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Importing Recipes and Ingredients

If your recipes already live somewhere else, in a spreadsheet, a Word document, a recipe book or a photo pinned up in the kitchen, you do not need to type them in line by line. This page covers the quickest way to bring both your ingredients and your recipes into Brikly.

Start with your ingredients​

A recipe is only as good as the ingredient prices behind it, so get your ingredients in first. There are two ways to do it in bulk:

  • Upload your supplier invoices. This is the best route. Brikly reads each invoice, creates the ingredients for you with the price you actually paid, and keeps those prices up to date every time a new invoice arrives. See Uploading Invoices.
  • Upload a spreadsheet. If you keep a list of ingredients and prices in a spreadsheet, save it as a CSV and upload it from CostingBrik > Ingredients > Import. There is a template to download in the import window. See Bulk Import for the columns and rules.

You can mix both. A spreadsheet gets you started quickly, and your invoices keep the prices honest from then on.

Importing a recipe with AI​

Each recipe is imported one at a time with Extract with AI:

  1. Go to CostingBrik > Recipes and create a new recipe.
  2. Click Extract with AI at the top of the screen.
  3. Either paste the recipe in on the Paste Text tab, or switch to the file tab and upload it.
  4. Click Extract Recipe.
  5. Check the review screen, then click Import Recipe.

The file upload accepts photos (JPG, PNG, WebP), PDFs and Word documents (DOCX), up to 15MB. A clear photo of a handwritten or printed recipe works fine.

If recipe reading is not available for a moment, you see "Recipe reading is not available right now. Please try again shortly." If Brikly could not read the recipe, you see "We could not read this recipe. Please try again, or add the ingredients by hand." Nothing is saved in either case.

What happens on the review screen​

Brikly reads the recipe name, servings and each ingredient line with its quantity and unit, then tries to match every ingredient to one already in your library.

  • Matched ingredients (green) fill in by themselves, with a confidence score. Brikly only fills a row when the names agree: the exact name, or the only item in your library that contains every word of it and ends in the same main word ("plain flour" against "Plain Flour (16kg)"). A qualifier or size in the recipe ("gluten free", "8oz") has to be on the library item too. Click to change the match if it is wrong.
  • Suggested ingredients (amber) show Suggested: and the item Brikly thinks you mean. This covers a close spelling ("mozzarela"), a different main word ("lemons" against Lemon Juice), and a size written differently or not plainly (500ml against 0.5 l, a pack count only one name gives such as 8oz cup against Cup 8oz (pack of 50), or a fraction, range or list such as 1/2oz, 6/8oz or 12-20oz). Click Use this to accept it, or Change to search for another.
  • Needs review ingredients could not be matched. A name that could be two items (for example "butter" when you stock both Peanut Butter and Unsalted Butter) gets no suggestion at all, so you choose. Search for the right one in your library. If you import first, the line comes in with the recipe's own wording and no price, and you pick the ingredient before you can save.
  • The same rules apply to packaging such as cups, lids and boxes.
  • Packaging such as cups, lids or boxes is picked out as consumables, and staff time is picked out as labour lines. See Labour.

The needs review count at the top includes the suggested rows as well as the unmatched ones. A suggestion you leave alone is imported like an unmatched row: with its own name and no price, ready for you to pick.

Nothing is saved until you click Import Recipe, and even then the recipe opens in the editor for you to check before you save it.

Ranges and vague quantities

If a recipe gives a range ("4-8 eggs") or a quantity Brikly cannot read as a single number ("to taste"), that ingredient is still imported but without a quantity. Type in the amount you actually use before saving. Brikly deliberately does not guess the low end, the high end or the middle, because a guess would quietly put the wrong cost on the recipe.

How amounts and units come in​

  • Grams, kilograms, millilitres and litres come in as written when the ingredient takes that unit, or are converted to one it does take, with a grey note such as "Was 8 oz, now 226.8 g."
  • Teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, a pinch or a bunch come in with the amount left blank and a note asking for grams or ml, for example "Was 2 tbsp. Enter the amount in grams." Brikly does not convert spoons or cups, because how much a spoonful weighs depends on the ingredient.
  • A count such as "3 lemons" on an ingredient you buy by weight or volume is left blank the same way, and asks for grams or ml.
  • Very large amounts, over 10 kg or 10 l on one line, are kept but held with "Check this amount" until you edit them, so a misread "100 kg" cannot slip through.

The recipe will not save until every blank or held amount is filled in, and each row says what to enter.

Recipes in a spreadsheet​

There is no CSV import for recipes. If your recipes are in a spreadsheet, you have two options:

  • Copy and paste one recipe at a time. Select the rows for a single recipe in your spreadsheet, copy them, and paste them into the Paste Text tab of Extract with AI.
  • Save it as a PDF. Export the spreadsheet to PDF and upload it. This works best when each recipe is on its own page, because Brikly imports one recipe per extraction.

Before importing, make sure each ingredient line has one quantity and one unit, for example "200g butter" rather than "200-250g butter".

Tips for a smooth import​

  • Import ingredients before recipes. The more ingredients already in your library, the more lines are matched automatically.
  • Start with your best sellers. A handful of costed recipes for the dishes you sell most will tell you far more than a full menu of half-finished ones.
  • Check the yield. The servings figure decides your cost per portion, so make sure it matches what you really get from the recipe. See Creating Recipes.