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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.mathership.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Ingredients

Ingredients are the foundation of your inventory system. Use ingredients to track stock, build recipes, calculate recipe usage, receive ordered products into inventory, and connect POS sales to stock movements.

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What are ingredients?

An ingredient is any item that you want to track inside your restaurant inventory. Examples:
  • Tomatoes
  • Olive oil
  • Beef
  • Milk
  • Wine
  • Flour
  • Sauces
  • Prepared components
Each ingredient belongs to your company and has a base unit of measure. The base unit defines how Mathership tracks the ingredient internally.

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When to use ingredients

Use ingredients when you want to:
  • Build recipes
  • Track stock levels
  • Receive ordered products into storage
  • Map vendor products to inventory items
  • Track waste
  • Transfer stock between storage units
  • Reduce stock from POS sales
  • Create inventory reports

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Viewing ingredients

To view your ingredients:
  1. Go to Manage
  2. Open Ingredients
  3. Select your company if needed
The ingredient list shows your existing ingredients and basic information such as name, unit, allergens, and stock information when available.

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Adding an ingredient

To add a new ingredient:
  1. Go to Manage → Ingredients
  2. Click Add Ingredient
  3. Enter the ingredient details
  4. Click Save
Required fields usually include:
  • Name
  • Base unit of measure
Optional fields may include:
  • Allergens
  • Active status
  • Additional ingredient details

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Base unit of measure

The base unit is the main unit used to track the ingredient. Examples:
IngredientRecommended base unit
Tomatoeskg
MilkL
Eggspiece
Olive oilL
Flourkg
Beefkg
Choose the unit you want to use for inventory tracking, not necessarily the unit you buy from the vendor.
For example, you might buy olive oil in bottles, but track it in liters.

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Editing an ingredient

To edit an ingredient:
  1. Open Ingredients
  2. Select the ingredient
  3. Update the details
  4. Save your changes
You can update details such as:
  • Name
  • Base unit
  • Allergens
  • Active status
Be careful when changing the base unit of an ingredient that is already used in recipes, product mappings, reports, or stock movements.

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Deleting an ingredient

To delete an ingredient:
  1. Open Ingredients
  2. Find the ingredient
  3. Open the actions menu
  4. Click Delete
  5. Confirm the deletion
Deleted ingredients are removed from active use.
Do not delete ingredients that are still used in recipes, product mappings, inventory history, or POS mappings unless you are sure they are no longer needed.

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Bulk adding ingredients

You can also add multiple ingredients at once. This is useful when setting up your inventory for the first time. A bulk upload or bulk creation can include:
  • Ingredient name
  • Base unit
  • Allergens
  • Active status
Example: 
name,unit,allergens
Tomatoes,kg,
Milk,L,dairy
Peanut Butter,kg,nuts
Use consistent ingredient names and units before importing a large list. This makes recipes, mapping, and reports easier to manage later.

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Allergens

Ingredients can include allergen information. This helps you identify allergens in recipes and supports safer menu planning. Common allergens include:
  • Gluten
  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Fish
  • Shellfish
  • Nuts
  • Peanuts
  • Soy
  • Sesame
Allergen information should always be checked carefully. Mathership can help organize the data, but your team remains responsible for verifying allergen accuracy.

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Ingredient names

Use clear and consistent ingredient names. Good examples:
  • Tomato puree
  • Beef ribeye
  • Olive oil extra virgin
  • Milk whole
  • Flour wheat
Avoid vague names such as:
  • Oil
  • Meat
  • Sauce
  • Cheese
  • Miscellaneous

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Ingredients and storage units

Ingredients can be tracked across storage units. For example:
  • Main kitchen
  • Dry storage
  • Cold room
  • Bar storage
  • Freezer
  • External storage
When viewing ingredients with a selected storage unit, Mathership can show the current stock for that storage location.

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Ingredients and recipes

Ingredients are used to build recipes. A recipe line can contain:
  • An ingredient
  • Quantity per portion
  • Unit
  • Optional trim or loss percentage
Recipes use ingredients to calculate expected stock usage. Example:
RecipeIngredientQuantity
Tomato soupTomatoes2 kg
Tomato soupCream0.5 L
Tomato soupSalt0.02 kg
See Recipes for more details.

