Inventory master
The master inventory is the owner-wide list of ingredients whose stock you want to track. Each entry carries a name, unit, cost per unit, and low-stock threshold — defined once for the whole business. Every store picks up the items it carries from this list and keeps its own running count (see Store inventory).
The screen
A list of every master inventory item, with an action button to add a new one and — once you start tagging items — a row of category tabs above the table. Items are sorted by name within the active tab.
12345671 Add Master Inventory — opens a dialog to create a new ingredient. See Add or edit an item below.
2 Category tabs — filter the list to one category. The bar appears only once at least one item has a category. See Organize with categories below.
3 Name — how the ingredient is referred to across the app (e.g. Beef Patty, Cola Syrup).
4 Cost / Unit — the price you pay per unit of this ingredient. Used to value waste and expected expenses.
5 Unit — how the ingredient is counted: kg, g, L, ml, pcs or a packaging unit such as packs, cans, bottles, cases. When an item also records its content or an order unit, those appear as small sub-lines here — e.g. 1 bottle = 1 L and Order: 1 case = 12 bottles. See Add or edit an item for how to set them.
6 Low Stock Threshold — the level at which a store's stock of this ingredient starts flagging red on its inventory screen. Set it high enough that you have time to re-order before the store actually runs out.
7 Edit / Delete — the pencil opens the edit dialog for that row; the red trash icon starts the delete flow (see Deleting an item below).
Organize with categories
Once a catalog grows past a handful of ingredients, categories keep it manageable. Each item can carry an optional category — Meat, Beverages, Bakery — and the catalog then shows a tab bar so you can jump to one group at a time.
- All — every item; the default view.
- One tab per category — sorted alphabetically.
- Uncategorized — items with no category. Shown only when at least one item is uncategorized.
The tab bar appears only after you tag the first item — an all-uncategorized catalog stays a plain list. Categories are free text: you assign them in the Add / Edit dialog (below), and the Category field suggests names you have used before so they stay consistent. Switching tabs filters the list in place — it never reloads or changes your data.
Add or edit an item
The Add Master Inventory button and the per-row edit pencil both open the same dialog. Only Name and Unit are required; everything else is optional. Fill in the fields and save.
- Name — required. The label shown everywhere in the app for this ingredient.
- Category — optional. A free-text group (e.g. Beverages) that drives the catalog's category tabs. Leave it blank to keep the item Uncategorized. The field suggests categories you have used before.
- Unit — required. The unit stock is counted and consumed in.
- Low Stock Threshold — optional, defaults to 5. The quantity — in the stock unit — at which the store inventory screen flags this ingredient as low.
- Content per unit — optional; packaging units only. How much one unit holds (e.g. 1 bottle = 1 L); the dialog labels it with the real unit, e.g. Content per bottle.
- Order unit — optional. A coarser unit you buy in (e.g. a case of 12 bottles); the label becomes Order by the case once you pick one.
- Cost — optional but recommended. Without it, waste and expected-expense calculations cannot be valued in money.
Unit, Content per unit, and Order unit all describe how the ingredient is measured but answer different questions — the next section explains how they differ and when to use each.
How an ingredient is measured
Three of the dialog's fields control measurement — Unit, Content per unit, and Order unit. They are easy to confuse because all three talk about "units," yet each answers a different question:
- Unit (required) — what do you 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 you sometimes restock by their contents.
- Order unit — how do you buy it in bulk? (e.g. 1 case = 12 bottles). Set it when you count in one unit but purchase in a coarser one.
Unit — the stock unit. The unit the ingredient is counted, stored, and consumed in — and the only one of the three that is required (every item has one).
- Used everywhere — stocktakes count in it, 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 you count on the shelf — it cannot be converted later, so a count of "12" stays "12" even if you change the unit.
Content per unit — what one unit holds. Optional; 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.
- Easier restocking — when you add the paired expense you 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.
- Also a catalog sub-line under the Unit column.
- Use it when an item is counted in whole containers but invoiced by its contents; leave it blank when a unit has no meaningful inner measure (you just count pcs of buns).
Order unit — your purchase unit. Optional. Use it when the unit you count is finer than the unit you buy: set the order unit (cases) and how many stock units one holds (12 bottles).
- Ordering & 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.
- Cost switches to the order unit price (Cost per case) and derives the per-stock-unit cost for you (₱360 per case → ₱30 per bottle).
- Leave it blank when you buy in the same unit you count 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.
Deleting an item
The red trash icon on each row opens a confirmation dialog that first checks where the item is in use: store inventories, product recipes, and add-on recipes.
- Not in use anywhere — the dialog confirms it is safe to delete and lets you proceed. The paired master expense item is removed at the same time.
- Still in use — the dialog lists every store, product, and add-on that references it, and the Delete button stays disabled. Remove those references first (un-register from store inventories, take out of recipes), then come back and delete.
There is no archive concept for inventory items: an ingredient either exists in the catalog or it does not.