Add a material and its opening stock

Add an ingredient, packaging item or component to Kerno with what you have on hand today. Your BOMs pick from your materials, and production runs check their stock.

Add a material

1. Go to Materials and click Add material.
2. Type the Name and choose the Category: Ingredient, Packaging, Component, Consumable or Other.
3. Choose the Inventory unit Kerno tracks the stock in, such as pound (lb). You can still enter quantities in any unit that converts to it.
4. Enter a Low stock threshold. Kerno flags the material when its available stock is at or below this amount.
5. Under Tracking, choose SKU + Lot to keep every delivery as its own lot with a number, expiry, cost and location, or SKU only.
6. Turn on Record opening stock.
7. Enter the Quantity on hand and its Unit cost, and if you have them the Lot number, Expiration date, Location and Supplier. Leave Lot number empty and Kerno numbers the lot. For stock from different deliveries, click Add another lot.
8. Click Create material.

The material's page opens. It shows what's on hand, reserved for production, available and on its way, and the value of the stock. Adjust and Add inventory change the stock from here.

Buy in cases, count in units

Packaging units on the material's Overview lets you define relationships like "1 case = 24 bottles", so you can buy and count in packaging while the stock is tracked in the inventory unit. Click Add packaging unit, then Add relationship, and click Save when you're done. For example: case = 24 bottle, bottle = 500 ml. Codes can be reused across materials, and each chain must end in a measurement unit within 5 steps.

The Cost card beside it shows the material's current cost and its cost history. Update cost sets the cost by hand, and a manual update is kept until the next purchase. All changes opens the full history.

Good to know

• Pick the inventory unit with care. It locks once the material has inventory, BOM, purchasing or production history, or an approved formula uses it.
• Enter a unit cost. Without one, the stock is valued at 0 and flagged as needing a cost, and you and the workspace owner get an alert.
• With Notify me when stock is low on, owners and admins get an alert when the material runs low. How often it repeats is set in Settings, Workspace, under Low-stock alerts.
• Density (g/mL) lets Kerno convert between weight and volume for this material.
• Default shelf life (days) sets the expiration date of new lots.
• Under Costing, Last purchase price keeps the cost up to date from the preferred SKU's price and the latest receipt. Manual keeps the cost you set.
• Allow negative stock lets production use more than you have on hand; the material shows a Negative stock flag until stock comes back.

Related articles

• SKUs, lots and lot allocation
• Adjust inventory or record waste
• Import materials from a spreadsheet