Feature Overview: Recipes

Feature Overview: Recipes

 
The Recipes module lets users create and manage recipes that represent made-to-order items, prepped or batched items, and gift baskets. Recipes track ingredient usage and automatically deplete inventory based on sales, helping keep on-hand quantities and costs accurate.

 
  1. Item Management → Recipes
  2. Item Management → POS Item Map
  3. Item Management → Inventory Items
 

Create recipes whenever you need to manage:

  • Batched or prepped items

  • Menu items

  • Gift baskets (primarily for retail clients)

 

  1. Primary: Food & Beverage and Concessions
  2. Secondary: Retail clients using gift baskets
  
Recipes and inventory items

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

Recipe behaviors are preset by Yellow Dog and control how inventory items and ingredients behave across the system.

  1. 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).
  2. 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.
  3. 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. 
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Other
    Used for nonstandard or conflicting behaviors. This option is rarely needed.
Recipe Types

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.

Counting Batch and Production Items in Physical Inventories

Both batch and production recipes can be included in physical inventories.

  • 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.

Selling Recipes

To ensure sales deplete ingredients correctly, items must be mapped or matched. Selecting Mapping or Matching is dependent on your Point of Sale. 

  • 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.

Recipe Editor

The Recipe Editor provides:

  • Store-specific costs (via the store selector)

  • Recommended retail price based on the Target Recipe Cost

  • 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:

  • Exist for all applicable items

  • Include accurate ingredients and quantities

  • Are correctly mapped to the POS

Regular reviews help maintain inventory accuracy and reliable cost reporting.