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Ingredients

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

Track stock

Track ingredient quantities, values, and movements across storage units.

Build recipes

Use ingredients in recipes to calculate expected usage and stock deductions.

Receive products

Map vendor products to ingredients so received orders update stock correctly.

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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 your ingredient list

Go to Manage → Ingredients. The list shows all ingredients for your company.

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Filtering and searching

Use the toolbar to narrow the list. Click Add filter to show additional filters. Use Clear all to reset.

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Adding a new ingredient

1

Open Ingredients

Go to Manage → Ingredients.
2

Create a new ingredient

Click the button to add a new ingredient.
3

Enter the ingredient details

Add the ingredient name, base unit, and optional allergens.
4

Save the ingredient

Save the form to add the ingredient to your company inventory.

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Ingredient form fields

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Choosing the base unit

The base unit is the main unit used to track the ingredient. Choose the unit you use for inventory tracking, not necessarily the unit you buy from the vendor.
Choose base units carefully. Changing base units later can be disruptive because recipes, mappings, reports, and inventory movements depend on them.

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Adding many ingredients at once

Use CSV upload to add multiple ingredients at once. This is useful when setting up your inventory for the first time.

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CSV column mapping

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Example CSV

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Editing an ingredient

1

Open the ingredient

Go to Manage → Ingredients and click the ingredient row.
2

Click Edit

Use the edit action on the ingredient detail page.
3

Update the details

Change the name, allergens, or other editable fields.
4

Save changes

Save the updated ingredient.

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Deleting an ingredient

Only delete an ingredient when it is no longer needed. Before deleting or deactivating an ingredient, check whether it is used in:
  • Recipes
  • Product mappings
  • Stock counts
  • Waste entries
  • Transfers
  • POS mappings
  • Reports
Deleting or deactivating ingredients that are still used can make recipes, mappings, and reports harder to understand.

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Ingredient detail page

Click any ingredient row to open its detail page. The header shows:
  • Ingredient name
  • Active or inactive badge
  • Base unit
  • Packaging levels, if configured
  • Allergens
  • Creation date
From here, you can click Edit to update the ingredient or Reorder configurations to manage reorder rules.

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Stats

The stats strip shows a live summary.

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Recipes

This section lists the recipes that use this ingredient. It shows the quantity per portion and trim percentage for each recipe. Click a recipe row to open it. Click View all to open the full recipes sub-page for that ingredient.

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Mapped vendor products

This section shows all vendor products that are mapped to this ingredient, including:
  • Vendor name
  • Product name
  • Article number
  • Packaging levels
See Product Mapping for details on how to create these mappings.

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Per storage

This section shows current stock broken down by storage unit. Each storage row can include:
  • On-hand quantity
  • Inventory value
  • Last movement date
Click a storage row to open the inventory ledger for that ingredient and storage unit.

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Viewing all recipes for an ingredient

Click View all in the Recipes section of the ingredient detail page to open the full recipe list for that ingredient. This page shows all recipes that use the ingredient. You can filter by search or active status. You can sort by name, quantity per portion, creation date, or update date. Click a recipe row to open the recipe detail page.

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Reorder configurations

Reorder configurations define the rules Mathership uses to generate reorder suggestions for this ingredient. Click Reorder configurations on the ingredient detail page to manage them.

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Configuration fields

Reorder suggestions generated from these configurations are visible under Automation → Reorder Suggestions.

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Managing allergens

Ingredients can include allergen information. This helps identify allergens in recipes and supports safer menu planning. Allergens are entered as comma-separated free text when creating or editing an ingredient. Common allergens include:
  • Gluten
  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Fish
  • Shellfish
  • Nuts
  • Peanuts
  • Soy
  • Sesame

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Using ingredients in recipes

Recipes are built from ingredients. A recipe line can contain:
  • An ingredient
  • Quantity per portion
  • Unit
  • Optional trim or loss percentage
Recipes use ingredient quantities to calculate expected stock usage. See Recipes for more details.

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Mapping vendor products

Vendor products can be mapped to your internal ingredients. This is important when receiving orders into inventory. This allows Mathership to convert ordered products into inventory quantities. See Product Mapping for more details.

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Receiving orders into inventory

When you receive a vendor order, Mathership can add the received products to inventory. For this to work:
  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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Counting stock

Stock counts 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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Recording waste

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

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Moving stock between storage units

Transfers move ingredients from one storage unit to another. Examples:
  • 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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Connecting POS sales to stock

Ingredients can be reduced automatically when POS sales are imported or synced.
  1. A POS item is sold
  2. The POS item is mapped to a recipe or ingredient
  3. Mathership reduces the related stock from inventory
See POS Mapping for more details.

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Understanding stock information

The ingredient detail page shows stock-related information such as:
  • Current quantity on hand
  • Inventory value
  • Storages with stock
  • Last movement date
  • Per-storage breakdown with on-hand quantity, value, and last movement
Stock values are calculated from inventory ledger movements:
  • Receipts
  • Issues
  • Waste
  • Transfers
  • Stock count adjustments

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Naming ingredients clearly

Use clear and consistent ingredient names.
  • Tomato puree
  • Beef ribeye
  • Olive oil extra virgin
  • Milk whole
  • Flour wheat
Clear names make recipes, product mappings, stock counts, and reports easier to understand.

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Best practices

Use clear names

Use one clear name per ingredient across recipes, mappings, and reports.

Choose stable base units

Use units that make sense long term, such as kg for weight, L for liquids, and piece for countable items.

Add allergens early

Add allergens at creation time so recipe allergen data stays easier to audit.

Set reorder rules early

The more lead time and usage data Mathership has, the more useful reorder suggestions become.

Keep the list clean

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

Map products carefully

Most receiving problems come from missing or incorrect product mappings.

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Common problems

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
Check:
  • Recent receipts
  • Waste entries
  • Transfers
  • Stock count adjustments
  • Product mappings and conversion factors
  • The per-storage breakdown on the ingredient detail page
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
Check the ingredient base unit and the product mapping conversion.The vendor product unit and the ingredient base unit may be different.
Check that:
  • The name column is not empty
  • The unit value matches a known unit name or code
  • The CSV file has at least a header row and one data row
  • The column mapping is complete before uploading

Storage Units

Create and manage storage locations where ingredient stock is tracked.

Recipes

Use ingredients to build recipes and calculate expected usage.

Product Mapping

Map vendor products to ingredients for receiving and inventory tracking.

Receiving Orders

Receive ordered products and post them into ingredient stock.

Reorder Suggestions

View and act on suggestions generated from reorder configurations.

Inventory Report

Review stock levels, movements, costs, and usage across ingredients.
Last modified on June 7, 2026