Vendor Costs

Ingredient costs come from your vendors. Link vendor products to ingredients to enable accurate recipe costing.

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Overview

PrepStation uses a vendor-based costing approach:

Vendor Item (Product + Price) → Ingredient → Recipe Cost

This means:

• Ingredients don't have a "cost" field you edit directly
• Costs come from vendor products linked to the ingredient
• One ingredient can have multiple vendors with different prices
• The preferred vendor determines the cost used in recipes

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Why Vendor-Based Costing?

Benefit	How It Helps
Accuracy	Costs match actual invoices
History	Track price changes over time
Comparison	Compare vendors easily
Auto-update	Invoice processing updates prices

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Adding Your First Vendor to an Ingredient

Until an ingredient has a vendor with pricing, it shows no cost and recipes can't calculate accurately.

From the Ingredient Page

1. Open the ingredient
2. Scroll to the Vendors section
3. Click Add Vendor
4. Fill in the vendor item details:

Field	What to Enter
Vendor	Select from your vendor list
Item Name	Vendor's product name
SKU	Vendor's item code (for invoice matching)
Purchase Cost	Price per package
Package Quantity	How many packages (usually 1)
Package Unit	Package type (bag, case, box, etc.)
Content Quantity	Amount in the package
Content Unit	Unit type (lb, oz, each, etc.)

5. Click Save

Example: Adding Flour Pricing

For a 50lb bag of flour at $24.99:

Field	Value
Vendor	Sysco
Item Name	All Purpose Flour 50lb
SKU	1234567
Purchase Cost	$24.99
Package Quantity	1
Package Unit	bag
Content Quantity	50
Content Unit	lb

Result: Cost per lb = $24.99 ÷ 50 = $0.50/lb

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Understanding the Cost Calculation

PrepStation calculates the cost per unit from your vendor pricing:

Cost per unit = Purchase Cost ÷ (Package Qty × Content Qty)

Example Calculations

Simple Package:

$24.99 for 1 × 50lb bag
= $24.99 ÷ 50
= $0.50 per lb

Case of Cans:

$36.00 for a case of 6 × 28oz cans
= $36.00 ÷ (6 × 28)
= $36.00 ÷ 168
= $0.21 per oz

Bulk Oil:

$89.00 for 1 × 5 gallon container
= $89.00 ÷ 5
= $17.80 per gallon

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Adding Multiple Vendors

You can buy the same ingredient from different suppliers:

1. Open the ingredient
2. In the Vendors section, click Add Vendor
3. Add the second vendor's details
4. Repeat for additional vendors

The vendor list shows all options with unit costs for comparison:

Vendor	Package	Price	Unit Cost
★ Sysco	50lb bag	$24.99	$0.50/lb
US Foods	25lb bag	$13.50	$0.54/lb
Rest. Depot	50lb bag	$22.99	$0.46/lb

★ indicates the preferred vendor used for costing.

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Setting the Preferred Vendor

The preferred vendor determines which price is used in recipes.

To Change the Preferred Vendor

1. Find the vendor in the list
2. Click the star icon (★) next to it
3. That vendor becomes preferred
4. All recipes using this ingredient recalculate

When to Change

Scenario	Action
Found a better price	Switch to lower-cost vendor
Quality issues	Switch to reliable vendor
Vendor unavailable	Switch to backup vendor
New vendor added	Evaluate if they should be preferred

See Preferred Vendors for more details.

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Keeping Costs Current

Method 1: Process Invoices (Recommended)

When you process invoices:

1. Prices on vendor items update automatically
2. Cost history is recorded
3. All recipes recalculate

This is the most accurate and lowest-effort approach.

Method 2: Edit Vendor Items

For manual price updates:

1. Open the ingredient
2. Click a vendor item to edit
3. Update the Purchase Cost
4. Save

Method 3: Import Price Updates

For bulk updates, import a spreadsheet with new prices.

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Viewing Cost History

Track how prices change over time:

1. Open the ingredient
2. Scroll to Cost History
3. View the chart and price timeline

Cost history shows:

• Price changes from processed invoices
• Date of each change
• Vendor for each price point

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Troubleshooting Missing Costs

"No cost" or "$0.00" on an Ingredient

Cause: No preferred vendor set, or vendor item missing required fields.

Fix:

1. Open the ingredient
2. Check the Vendors section
3. Either:
   • Add a vendor item with complete pricing, OR
   • Set an existing vendor as preferred

Required Fields for Costing

For costs to calculate, vendor items need:

Field	Must Have
Purchase Cost	A price greater than $0
Content Quantity	Amount in the package
Content Unit	Unit type (lb, oz, each, etc.)
Preferred status	One vendor must be preferred

Recipe Shows "Missing Cost"

Check that:

1. The ingredient exists (not archived)
2. The ingredient has a preferred vendor
3. The vendor item has complete pricing

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Common Questions

Q: Why can't I just enter a cost on the ingredient?
A: The vendor-based approach ensures your costs match reality. Invoice prices update automatically, and you can track price changes over time.

Q: What if I don't know which vendor I'll buy from?
A: Add your most likely vendor with estimated pricing. You can always change it later, and invoice processing will update to actual prices.

Q: Can I see costs from a different vendor without changing preferred?
A: Yes. View the vendor list to see all unit costs. Only changing the preferred actually updates recipe costs.

Q: How do I handle price fluctuations (like produce)?
A: Process invoices regularly. Each invoice updates the price, and cost history shows the variation over time.

Q: What if the same product comes in different sizes?
A: Add separate vendor items for each size. For example, "Flour 50lb" and "Flour 25lb" as different vendor items from the same vendor.

Q: Do I need vendors for ingredients I already have in stock?
A: For accurate recipe costing, yes. Even if you're not ordering right now, the ingredient needs pricing to calculate recipe costs.

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Next Steps

• Vendor Items — Detailed vendor item setup
• Preferred Vendors — Managing preferred selection
• Invoice Scanning — Auto-update prices from invoices
• Resolving Cost Issues — Fix recipe costing problems