Adding Ingredients

Ingredients are the building blocks of CostingBrik. Every recipe cost traces back to the ingredients it contains, so getting your ingredient library right is the foundation of accurate costing.

Creating an ingredient manually

To add a new ingredient:

1. Navigate to CostingBrik > Ingredients.
2. Click Add Ingredient.
3. Fill in the required fields (see below).
4. Click Save.

Required fields

Field	Description	Example
Name	A clear, descriptive name for the ingredient	Semi-skimmed milk
Category	The group this ingredient belongs to	Dairy
Base unit	The smallest unit you measure this ingredient in	Litres

Optional fields

Field	Description	Example
Brand	The specific brand, if relevant	Yeo Valley
Notes	Any additional context	Organic only - check label
Allergens	Allergen flags for this ingredient	Contains: Milk

Setting the base unit

The base unit is the unit you use when adding this ingredient to recipes. Choose the unit that makes the most practical sense for how you actually use it in the kitchen.

• Flour - kilograms (kg)
• Milk - litres (l)
• Eggs - each
• Vanilla extract - millilitres (ml)
• Butter - grams (g)

Choose recipe-friendly units

If you always weigh butter in grams when prepping, set the base unit to grams - even though you buy it in 250g blocks. Brikly handles the conversion between pack sizes and base units automatically.

Bulk import

If you have an existing ingredient list in a spreadsheet, you can import it in bulk:

1. Go to CostingBrik > Ingredients.
2. Click Import.
3. Download the CSV template.
4. Fill in your ingredients following the template format.
5. Upload the completed CSV.
6. Review the preview and confirm.

Brikly will flag any rows with missing required fields or unrecognised units so you can correct them before importing.

AI-assisted creation from invoices

The fastest way to build your ingredient library is to let Brikly create ingredients directly from your supplier invoices.

When you process an invoice, Brikly:

1. Extracts each line item (product name, quantity, unit, price).
2. Checks whether a matching ingredient already exists.
3. For new items, creates the ingredient automatically with the correct unit and category.
4. Links the ingredient to the supplier and records the price.

After processing, you will see any newly created ingredients flagged for review. You can adjust names, categories, or units before they are finalised.

Matching accuracy

Brikly uses AI to match invoice line items to existing ingredients, even when the supplier's description differs from your ingredient name. For example, "S/S Milk 2L" on an invoice will be matched to "Semi-skimmed milk" in your library. You can review and correct any matches that do not look right.

Tips for a clean ingredient library

• Be consistent with naming - decide on a convention (e.g. "Semi-skimmed milk" not "Milk, semi-skimmed") and stick with it.
• Avoid duplicates - before adding an ingredient manually, search your library first. Duplicates will skew your recipe costs.
• Use categories - assigning every ingredient to a category makes filtering and reporting much easier as your library grows.
• Add brands only when it matters - if you always use a specific brand (e.g. a particular chocolate for your signature brownie), record it. If any brand will do, leave it blank.