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Ingredients and vendor products

Vendor products can be mapped to ingredients. This is important when you receive orders into inventory. Example:
Vendor productIngredientConversion
Tomato box 5 kgTomatoes5 kg
Milk crate 12 x 1 LMilk12 L
Olive oil bottle 0.75 LOlive oil0.75 L
This allows Mathership to convert ordered products into inventory quantities. See Product Mapping for more details.

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Ingredients and receiving orders

When you receive a vendor order, Mathership can add the received products to inventory. For this to work properly:
  1. The ordered product must be mapped to an ingredient
  2. The conversion factor must be correct
  3. A storage unit must be selected
  4. The received quantity must be confirmed
See Receiving Orders for more details.

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Ingredients and stock counts

Stock counts use ingredients to compare counted stock with the current book stock. During a stock count, you can:
  • Select a storage unit
  • Count ingredients
  • Enter counted quantities
  • Post stock adjustments
See Stock Counts for more details.

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Ingredients and waste

Waste entries reduce ingredient stock. Examples:
  • Spoiled tomatoes
  • Broken bottles
  • Overproduced sauce
  • Kitchen waste
When waste is posted, Mathership creates a stock movement and reduces the ingredient quantity. See Waste for more details.

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Ingredients and transfers

Transfers move ingredients from one storage unit to another. Example:
  • From Main Storage to Kitchen
  • From Cold Room to Bar
  • From Central Storage to another company location
See Transfers for more details.

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Ingredients and POS integrations

Ingredients can be reduced automatically when POS sales are imported or synced. This usually works through recipes or POS mappings. Example:
  1. A POS item is sold
  2. The POS item is mapped to a recipe
  3. The recipe contains ingredients
  4. Mathership reduces the related ingredients from inventory
See POS Integrations for more details.

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Ingredient stock information

Depending on your setup, ingredient pages may show stock-related information such as:
  • Current quantity
  • Storage unit
  • Base unit
  • Packaging breakdown
  • Last movement
  • Inventory value
Stock values are calculated from inventory ledger movements such as:
  • Receipts
  • Issues
  • Waste
  • Transfers
  • Stock count adjustments

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Best practices

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Use one clear name per ingredient

Use one consistent ingredient name across recipes, mappings, and reports. Good:
  • Beef ribeye
  • Beef tenderloin
  • Beef brisket
Avoid:
  • Beef
  • Meat
  • Steak

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Choose stable base units

Use base units that make sense long term. Good examples:
  • kg for food sold or stored by weight
  • L for liquids
  • piece for countable items

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Add allergens early

Add allergen information when creating ingredients. This avoids missing data later when recipes are created.

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Keep ingredients clean

Review your ingredient list regularly. Remove or deactivate unused ingredients only when they are no longer needed.

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Map vendor products carefully

Most receiving problems come from missing or incorrect product mappings. Always check:
  • Product
  • Ingredient
  • Unit
  • Conversion factor

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Common problems

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Ingredient does not appear in a recipe

Check that:
  • The ingredient exists
  • The ingredient belongs to the selected company
  • The ingredient has not been deleted
  • The page was refreshed after creating it

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Stock quantity looks wrong

Check:
  • The selected storage unit
  • Recent receipts
  • Waste entries
  • Transfers
  • Stock count adjustments
  • Product mappings and conversion factors

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Received products do not update stock

Check that:
  • The vendor product is mapped to an ingredient
  • The order was received into a storage unit
  • The received quantity was entered
  • The item was not already posted before

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Wrong unit appears

Check the ingredient base unit and the product mapping conversion. The vendor product unit and the ingredient base unit may be different.

Storage Units

Create and manage storage locations for your ingredients.

Recipes

Use ingredients to build recipes and calculate usage.

Product Mapping

Map vendor products to ingredients for receiving and inventory tracking.

Receiving Orders

Receive ordered products and transfer them into inventory.

Stock Counts

Count ingredient stock and post inventory adjustments.

Inventory Reports

Review stock levels, movements, costs, and usage.