Items
Items define what your business buys, stores, makes, or sells. The Item list is searchable, and the same Module contains the detail screen for creating or maintaining an Item.
Oak Creek Goods examples
Section titled “Oak Creek Goods examples”The public examples use the fictional Oak Creek Goods workflow. Useful Item Definitions in that workflow include:
| Item Code | Item | UOM | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
RM-CHERRY-DRY |
Dried Tart Cherries | kg | purchased ingredient |
RM-CHOC-NAT |
Natural Color Milk Chocolate Buttons | kg | testing-required ingredient |
INT-CHERRYCHOCO-BULK |
Cherry Choco Trail Mix, Bulk | kg | intermediate output |
FG-CHERRYCHOCO-8 |
Cherry Choco Trail Mix, 8 oz | ea | finished good |
The finished good is a Lot + Container tracked Item. Use the actual tracking configuration on each Item Definition; not every purchased ingredient or packaging Item needs Container tracking.
Create an Item
Section titled “Create an Item”Create a new Item whenever something needs its own operational identity. The principal fields are:
- Item Code: a stable, recognizable short identifier used throughout receiving, inventory, production, and sales.
- Name and Description: human-readable identification and optional supporting information.
- Status: use inactive when the Item should no longer be used normally while preserving its history.
- Accounting Category: choose the category offered by the form that best describes the Item.
- Tracking Type: control inventory By Item, By Lot, or By Lot + Container.
- Unit of Measure: the unit in which the Item is counted, purchased, and produced.
- Standard Cost: a manually maintained reference value.
- Average Cost: a system-maintained inventory cost, not a normal manual input.
- No Testing Required: controls the initial status of newly created Lot inventory.
Tracking, UOM, and cost
Section titled “Tracking, UOM, and cost”Tracking Type determines the inventory detail the app records and displays. By Item keeps one current pool; By Lot separates each Lot; By Lot + Container also tracks individual physical packages. Choose the least granular option that still supports your real workflow.
The UOM follows the Item into inventory, purchasing, and production. Standard Cost is a reference field; changing it does not rewrite historical inventory costs. Average Cost is maintained from inventory activity.
For Production Order planning specifically, a positive Standard Cost is used before Average Cost; when neither is available, the planning estimate is zero. Other workflows can use different cost sources, so this should not be read as a universal Indietory costing rule. See Production Orders for planning estimates and released-order snapshots.
Historical Sales Performance
Section titled “Historical Sales Performance”When an Item has qualifying completed, non-voided sales history, its detail can show Historical Sales Performance. This section is intentionally hidden for Items that have never been sold, such as new Items, raw materials, or packaging.
- Average Sold Unit Cost answers, “On average, what did the units I actually sold cost me?” It is the quantity-weighted historical inventory cost of sold units, using the cost captured on each sale. It is different from Average Cost, which continues to describe Indietory’s current inventory, receipt, and manufacturing cost behavior.
- Average Gross Profit per Unit answers, “Historically, about how much was left per unit after its recorded inventory cost?” It uses actual historical sale revenue and recorded historical cost. Indietory displays it in the Item’s applicable UOM, such as
$4.87 / ea. - Average Gross Margin answers, “Historically, what percentage of sales revenue remained after recorded inventory cost?” It uses aggregate historical revenue and COGS rather than averaging individual margin percentages.
Freebies still count as sold/consumed units and their recorded cost is included, even though they add no sale revenue. If historical cost is incomplete, the section stays visible but affected metrics are unavailable rather than misleadingly treated as zero. If qualifying sales have no revenue, Gross Margin is unavailable because there is no revenue to divide by.
These are gross-profit indicators based on recorded inventory cost, not net business profit. They exclude labor, overhead, fees, taxes, and other business expenses.
For example, selling 10 units that each recorded at $1.00 for $3.00 each produces $30.00 revenue, $10.00 COGS, $20.00 Gross Profit, and 66.7% Gross Margin. If those were the only sales, Item Detail would show about $1.00 / ea Average Sold Unit Cost, $2.00 / ea Average Gross Profit per Unit, and 66.7% Average Gross Margin. That $2.00 is before labor, overhead, fees, taxes, and other business expenses.
For lot-tracked inventory, No Testing Required creates new Lots as Available. Otherwise, Manual Receipts, Purchase Receipts, and production output create the Lot as Quarantined.
For example, Oak Creek Goods uses RM-CHOC-NAT as its testing-required ingredient. Its received Lot must be Available before it can be used in production or sold through a Quick Sale.
Protected fields and history
Section titled “Protected fields and history”Once an Item has inventory, purchase-order lines, or other downstream records, Indietory can restrict a change to Tracking Type or UOM and can prevent deletion. Rewriting those structural choices would make existing quantities and history misleading.
If an Item is no longer used, prefer its normal inactive/status behavior over trying to erase a record with history.