# Managing Ingredients, Costs, and Sources

Setting an ingredient up is a one-time job. Keeping it honest is the ongoing one: prices move, suppliers change, and a PAR you set last winter is wrong by summer. All of it happens on one screen.

## Read the list

Go to **Recipes & Ingredients > Ingredients > Ingredients**.

![The Ingredients list with unit, PAR, on hand, monthly usage, and days left](https://ikhejtbmenrxkoctpysb.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/kb-screenshots/kb/managing-ingredients/2/9e2bba6d/1-managing-ingredients-list.png)

Each row is a quick health check:

| Column            | What to look for                                                        |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Unit**          | The unit your recipes call for                                          |
| **PAR**           | The level you want to keep on hand                                      |
| **On Hand**       | What Boost thinks is there now                                          |
| **Monthly Usage** | What you actually get through                                           |
| **Est Days Left** | On hand measured against usage. The number that tells you what to order |

**Est Days Left** is the one to scan. Anything below your delivery lead time is a shortage with a date on it.

## Fix a number in place

**Name**, **Unit**, and **PAR** are click-to-edit. Click the value, type the new one, and click away to save. There is no edit screen and no save button to hunt for.

> \[!TIP]
> When usage has drifted well past PAR for a few weeks, change the PAR rather than overriding every order. The suggestions get better from then on.

## Update what you actually pay

Expand an ingredient to see the products you buy it as. One ingredient can have several: the same oat milk from two suppliers, or in two case sizes.

Each source row carries the details that drive your costs, all click-to-edit:

- **Brand** and **product name**
- **How you count it** and how many recipe units are in one
- **Case size** and **cost**
- **Supplier**, plus item number and order link for reordering

> \[!IMPORTANT]
> Cost is what every recipe cost, COGS report, and inventory value is built from. When a supplier raises a price, updating it here is the whole job. Everything downstream re-reads it.

## Archive what you no longer buy

Ingredients are archived, not deleted, so the history stays intact and your old reports still make sense. Archived ingredients drop off the working list, and you can show them again whenever you need to look back or bring one out of retirement.

## What you should see

A list where **Est Days Left** matches your instincts about the shop, costs that match your latest invoices, and no clutter from products you stopped buying two seasons ago.

***Account Level:** All*