Supplier Ingredients
Every ingredient in your library can be linked to one or more suppliers, each with their own pack size, pricing and product code. This supplier link is what drives accurate costing in CostingBrik.
A supplier link is one supplier plus one product code (SKU). If a supplier sells the same ingredient in two pack sizes under two codes, that is two links.
Adding a supplier to an ingredient
When you link an ingredient to a supplier, you are recording: "I can buy this ingredient from this supplier, in this pack, at this price."
- Go to CostingBrik > Ingredients and open the ingredient.
- Find the Suppliers panel. On a wide screen it sits in the right-hand column of the ingredient page; on a narrow screen it sits below the ingredient details.
- Click Add Supplier. A window opens headed Add Supplier for [ingredient name].
- Pick the supplier from the Supplier dropdown. If the supplier is not there yet, click Create New Supplier, type the name and click Create Supplier.
- Fill in the pack details and cost:
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Preferred supplier | Tick this if Brikly should cost your recipes from this price | Ticked |
| Brand | Optional. The brand you buy, used to tell packs apart when there is no product code | Callebaut |
| Supplier product code (SKU) | Optional. The code on this supplier's invoices, used to match invoice lines to this link | 141484 |
| Size per Item (g) or Size per Item (ml) | The size of one item, in grams or millilitres. Ingredients bought by the piece show an optional Weight per Pack (g) instead | 1000 |
| Items per Pack | How many items are in the pack you buy. Enter 1 for a single bag or bottle | 16 |
| Cost | What you pay for one pack | 12.80 |
- Click Add Supplier.
Brikly multiplies the size and count and shows the result as Computed Total Quantity, so you can check the pack before saving. If the price on the invoice includes VAT, tick Price includes VAT and choose the Tax rate. Brikly shows the net figure it will cost from. The pack price is stored as you typed it, and the per-unit and per-kilo costs are worked out from the net figure, so your recipe costs stay ex VAT.
You cannot type a supplier product name here. Brikly records the product name from the supplier's own invoice when a line is matched, and shows it on the supplier card.
Brikly works out the cost per base unit for you from the three numbers you enter. A 16kg sack of flour at £12.80 is entered as Size per Item 16000, Items per Pack 1, Cost 12.80. The Cost Breakdown at the bottom of the form updates as you type, listing the pack cost, the unit size, the items per pack, the cost per unit and the cost per gram or millilitre (£0.000800 per gram here, which is £0.80 per kg).
Once saved, the supplier card shows Size per Item, Cost per Pack, Cost per Unit and Cost per kg or Cost per L. Items you buy and use by the piece show the same cards without the per-kilo or per-litre figure.
If a weight or volume ingredient has no size per item, Brikly cannot work out a cost per base unit and leaves the ingredient un-costed rather than guessing. Fill in Size per Item to fix it.
How the supplier product code is used
The supplier product code (SKU) is how Brikly recognises this exact item on future invoices. When an invoice line carries the same code, it matches this supplier link directly, with no guesswork from product names or pack sizes. Case, surrounding spaces and prefixes such as "SKU" or "REF" are ignored, and if a code has been misread by a character and only one of your codes is that close, Brikly matches it anyway and shows a note on the line so you can undo it.
A few things to know:
- It is optional. Leave it blank and Brikly fills it in from your invoices. When it is confident an invoice line is the same product (one link without a code for that supplier, and the brand and pack size line up), it adds the code to your existing link. Otherwise the coded line is recorded as a new link and you get a Recorded as a new SKU for this supplier note on the invoice line, where you can merge it into the one you already have.
- You can edit it later. In the Suppliers panel, click Edit on the supplier card and change Supplier product code (SKU). Future invoices will match against the new code.
- Clearing it is fine. Without a code, Brikly matches on brand and pack size instead. If that is not enough to be sure which pack an invoice line is, it asks you to confirm rather than update the wrong link.
- One code per link. A supplier cannot have two links for the same ingredient with the same product code. If you try to add one, Brikly says "This supplier already has a SKU with these details. Edit that SKU instead." If the matching link is archived, it asks you to reactivate that one rather than add a duplicate.
Pack sizes and pricing per supplier
Different suppliers often sell the same ingredient in different pack sizes and at different prices. CostingBrik tracks all of these independently.
Example - Unsalted Butter:
| Supplier | Pack | Cost per pack | Cost per kg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metro Foods | 1 x 250g | £1.55 | £6.20 |
| Dairy Direct | 1 x 2.5kg | £12.75 | £5.10 |
| Local Farm Shop | 1 x 500g | £4.20 | £8.40 |
The cost per base unit lets you compare like for like, even when the pack sizes are completely different. The Suppliers panel lists suppliers cheapest first on this figure, so the best value sits at the top. Comparisons only work within the same unit family: Brikly will not compare a per-kilo price against a per-item one.
