Making stock: production runs, batches and costs

A production run is how stock gets made instead of bought: "I made 24 lavender candles today". Completing it takes the materials off the shelf, puts the finished batch on it, and records what the batch cost. A change in the wax price next month doesn't change what this batch cost.

Planning, starting and completing runs needs the Adjust stock and run production permission.

What you need first

A run follows the item's bill of materials, which says what one batch takes. Before your first run:

1. The materials are catalog items with Track stock on and a cost, usually from what you've bought.
2. The finished product has Track stock on and an active bill of materials.

A product sold in variants can't be made from New production run. Its variants are made through made to order (below) or the API.

Making a batch

Production → New production run. Pick what you're making and how many. The form:

• scales the bill of materials to that quantity: 1,200 g of wax for a batch of 12 becomes 2,520 g for 24, once the 5% waste on that line is counted;
• shows what this takes beside what's on hand, and warns you about anything you're short of;
• shows Buildable now: how many whole units the materials you have allow, and which material runs out first;
• shows each material's Cost, with No cost in amber on one that has none. When a material has no cost, or the bill of materials has labor and your labor rate is $0, a line above the button says the batch will be uncosted and links to the material and to Company Settings → Variables. The same line shows on the run and above Complete run.

Planning a run moves nothing. It sits on the production list as Planned until you press Start run (In progress, and still nothing has moved) and then Complete run. Before it's complete, Edit actuals changes the planned quantity, batch code, labor and the amounts used and wasted, Cancel stops it, and Delete run removes it. Back to planned takes a run that's in progress or canceled back to Planned; nothing has moved yet, so nothing goes back.

Completing a run

Complete run is the step that changes your stock. It asks for:

• How many came out. Batches rarely match the plan, so the run records what you got.
• What went in, for each material, and what was wasted: poured short, cut wrong, spilled.
• How long it took, costed at your hourly rate.

Completing writes to the stock ledger: a Materials consumed movement for each material, a Waste movement for anything spoiled, and a Production output movement for the finished units, at the batch's cost per unit, so the product's average cost moves with it.

Then the run's cost is fixed: materials at what they were worth going in, labor at your rate, overhead as a percentage of both, and the total divided by what the batch made. Nothing recalculates it later.

If a material has no cost yet, or its cost is kept in a unit the run's line can't convert to (a price per kilo on a line counted in pieces), the run says Cost incomplete and names it. The figures leave that material out, its Cost shows No cost, and the finished units go into stock without a cost from this batch, so they don't pass a figure that's too low on to your average cost and your orders. Give the material a cost before the next run.

Correcting a completed run

A completed run's figures are final, but a mistake in them isn't stuck there:

• Reopen to correct puts everything the run moved back: the finished units come off the shelf and the materials and waste go back on, each at the value it moved at. The run goes back to In progress with its figures filled in. Correct the one that was wrong and press Complete run again, and the run posts its movements afresh.
• Void run does the same reversal and cancels the run. It stays on the list with the date it was voided, because the stock ledger names it, so it can't be deleted.

Both ask first and say what goes back. A completed run's Notes stay editable, since they don't change its cost.

Waste

Wasted material leaves the shelf but not in a product. It isn't part of the batch's cost or of the cost of sales on your profit and loss. The Materials usage report shows it on its own line, so you can see what you throw away.

The year-end cost of goods statement does include waste, because that statement works from what you bought and what's left. Its reconciliation shows it as Waste written off.

Not enough of something

Being short is a warning, not a block, because a maker who poured before recording the delivery shouldn't be stopped. The run completes, the material goes below zero, and the run's history names the shortage.

To be stopped instead, turn on Block negative stock on the Stock card in Company Settings → Sales defaults. Completing a run short of materials then fails until you receive the delivery or correct what the run used.

Batches

Every run has a batch code, the run number unless you type your own. It's unique in your workspace, so a label names one batch. Batch label on the run page prints a label with the batch code, the product and the date it was made.

What a completed run made is sellable right away. If a product has to cure before it goes out (soap, candles), complete the run when the batch is ready, not the day you poured it. OrderDen has no cure date, for the same reason a bin has no quantity: it would split every count in two.

Made to order

Some things are never kept on the shelf; they're made when someone orders them. Tick Made to order in the item's Stock settings, and confirming an order for it opens a Planned run for that order line. That happens only when the item tracks stock, has an active bill of materials and isn't a kit. Otherwise no run is opened. The order page lists the runs opened for it, and each run links back.

Canceling the order cancels its planned runs. A run that has already made something isn't canceled, because those candles exist.

Buildable quantity

For a tracked product with no variants and an active bill of materials, the Making this card on the item's Stock tab shows Buildable now: the smallest number of whole units your materials allow, and which material limits it.

for each material: round down (available ÷ what one unit takes, waste included), then take the smallest

It rounds down, because half a candle isn't a candle. It uses each material's available quantity. Planned and in-progress runs don't set material aside, so two planned runs can both count the same wax. Make starts a run from it.

Reports

Two reports come from production, under Reports:

• Production summary: runs, units, materials, labor and overhead per item over a period, from the cost fixed on each batch.
• Materials usage: what each material went into, with waste on its own line and its share of the total.

Both export to CSV and are on the API.

On the dashboard

The On the bench widget shows runs planned or in progress.