# Linking Modifiers to Ingredients

Modifiers are every choice a customer makes at the register: oat milk instead of whole, an extra shot, a pump of vanilla. Each one moves real product off your shelf. Linking them is what stops a busy Saturday of substitutions from quietly wrecking your numbers.

## Open your modifier lists

Go to **Recipes & Ingredients > Ingredients > Modifiers**. Your POS modifier lists run across the top as tabs: **Milk**, **Flavors**, **Extras**, and whatever else your menu offers.

![A modifier list showing each choice and the ingredient it is linked to](https://ikhejtbmenrxkoctpysb.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/kb-screenshots/kb/modifiers/4/4b90304b/2-modifiers-detail.png)

Each row is one choice, with the ingredient it consumes beside it. A dash means that choice is not linked yet, so it currently costs you nothing on paper and everything in real life.

## Link a choice to an ingredient

Click the **Ingredients** cell for a modifier and pick the ingredient it uses. From then on, a customer who asks for oat milk pulls oat milk out of inventory rather than whole milk.

> \[!IMPORTANT]
> Link the alternatives first. Substitutions are where inventory quietly disappears, because the recipe still charges the default while the shelf loses something else.

## Set default amounts once per size

Expand a modifier's row (the chevron on the left) to open its default amounts grid: one column per size the modifier reaches, one row per linked ingredient.

![The default amounts grid for a modifier, one column per size and one row per linked ingredient](https://ikhejtbmenrxkoctpysb.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/kb-screenshots/kb/modifiers/4/4b90304b/3-modifiers-defaults.png)

Fill in a cell and that amount applies to every menu item offering the modifier in that size, without touching each item's recipe. A milk list offered on thirty drinks in two sizes is two cells here instead of sixty amounts on the items.

> \[!NOTE]
> An amount set on an item's own recipe always wins over the default. Defaults fill the gaps; they never change a drink you have already tuned, and fixing a typo in a default reaches every item that was relying on it.

Clearing a cell removes the default rather than storing zero. If one specific item should deduct nothing for a choice, set `0` on that item's recipe: an explicit zero means "deliberately consumes nothing" and is never replaced by the default.

## The four switches on a list

The toggles above the table apply to the whole list.

| Toggle              | What it controls                                                     |
| ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Has ingredients** | Whether choices in this list consume inventory at all                |
| **Prefix**          | Whether the choice reads as a prefix on the ticket, like "Oat Latte" |
| **Highlight**       | Whether the choice stands out for the person making the drink        |
| **Shared limit**    | Whether the choices in this list share one maximum between them      |

A list like **Hot or Iced** changes how a drink is made without consuming anything extra, so it does not need ingredients. A list like **Milk** absolutely does.

## Catch what is still unlinked

Go to **Recipes & Ingredients > Ingredients > Missing Modifier Amounts** for the catch-up list. It shows the modifiers your POS offers that are not yet pointing at an ingredient. A choice covered by a default clears from this report too: only choices with an amount from neither layer stay on it.

![The Modifiers Report listing unlinked modifiers](https://ikhejtbmenrxkoctpysb.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/kb-screenshots/kb/modifiers/4/4b90304b/4-modifiers-report.png)

Working this list to empty is one of the highest-value hours you can spend in Boost. Every row on it is usage you are currently not counting.

## What you should see

Every choice that consumes product pointing at an ingredient, an empty report, and COGS numbers that stop drifting on the days full of substitutions.

***Account Level:** KDS & Pro*