FAQs: How can prepped items be tracked and counted in physical inventory?

FAQs: How can prepped items be tracked and counted in physical inventory?


Q: How can prepped items be tracked and counted in Physical Inventories?

A: In Yellow Dog Inventory, prepped items can be tracked and included in physical inventories by completing three setup steps:

  1. Create the recipe

  2. Create the inventory item

  3. Connect the recipe to the item and set the recipe behavior

Let’s walk through each step.

1. Create the Recipe

A recipe is simply instructions for making a prepared item. For example, mashed potatoes may be made from potatoes, butter, milk, garlic, salt, and pepper.

When you build this recipe in Yellow Dog, you’re telling the system what ingredients come together to represent “mashed potatoes.”

2. Create the Inventory Item

A recipe alone is just instructions—it doesn’t give you something to count. To make the prepped food trackable, you need an inventory item that represents the final product (in this case, mashed potatoes). This gives you an item that can appear in physical inventories.

3. Connect the Recipe to the Item & Set the Behavior

With the recipe and item created, the last step is linking them and choosing how the system should treat the prepped item. There are two behaviors: Production or Batch.

  • Production

    • The item does hold an on-hand.

    • Each time the item is produced, your team must create a manual adjustment: the ingredients are depleted, and the on-hand of the finished item increases.

    • This provides clear visibility of the prepared product but requires extra effort to maintain.

  • Batch

    • The item does not hold an on-hand.

    • No manual adjustments are required. Instead, when the prepped item is counted in a physical inventory, the system attributes the quantity back to its ingredients.

    • The system doesn’t “know” you have mashed potatoes—it only sees the underlying ingredients. Still, the value of the prepped item is accurately reflected through those ingredients.

Which is Better: Production or Batch?

Neither method is universally better. The right choice depends on how your team works:

  • Choose Production if you want direct on-hand tracking of prepared items and are comfortable with extra manual steps.

  • Choose Batch if you prefer less administrative work and are fine with the system recognizing the value only through ingredients.


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