Units of Measure
Every product has a unit of measure: the unit its stock, its unit cost and its reorder point are counted in. Flowers bought by the pound are counted in lb; a finished bag is counted in bag or unit.
The units Iraca understands
| Kind | Units | Converts between them? |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | g, kg, oz, lb | Yes |
| Volume | ml, l, fl oz, gal (US) | Yes |
| Count | unit | — |
| Anything else | bag, box, case, jar… | Only to itself |
You can type the unit the way you say it. Iraca saves it in one standard form, so lbs, Pounds and libras all become lb, each becomes unit, and Bags becomes bag. The unit field suggests the standard units as you type.
Weight never converts to volume, and neither converts to a count. Iraca doesn't guess a density or how much a bag weighs.
Recipes can use a different unit from the ingredient
A recipe line can be written in any unit that converts to the ingredient's own unit. If your hibiscus flowers are stocked in lb, a recipe can call for 8 oz or 227 g, and each bag made or sold takes the right amount off the pounds on the shelf. Recipe costs are worked out the same way.
When you choose an ingredient, the line starts in that ingredient's unit, and the Unit list only offers units that convert to it.
Iraca refuses to save a recipe line whose unit can't be converted (for example 2 unit of an ingredient counted in lb), and so does the product CSV import. In the import, a blank ingredient_unit means the ingredient's own unit.
Recipes saved before units converted
A recipe saved earlier may have a line whose unit doesn't convert. Iraca keeps working with it: production and sales take the number as written, in the ingredient's unit. The recipe page shows a warning under that line, and What needs you on the dashboard counts those recipes until you fix them. Pick a unit from the list and save.
Things counted one by one take whole numbers
Stock is kept to four decimal places, so 12.25 lb of flowers is a real count. A product counted in unit or a named unit such as bag is counted whole: Iraca refuses 2.5 bags when you adjust or transfer stock, in the bulk edit grid and its CSV import, and on a purchase order line.