A £25 case might look expensive, but if it holds 10kg of product it can be cheaper per kilo than a £5 single-kilo bag. Compare on the cost per base unit, which Brikly works out for you and sorts the supplier list by.
Multiple suppliers per ingredient
There is no limit to how many suppliers you can link to a single ingredient. Having multiple suppliers recorded is useful for:
- Price comparison - quickly see who offers the best price.
- Continuity - if your primary supplier is out of stock, you know who else carries the item.
- Negotiation - having competitor pricing gives you leverage when discussing terms.
If one of them is only ever an occasional top-up, such as a supermarket run, mark it as a one-off supplier so it does not distort your price reviews and comparisons.
Which price Brikly costs from
When it costs a recipe, Brikly needs one price per ingredient. It uses the preferred link, and the same choice feeds recipe costs, modifier costs and stock valuations, so those can never disagree with one another. Archived links are never used.
Only one link per ingredient can be preferred, across all of its suppliers. In practice an ingredient almost always has one, because the first priced link Brikly records from an invoice is set as preferred automatically. If nothing is preferred (for example you added a supplier by hand and left Preferred supplier unticked, or you archived the link that was driving the cost), recipes fall back to the most recently changed active link, and the ingredient page shows its Preferred Supplier as None. Star the one you want.
Preferred supplier
The preferred link tells Brikly: "This is the pack I normally buy - cost my recipes from it."
To change it:
- Open the ingredient.
- Find the Suppliers panel.
- Click the star icon next to the supplier or SKU you want to cost from. Where a supplier has several SKUs, the star is tooltipped "Make this SKU the preferred cost driver".
The star fills in and turns blue on the link that is now driving your costs, and its card is tinted blue when the supplier has more than one SKU. Where the supplier has several SKUs, Brikly confirms with Preferred SKU updated and tells you what the switch is worth per year when it can price it; a single-SKU supplier gets a plain Preferred supplier updated. The Preferred Supplier card in the Key Metrics row at the top of the page names the supplier Brikly is costing from, and Active Suppliers counts the active links (so one supplier with three product codes counts as three).
You can also make the switch from a price review, where the button is labelled Set as Preferred Supplier on the Price Change Review page and Set as Preferred in the review panel that opens from an invoice line, or straight from an invoice line, where it is labelled Make preferred.
When to change your preferred supplier
Review your preferred suppliers when:
- A different supplier consistently offers a lower price.
- Your preferred supplier has delivery reliability issues.
- You consolidate orders to reduce the number of deliveries.
- A supplier discontinues a product.
When you make a different link preferred, Brikly re-costs every recipe and every modifier that uses the ingredient. This runs in the background straight after the switch, so recipe costs and GP figures will shift within a minute or so.
Every switch is logged. Click Supplier History in the Suppliers panel to see the date, the supplier you moved from and the supplier you moved to. Where you moved between two SKUs of the same supplier, the SKU is shown after the supplier name so you can tell the two sides apart. The money side appears under Supplier Switches in the Price Impact report, with the ingredient, who you now buy it from, how many recipes were affected and the annual impact.
Switching to a different SKU
Suppliers often carry the same ingredient under more than one product code (SKU) - a 12.5kg sack and a 1kg bag, or an old code replaced by a new one. Brikly tracks each code as its own supplier link with its own pack size, price and allergen declaration. On the ingredient page they sit together under the supplier's name with a pill showing the count, for example 3 SKUs. Only one of them drives your recipe costs at a time.
When an invoice from that supplier arrives with a different code from the one that currently drives your costs, Brikly puts a Different SKU detected note on the invoice line. Where both packs are measured the same way it also states the difference, for example "12% cheaper than your current cost (£0.60 vs £0.68 per kg). Cost from this now?"
Choose Make preferred to cost from the new code, or Keep current to leave your costing where it is and clear the note. Buying both packs on the same invoice does not trigger the prompt, because that is a top-up rather than a switch. This prompt is for switches within one supplier: if you buy the same ingredient from a different supplier, Brikly handles it through the price review instead.
When you make the switch, Brikly records it properly:
- The switch is logged, and shows under Supplier History on the ingredient and Supplier Switches in the Price Impact report.
- The estimated annual impact is worked out from your sales, or from your purchase history when sales data is not available, and shown immediately - for example, "This switch saves £96.20 per year". A figure based on purchase history is marked "(spend estimate)". If the two packs cannot be compared, the switch is recorded without a figure rather than guessing.
