What the list shows

Each row in the ingredients list shows:

Name and Type
Supplier and Unit
Cost (pack cost) and Unit Cost (per-unit cost)
Recipes — how many batch recipes and menu recipes use this ingredient
Stock — a "Tracked" badge if Track Stock is on

Use the search box above the table to filter by ingredient name, supplier name or supplier product code.

Import and export

The toolbar above the ingredients table has Import and Export buttons. These let you move ingredients in and out of back-office as a spreadsheet — useful when seeding a new store, taking the list offline for review, or sharing your ingredient catalogue with a supplier.

The buttons work against whichever level you're currently viewing:

Company Menu enabled — make sure you're at Company level (no store selected in the switcher). Importing here creates the ingredients on the company so every store sees them.
Company Menu disabled — make sure you've selected the right store in the switcher first. Importing here creates the ingredients on that store only.

Exporting

Click Export. Your browser downloads a file named ingredients-YYYY-MM-DD.xls containing every ingredient at the current level. The file has one row per ingredient and these twelve columns, in this order:

Name
Type
Supplier
Supplier Product Code
Volume
Yield - Effective Volume
Unit
Cost
Unit Cost
Track Stock (true or false)
Min Stock (only meaningful when Track Stock is on)
Max Stock (only meaningful when Track Stock is on)

Open the file in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets to review or edit.

Importing

Click Import and choose a file. Three formats are accepted: .xls, .xlsx, and .csv. The file must have the same twelve columns in the same order as the export. Row 1 is treated as the header and is ignored — your data goes from row 2 onwards.

When the import finishes you'll see a banner telling you how many ingredients were created. If any rows were skipped (for example, an ingredient name that already exists in this scope) the banner mentions the skipped count too.

Note: Import adds new ingredients only — it does not update existing ones. If a row in your file has the same name as an ingredient that's already in the list, that row is skipped. To change an existing ingredient, edit it directly in the list.

Two convenience behaviours during import:

If a Type, Supplier or Unit in your file doesn't exist yet, it's created automatically for the current scope. (You can review the auto-created entries afterwards under Setup > Inventory Setup > Ingredient Types, Setup > Inventory Setup > Ingredient Units, or Management > Stock Control > Suppliers.)
The tax rate is set to the primary tax for your country. If your country has more than one tax, edit each imported ingredient afterwards to pick the right one.

Tips

The fastest way to bulk-edit is Export → edit the file → Import (skipping the rows you don't want to change).
If you keep an offline master spreadsheet, always start from a fresh Export so the column order matches.
After a large import, scan the list to confirm types, units and suppliers were matched the way you expected.

Deleting an ingredient

Click the bin icon and confirm.

Note: You cannot delete an ingredient that is used in a recipe. If you try, the page shows an error such as "Cannot delete: ingredient is used in 3 recipes. Remove it from those recipes first." Open each affected recipe (Batch Recipes or Menu Recipes), remove the ingredient, then come back here to delete.

Common questions

Why don't I see this page at Store level? If your stores share a Company Menu, ingredients are managed at the company so every store uses the same list. Clear the store switcher.

Why don't I see this page at Company level? If your stores have separate menus (Company Menu disabled), ingredients live per-store. Select the store in the switcher.

Can I import ingredients from a spreadsheet? Yes — use the Import button in the toolbar above the table. See the Import and export section above for the file format and behaviour.

An ingredient's cost has changed. Do I need to update my recipes? No — change Cost here and every recipe that uses this ingredient automatically picks up the new unit cost the next time it's saved. Reports refresh as well.

Can I link an ingredient to multiple suppliers? Only one supplier per ingredient. If you switch suppliers, edit the ingredient and update the supplier and supplier product code.