About purchases

Learn about how purchases work in Craftybase.

A purchase is a record of a cost incurred to run your business. For most manufacturing businesses, most of your purchases will be related to the materials you buy to create your products.

In this article:

• How purchases are calculated into your inventory
• Entering or bulk importing your purchases
• Tracking your material purchases
• Tracking your overhead costs
• Adding additional purchase categories
• Recurring purchases
• Expected delivery dates (ETAs)
• Handling returns

How purchases are calculated into your inventory

When you add a purchase for a material, we will automatically increase the stock levels of the material purchased by the amount in the purchase. We will recalculate your real-time unit costs to factor in the newly purchased stock.

You can add many different materials to the same purchase in Craftybase - this is great for buying many materials from the same supplier. In this case, any shipping costs or discounts applied to the overall PO will be factored into the cost for each material purchased.

Note: Purchases are not designed to handle the actual usage of materials in creating your finished items. To do this, you'll want to create a manufacture containing your used materials. This will automatically calculate your material costs and adjust your material inventory by the exact amount used in creating the item.

Entering or bulk importing your purchases

Purchases can be added manually, or (for non-material costs) you can import multiple purchases in bulk.

Tracking your material purchases

Purchases are primarily for costs associated with buying materials to create your products. 

When you add a purchase to account for an increase to your materials, Craftybase will automatically increase the stock levels of the material purchased by the amount in the purchase. It will then recalculate your real-time unit costs to factor in the newly purchased stock.

To add a material purchase, ensure that you select the "Material" category when adding a new line item to your purchase. This will then prompt you to select or create a material that the purchase relates to.

Tracking your overhead costs

Purchases for your business that are not directly related to a product or order (e.g., rent, utilities, and subscriptions) can also be tracked in Craftybase.

These are referred to as "overhead" purchases (however, they are also commonly referred to as indirect or general expenses)

To add an overhead purchase:

1. Navigate to your Add Purchase page and click the Add Purchase Item button.
2. In the Add Purchase Line Item window that appears, select a non-material Purchase category (i.e., Other)
3. Enter the cost and quantity of your overhead purchase, then click the Add button.
4. Click the Save button.

Adding additional purchase categories

Each one of the purchases you add to Craftybase can be classified with a specific category. This allows you to group your costs to make tallying and reporting simple. It also lets Craftybase know when a purchase should be added to your inventory and COGS totals.

Recurring purchases

We do not currently provide the ability to schedule recurring expenses. However, you may wish to use our Copy Purchase feature to clone existing purchases quickly.

Expected delivery dates (ETAs)

You can better track your incoming material shipments by listing the dates they are expected to arrive. ETAs can be switched on via your admin settings and set for individual purchases.

More details on purchase ETAs

Handling free or found materials

Items you have found or received for free should generally be entered into Craftybase as a $0 purchase, since you have not paid anything for these items. We advise confirming with your accountant or financial advisor as all business situations differ.

Handling returns

To note a return on an purchase:

1. First, follow the steps here to edit your purchase entry:  How do I edit a purchase order?

2. Remove the old line item from the purchase.

3. Add the new purchase item (if any).