Production Orders

Record a batch of a prepared item, such as a sauce or a curry base, so its ingredients leave stock when you cook it and the finished batch is added to stock.

You do this in the Web admin, under Inventory > Production Orders.

What a production order is for

Some items are cooked in bulk and held in stock before they are used in dishes. A production order records one such batch:

The ingredients are taken out of stock at the moment you cook, not later when dishes are sold.
The prepared item is added to stock in the quantity that really came out.
The cost per unit is worked out from what really went in, so a short batch shows up as a higher cost.

Before you start

A production order is always based on a recipe. The recipe must:

have the Type set to Batch,
be active, and
have Produces (stocked product) set to the product the batch makes.

Recipes are set up under Point of Sale > Recipes. See Recipes. If no recipe meets these conditions, the form shows "No recipes can be produced yet" and the create button is disabled.

Record a batch

Start a new order

Go to Inventory > Production Orders and click New Production Order.
Choose the recipe and warehouse

In Recipe, type to search and pick the recipe. In Warehouse, pick where the batch is made. The ingredients are taken from this warehouse and the prepared item is added to it.
Enter the number of batches

In Batches, enter how many full recipe batches you are making. For example, 2 batches of a recipe that yields 10 L plans 20 L. The hint under the field shows the planned quantity.
Click Create & continue to posting

The order is saved as a Draft. Its list of materials is filled in from the recipe and multiplied by the number of batches. If the recipe uses sub-recipes, they are replaced by their own ingredients. No stock has moved yet.
Enter what came out

Under What came out, type the Actual produced quantity. The hint shows how far it is from the planned quantity. Set Produced on if the batch was made at a different time.
Correct what went in

Under What went in, each material shows the quantity the recipe calls for in Recipe Says. Change Actually Used only on the lines where you used more or less. If the batch went to plan, leave them as they are.
Click Post Production

The order becomes Completed and stock is updated. The message shows the quantity produced and the cost per unit.

You do not have to post straight away. A draft stays in the list; click Post on its row, or open it and click Post Production, when the batch is finished.

Statuses

Status	Meaning	What you can do
Draft	Planned. Nothing has been taken from stock.	Post it, or open it and click Cancel Order.
Completed	Posted. Ingredients are consumed and the output is in stock.	View it. A completed order cannot be changed or cancelled.
Cancelled	A draft that was cancelled. No stock was moved.	View it.

What posting does to stock and cost

Area	Effect
Ingredients	The Actually Used quantity of each material is taken out of the warehouse. A line set to 0 takes nothing.
Prepared item	The actual produced quantity is added to the same warehouse.
Expiry	If the recipe has a Shelf Life (hrs), the output is put in its own batch with an expiry date counted from Produced on. The order shows it as Expires. See Batches.
Unit cost of the run	The total cost of the materials used, divided by the actual produced quantity.
Cost of the prepared product	Updated from the run according to Cost Update Method in Settings > Inventory > Costing. With Manual, the product cost is left unchanged. With Weighted Average, the run is averaged with the stock already on hand.

Posting does not check ingredient stock

A production order posts even if the warehouse does not hold enough of an ingredient. The ingredient's stock then goes below zero. Receive your purchases first, and check you chose the warehouse the ingredients are really in.

Read a completed order

Open a completed order to see how the batch went:

Produced and Yield Variance: the actual quantity against the planned quantity, as a percentage.
Material Cost and Unit Cost: what the batch cost in total and per unit.
Cost Variance: Should have cost (from the recipe) against Actually cost (from this run). It appears only if the recipe had a cost when the order was posted.
Materials: for each ingredient, the Planned and Actual quantity, the Variance and the cost.

Production Report

On the Production Orders list, click Report. Choose the From and To dates and click Run. The report starts on today's date.

Total Material Spend: the cost of all materials consumed in the period.
Production Runs: the number of completed orders.
Produced But Not Sold: the value of output not yet used.
Items Produced: one row for each prepared item, with runs, planned and produced quantity, yield variance, spend, unit cost, quantity used, portions sold and the unsold quantity.

Unsold is the quantity produced minus the quantity used in the period. Treat it as waste only for items made and used on the same day; an item made one day and used over several will show unsold stock that is still good.

Troubleshooting

"No recipes can be produced yet"

No active Batch recipe is linked to a product. Open the recipe under Point of Sale > Recipes, set Type to Batch and choose the product in Produces (stocked product).

The recipe does not appear in the search

Only active recipes of type Batch with a product in Produces (stocked product) are listed. Check those three things on the recipe.

"Recipe '...' has no ingredients to consume."

Add ingredients to the recipe, then create the production order again.

"Production order ... is already Completed."

The order has been posted and cannot be posted or changed again. To record another batch, create a new production order.

Documentation