About materials

Add or import materials, set purchase and tracking units, and specify low stock quantity limits to keep track of your inventory in Craftybase.

In this article, we will cover:

How we define a material
Adding or importing your materials
Viewing your material details
Uploading images
Material unit costs
Tracking units
Low stock quantity limits
Inventoriable materials
Non-inventoriable materials
Preferred Vendors
Usage and Purchase Activity

What is a material?

A material is any raw material or ingredient used to make a product. These may be:

Beads, wires, or clasps
Lye, fragrances
Fabric
Wood
Any other material used or consumed to make a product

Adding or importing materials

You can add materials individually or import them in bulk using a CSV (spreadsheet) file.

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on adding materials manually, please see our Introduction to Materials.

Viewing a material

Each material has a summary page containing a summary of stock levels and a description of the material. To find your Material summary page:

Go to your Materials List page
Search or filter to find the Material you would like to view, then click the link for the Name of the Material
The page that appears is your Material summary page.

Uploading an image for a material

To add an image for a material:

Navigate to your material summary page
Click on the Edit button in the top right hand corner of the page.
Select the Choose File button and upload your image

4. Click the Save button to save the changes.

Ensure that your image is a PNG, GIF or JPG and is no larger than 6MB

Material Unit Costs

Your material unit costs are calculated for you automatically using your complete purchase history.

Learn more about material costing here ».

Tracking Units

Your material's tracking unit is the unit of measurement you want to track your manufactures and your stock levels in.

Your material's purchase unit is the unit of measurement you commonly purchase this material in. This can be the same as your material's tracking unit, or can be a different unit completely. You can use a standard measurement unit (such as Pound or Kilogram), or you can define a unit that better describes the way you buy the material (i.e. Jar, Bag or Strand).

Learn more about material tracking and purchase units here ».

Low stock quantity limits

Each of your materials can be set with a low stock quantity limit for each material. If your stock level falls below the limit you have set, the material will be displayed as "low stock".

Inventoriable materials

Inventoriable materials hold a quantity and value that increases and decreases based on stock changes.

Enter an expense → Total inventory value increases
Create a manufacture → Total inventory value decreases

Non-inventoriable materials

If you have items you would like to track that aren't directly used in your manufactures (such as tools or equipment), you can set these as non-inventoriable materials. Unlike inventoriable materials, they don't hold a cost value in the system and are not included in any manufacture or cost of goods sold calculations.

Preferred Vendors

The supplier you purchase this material from most regularly can be set as your "Preferred Vendor". Each time you enter a new expense for this material, you can also nominate the vendor you purchased it from.

Usage & Purchase Activity

A summary of your usage and purchasing activity can be found on your material page. This provides a view of the rate which you purchase and manufacture with this particular material.

This data can be helpful when creating inventory forecasts (i.e. planning ahead for future purchases and manufacturing).

The summary will display totals for the following time periods: 1 week, 1 month, 3 month, 6 month, 12 month and all time.

Usage and Purchase Activity breakdowns are available in INDIE+ plans.