Price History

CostingBrik tracks every price change for every ingredient over time. This gives you a clear record of how costs have moved and helps you make informed decisions about suppliers, menu pricing, and purchasing.

How prices are tracked

Every time an ingredient's price is updated - whether manually or through invoice processing - Brikly records a timestamped entry with:

• The new price (cost per base unit).
• The date of the change.
• The source of the update (manual entry, invoice, or bulk import).
• The supplier associated with the price.

This creates a complete audit trail. You can always see what you were paying for an ingredient last week, last month, or last year.

Automatic updates from invoice processing

When you process a supplier invoice through Brikly, the system:

1. Extracts the price for each line item.
2. Calculates the cost per base unit from the pack size and pack price.
3. Compares the new price against the most recent recorded price.
4. If the price has changed, updates the current price and adds an entry to the price history.

This happens automatically - you do not need to manually update prices after processing an invoice. Over time, your price history builds itself as you process invoices week after week.

Price only updates when it changes

If you process an invoice and the price for an ingredient is the same as the current recorded price, no new history entry is created. This keeps your history clean and meaningful - every entry represents an actual change.

Viewing price trends

To see the price history for an ingredient:

1. Go to CostingBrik > Ingredients.
2. Click on the ingredient name to open its detail page.
3. Select the Price History tab.

You will see:

• A chart showing price over time, making it easy to spot trends at a glance.
• A table listing every price change with the date, price, supplier, and source.

What to look for

• Steady increases - a gradual upward trend may indicate general inflation on that product. Consider finding alternative suppliers or adjusting menu prices.
• Seasonal spikes - produce items often show predictable seasonal price swings. Asparagus and soft fruits spike outside their growing season. Use this data to plan seasonal menus around what is affordable.
• Sudden jumps - a sharp increase on a single invoice might be a one-off (e.g. a short-term shortage) or could signal a permanent price rise. Check with your supplier.

Watch your high-volume ingredients

A 10p increase on an ingredient you use in every dish has a far bigger impact than a £1 increase on something you use once a week. Focus your attention on the ingredients you buy the most of.

Supplier price comparison

When an ingredient is supplied by more than one supplier, the price history page shows each supplier's prices on the same chart. This makes it straightforward to see:

• Which supplier is currently cheapest.
• Whether one supplier's prices are more stable than another's.
• When it might be worth switching your preferred supplier.

You can also view a comparison table that shows the latest price from each supplier side by side, along with the percentage difference.

Example:

Supplier	Pack size	Pack price	Cost per kg
Metro Foods	16kg sack	£12.80	£0.80
Bakery Supplies Ltd	25kg sack	£21.25	£0.85
LocalMill Direct	16kg sack	£11.52	£0.72

In this case, LocalMill Direct offers the best price per kg - but if delivery is unreliable, you might prefer Metro Foods as your primary supplier with LocalMill as a backup.

Spotting price increases

Brikly proactively highlights price increases so you do not have to go searching for them:

• On the ingredient list, ingredients with recent price increases are flagged with an indicator showing the percentage change.
• On the dashboard, the "Recent Price Changes" section lists all ingredients where the price has moved in the last 7 or 30 days.
• In recipe costings, if a recipe's total cost has increased since you last reviewed it, this is flagged alongside the recipe.

Setting price alerts

You can configure alerts to be notified when:

• Any ingredient price increases by more than a set percentage (e.g. 5%).
• A specific high-value ingredient changes price at all.
• Your overall ingredient cost index rises above a threshold.

These alerts help you stay on top of costs without needing to check the system constantly.

Monthly price review

Set aside time once a month to review the price history dashboard. Look at your top 20 ingredients by spend volume and check for any trends. This 15-minute habit can save you thousands over a year by catching cost creep early.