Skip to main content
All CollectionsInventory and Stock reports
What is Manufacture and how to use it
What is Manufacture and how to use it

Manufacture helps to convert existing ingredients into prepared dishes and track them in stock. Mostly used in bakeries or diners.

Max avatar
Written by Max
Updated over 4 months ago

What is Manufacture?

When something needs to be cooked before it is ordered, it is commonly referred to as "pre-cooked" or "pre-made" food. This means that the food was prepared in advance and then stored until it is ordered, at which point it may be reheated or assembled to order. This is in contrast to "made-to-order" food, which is prepared from scratch after it is ordered.

💡 Savory pie or muffins need to be prepared in advance before they are sold.

To track pre-cooked meals in Poster we developed the Manufacture tool. It helps to convert existing ingredients into prepared dishes and track them in stock. Manufacture is handy when you bake cupcakes or prepare sauces.

Both dishes and preparations can be manufactured.

💡 Enable Use manufacturing of dishes and preparations in Settings → General before creating your first manufacture and save changes.

To create Manufacture

  1. Go to Inventory → Manufactures in the management console.

  2. Click Add.

  3. Enter a date and time of the manufacture.

  4. Select Storage where manufactured dishes will appear.

  5. Select a dish or preparation for manufacturing in Product.

  6. Enter a dish Quantity for manufacturing. For example, 25 cakes.

  7. Save your progress.

☝️ Create the first manufacture of any dish on the current date, because ingredients used in previous sales of that dish cannot be counted towards dishes manufactured retroactively. Following manufactures can be created on a past date, for instance, to offset a negative balance in the stock.

Manufacture in stock

After manufacturing 25 cakes, the required amount of eggs, milk, wheat flour, sugar, and vegetable oil is automatically withdrawn from the storage location. Now, 25 ready-to-sell cakes have appeared in the storage location instead of the withdrawn ingredients.

Go to Inventory → Ingredients movements to see the amount and cost of the manufactured dishes.

Manufacture sales

☝️ When cakes are sold after manufacturing, it reduces the number of cakes in stock instead of ingredients. If the number of cakes falls below zero in Inventory → Stock, it means that more cakes were sold than provided by manufacturing. To update the negative stock, make a new manufacture.

Manufacture costs

☝️ The food cost of manufactured dishes and preparations includes the cost of ingredients at the time of manufacturing. When a new supply of ingredients arrives and updates the current cost, you should add another manufacture to place a new batch of dishes with a new ingredient cost.

💡 Manufacturing new dishes while having the old batch in stock, recalculates their cost by this formula. Just like any other ingredient in stock.

To compare the expected and actual number of manufactured dishes in stock, make an inventory check.

Feel free to contact our customer support if you have any questions or concerns. We're available in chat @joinposter.com and email contact@joinposter.com


Following guides might be helpful too:

Did this answer your question?