Master inventory
The master inventory is the brand's ingredient preset — the stock items every connected store tracks, with their units, costs, and low-stock levels, defined once for the franchise. It is also what master recipes draw from, so build this catalog before wiring recipes.
This walkthrough defines the ingredients and decides, per item, whether stores can buy it anywhere or only from you.
1. Open the preset inventory
Open the franchise you want to work on. In the sidebar, under the Preset group, click Inventory. The Preset Inventory screen lists the Master Inventory Catalog — empty at first, with one row per ingredient once you start adding: Name, Sourcing, Cost / Unit, Unit, and Low Stock Threshold.
2. Add a preset inventory item
Click Add Preset Inventory in the top-right. The New Preset Inventory dialog asks for:
- Name — required. The ingredient as stores will see it (e.g. "Beef Patty", "Cola Syrup").
- Unit — required. How stock is counted, stored, and consumed (kg, g, L, ml, pcs, packs, cans, bottles, containers, rolls, pouches, boxes, cases).
- Low Stock Threshold — optional, defaults to 5. The level — in the stock unit — at which the item starts flagging low on a store's inventory screen.
- Content per unit — optional; appears only for packaging units. What one unit holds, e.g. 1 bottle = 1 L.
- Order unit — optional. A coarser unit the item is bought in, e.g. 1 case = 12 bottles.
- Cost per Unit — the brand default cost. The label becomes Cost per case once an order unit is set.
Only Name and Unit are required. Repeat for every ingredient the brand tracks; you can come back and add more later.
Unit, Content per unit, and Order unit all describe how the ingredient is measured, and Cost per Unit is read against them — the next section explains how they differ and when to set each.
How an ingredient is measured
Three of the dialog's fields control measurement. They are easy to confuse because all three talk about "units," yet each answers a different question:
- Unit (required) — what do stores count stock in? (e.g. bottles). Every item has one.
- Content per unit — what is inside one stock unit? (e.g. 1 bottle = 1 L). Set it for packaging units that are sometimes restocked by their contents.
- Order unit — how is it bought in bulk? (e.g. 1 case = 12 bottles). Set it when the counting unit is finer than the purchasing unit.
The dialog rewrites its own labels as you fill these in. Pick a packaging unit and the Content per bottle row appears; pick an order unit and the size field (of 12 bottles) appears next to it, a line confirms "Ordered in cases; stock is tracked and consumed in bottles", and the cost field renames itself to Cost per case.
Unit — the stock unit
The unit the ingredient is counted, stored, and consumed in — and the only one of the three that is required.
- Used everywhere downstream. Stocktakes count in it, master recipes deduct it on every sale, waste is logged in it, and the Low Stock Threshold is measured in it.
- Two families. A base unit (kg, g, L, ml, pcs) to track a raw measure directly, or a packaging unit (packs, cans, bottles, containers, rolls, pouches, boxes, cases) to count whole containers.
- Pick what a store counts on the shelf. It is not converted later — a count of "12" stays "12" even if the unit changes.
Content per unit — what one unit holds
Optional, and shown only when the Unit is a packaging unit. It records the contents of one stock unit in a base measure, e.g. 1 bottle = 1 L. The dialog labels the row with the real unit — Content per bottle.
- Easier restocking for stores. When a store records the paired expense it can enter the delivered quantity in either the stock unit (bottles) or the content measure (L), and the app converts: type "18 L" and it stores the right number of bottles.
- It becomes a catalog sub-line under the Unit column of the Master Inventory Catalog.
- Leave it blank when a unit has no meaningful inner measure — you just count pcs of buns.
Order unit — the purchase unit
Optional. Use it when the unit stores count is finer than the unit they buy: pick the order unit (cases) and how many stock units one holds (12 bottles).
- Ordering and receiving happen in the order unit. Restock converts the received amount into stock units automatically (2 cases → 24 bottles). Stock is still tracked and consumed in the stock unit.
- Leave it blank when the item is bought in the same unit it is counted in — the common case.
Content per unit looks inside one stock unit (1 bottle → 1 L), while an order unit groups several stock units into a purchase pack (1 case → 12 bottles). They are independent: an item can use either, both, or neither.
Cost per Unit — and Cost per order unit
The cost field is the brand's default price for the ingredient. Which price you type depends on whether an order unit is set:
- No order unit — the label reads Cost per Unit. Type the price of one stock unit (₱120 per kg).
- With an order unit — the label becomes Cost per case (the order unit you picked). Type the pack price you actually pay (₱360 per case). Beneath the field the dialog immediately shows the derived per-stock-unit cost — = ₱30.00 per bottles — and that derived figure is what the app stores and what the catalog's Cost / Unit column displays.
Cost is optional, but without it waste and expected-expense calculations cannot be valued in money for any store carrying the ingredient.
You never have to divide by hand. Enter 360 for a case of 12 and the app derives ₱30.00 per bottle; if you re-open the item to edit it, the field shows the case price again, not the per-bottle one.
Stores can adjust the cost for their own purchasing once the preset loads — unless the item is franchisor-exclusive, which is the next step.
3. Decide the sourcing
At the bottom of the same dialog sits the Franchisor-exclusive (only the Franchisor can supply) switch:
- Off (default) — the item shows Any supplier in the catalog. Stores restock it however they like: their own suppliers, direct expense entries, or orders to you.
- On — the item carries an amber Franchisor Only badge. Stores can only restock it by ordering from you; recording a direct expense against it is disabled in the store app, and its unit, pack content, and cost are locked on the store side ("Managed by the Franchisor" / "Set by HQ").
Franchisor-exclusive is the right setting for proprietary ingredients that must come from your StockHouse. For everything a store can reasonably buy locally, leave the switch off — stores keep control of their own cost and sourcing, and you avoid becoming the bottleneck.
What connected stores receive
When a store loads the preset, every ingredient here lands in the owner's master inventory carrying your franchise's logo badge.
On top of that:
- A paired expense item is created automatically. Each preset ingredient arrives with a Material expense item wired to it, so a purchase recorded in the store flows straight into its stock — you do not need to add these on the Master expenses page.
- Counts stay the store's own. Stores set their opening stock and run their own stocktakes; the preset only defines what to track, never how much is on hand.
- Stores can edit, not delete. A store can adjust an item's name, category, threshold, and cost (except on franchisor-exclusive items), but preset ingredients cannot be deleted from the store's list.
Publishing changes
Edits here save immediately and mark the franchise as having an update available; each connected store re-pulls the preset from its own Franchise Connections settings. See How updates reach stores.