Feature Overview: Recipes
- Item Management β Recipes
- Item Management β POS Item Map
- Item Management β Inventory Items
Create recipes whenever you need to manage:
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Batched or prepped items
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Menu items
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Gift baskets (primarily for retail clients)
- Primary: Food & Beverage and Concessions
- Secondary: Retail clients using gift baskets
Recipes cannot be added directly to physical inventories or manual adjustments. To include them in these actions, attach each recipe to an inventory item. Ingredient on-hand quantities adjust based on the quantities defined in the recipe.
Recipe behaviors are preset by Yellow Dog and control how inventory items and ingredients behave across the system.
- Batch recipes
The most common and easiest behavior to manage. Adjustments focus on ingredient on-hand quantities. When batch items are included in physical inventories or manual adjustments, their ingredients are adjusted accordingly. Batch recipes can be nested (for example, sauces or sides). - Production recipes
Focus is on the on-hand quantity of the finished product rather than the ingredients. You must regularly perform production adjustments to create the product in Yellow Dog. Ingredients are depleted during production, and future adjustments apply only to the finished item. Use this behavior only if your team can reliably manage production adjustments. - Production transfer
Similar to production recipes, but production adjustments can be skipped when transferring items from a location configured for production transfer. Ingredients are adjusted automatically based on the transfer quantity at the time of issuance, and the on hand of the finished product is increased in the accepting location. - Retail kit
Used for gift baskets. The finished inventory item holds the on-hand quantity after production. Kits can be disassembled, returning ingredients to inventory with a negative adjustment. - POS menu item
Represents made-to-order items such as burgers. Ingredients are depleted at the time of sale. These items cannot be added to physical inventories or waste adjustments. - Purchasing kit
Used when items are purchased as a set and sold individually. For accuracy, the same items and quantities must be used every time. - Other
Used for nonstandard or conflicting behaviors. This option is rarely needed.
Recipe types are user-defined categories used to organize recipes (for example, Batch Items, Appetizers, or Modifiers). Assigning recipe types allows Food & Beverage sales reports to group results by type, making it easier to analyze sales performance.
Both batch and production recipes can be included in physical inventories.
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Batch recipes
Counts are applied to the ingredients, not the finished batch. If you need to count a batch in a specific unit, create an additional recipe.
Example: If a batch of seasoned flour yields 40 lb but must be counted by the pound, create a second recipe representing 1 lb. Add the full 40 lb recipe as an ingredient, set the unit of measure to 1 lb, and attach the recipe to an inventory item. This works best when the full batch recipe has a net weight or volume defined. -
Production recipes
Counts apply directly to the finished inventory item. Ingredient on-hand quantities were already adjusted during production.
To ensure sales deplete ingredients correctly, items must be mapped or matched. Selecting Mapping or Matching is dependent on your Point of Sale.
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Mapping
Map items in POS Item Map to link a recipe to its POS button. -
Matching
For POS integrations that support matching, attach the recipe to an inventory item and select the POS Menu Item behavior. Enter the inventory item SKU in the SKU field in the POS
If a recipe was sold before being mapped, use Reprocess Sales in the Recipes module to update sales and deplete on hands.
When using a COGS setup, assign COGS accounts in POS Item Map so revenue posts correctly.
The Recipe Editor provides:
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Store-specific costs (via the store selector)
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Recommended retail price based on the Target Recipe Cost
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Fields for instructions, links, images, and net weight, volume, or portion size
Net weight or volume is critical when nesting recipes within other recipes.
Review recipes at least twice per year to ensure they:
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Exist for all applicable items
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Include accurate ingredients and quantities
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Are correctly mapped to the POS
Regular reviews help maintain inventory accuracy and reliable cost reporting.
Related Articles
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