- All recipes using the ingredient are re-costed automatically, along with any modifiers.
Archiving the old SKU
After you make a new SKU preferred from an invoice, the old one stays active and Brikly asks what to do with it. The invoice line shows a card naming the old SKU, its supplier and its cost, with Archive and Dismiss. The same question follows the link itself as an amber Archive? chip in the ingredient's Suppliers panel, so you can answer it later. Archiving keeps your supplier list tidy and stops a stale price appearing in comparisons; dismissing keeps the link and stops the prompt.
You can archive any SKU from the Suppliers panel at any time with the Archive button on its card. Archived links stop appearing in comparisons and are never used for costing. They stay on the ingredient behind the Show N inactive suppliers toggle, marked Archived, and can be brought back with Reactivate.
Where a supplier sells the ingredient under several codes, Brikly will not let you archive the one that is driving your costs while its sibling codes are still active: the button is greyed out with the note "Make another SKU preferred before archiving this one." Star another code first, then archive. In any other situation, archiving the link that drives your costs clears that role without picking a replacement, so star the one you want before you archive.
If an archived SKU comes back
If a later invoice carries an archived link's product code, Brikly puts that link back on your active list automatically rather than creating a duplicate. The purchase lands on the restored link and its price history carries on from where it stopped.
Restoring a link never makes it preferred on its own. If it is the ingredient's only active link it becomes the cost driver automatically. If another code from the same supplier is currently preferred, you get the Different SKU detected prompt so you can decide.
Keeping prices up to date
Brikly is built around one idea: the price you cost from should be the price you actually paid, taken from the invoice, every time. That is what keeps your costings current without anyone maintaining a spreadsheet.
From your invoices
Process supplier invoices through Brikly. Each line's price is compared against your last recorded price for that supplier's pack, and the new price is applied straight away. Recipes and modifiers are re-costed in the background, and every change is added to the ingredient's price history.
If the change is bigger than the threshold for the ingredient's category (5% unless you have changed it), Brikly also raises it for review, so a big move does not slip past you. You get a Price Change Detected card on the invoice line, with an Open full review page link through to Price Change Review, showing the old and new cost, which recipes are affected and what the change is worth over a year. The same page opens from the Ingredients card on the CostingBrik dashboard whenever it shows pending reviews. See Reviewing Line Items.
Two things worth knowing:
- A back-dated invoice is added to the price history but does not overwrite your current price.
- If a supplier who is not your preferred one drops their price by more than the threshold and lands at least that far below what your preferred supplier charges, Brikly raises it as a saving rather than a price change, with a Set [supplier] as preferred action on the line. A drop that leaves them dearer than your preferred supplier, or only just below it, is recorded quietly.
When a supplier announces new prices
Suppliers often send a price list, or announce a rise, before it reaches your invoices. Resist keying the new prices in by hand. Model it instead: open What If?, choose the Supplier Price Change trigger, pick the supplier and apply the change, and Brikly shows every affected recipe and the annual profit impact before a single price moves. See Scenario Triggers and the worked example in Saving & Pushing.
Your recorded prices then update themselves as the new invoices arrive, so what you cost from is always what you paid, not what you were told you would pay.
Correcting a price by hand
Manual editing is there for corrections, such as a mistyped cost or a wrong pack size, and it works if you choose to run CostingBrik without processing invoices, though we would not recommend it (see below).
From the ingredient list, open the actions menu at the end of the row and choose Update Pricing. Check the Supplier shown, or pick a different one from the list (the supplier you normally buy from is marked (Preferred); where a supplier has more than one SKU, each option also shows the SKU's product name or brand, for example "Booker, Alpro"), enter the new Price per Pack and click Update Price. Pack size and items per pack are shown for reference but cannot be changed here.
To change the pack details or the product code as well, open the ingredient, find the supplier in the Suppliers panel and click Edit. The price field there is Cost Input, with an Includes VAT tick box if the figure you are entering is gross; click Save Changes when you are done. If the change would move the cost a long way, Brikly stops and asks you to confirm, showing the old and new cost per unit. Check the pack size before choosing Yes, save anyway.
The old price is kept in the price history, so nothing is lost. Click Price History in the Suppliers panel to see the trend chart and every recorded price, with a View invoice link where the price came off an invoice. The CSV import only creates new ingredients and never changes existing prices, so it is not a route for price updates either.
Updating prices by hand works on day one and quietly stops happening by month three. If your prices are not coming off invoices, your costings are only as current as the last time someone found the time to update them, which is exactly the problem Brikly exists to remove. Put every invoice through, including the small ones.