Production Runs — The Full Lifecycle
A production run represents a single batch of a recipe, from scheduling through completion. Iraca tracks ingredient consumption, operator time, and finished goods automatically at each stage.
Run statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Scheduled | Planned but not yet started. Ingredients have not been deducted from stock. |
| In Progress | Run is active. Ingredients were deducted from stock (WIP reservation) at start. |
| Quality Check | Batch is finished but pending a quality review before stock is added. |
| Completed | Run is done. Finished goods have been added to inventory. |
| Cancelled | Run was stopped. If it was In Progress, the WIP ingredient reservation is returned to stock. |
Scheduling a run
When you click New Run, the scheduling dialog asks for:
- Recipe — selecting a recipe automatically fills in Planned Operators from the recipe's Expected Operators default.
- Planned Operators — the number of people expected to work the session. You can change this at any time before or at the moment you start the run.
- Lot Number, Planned Quantity, Scheduled Date, and Warehouse.
The planned operator count is saved on the run so you can review it before the session begins.
Planned Quantity is how many finished units to make, in the same units as the recipe's Output Quantity. Iraca multiplies the recipe's ingredients by Planned ÷ Output: with a recipe of 1 bag uses 2 lb, planning 55 bags plans 110 lb of the ingredient. If you open two 55-lb sacks, plan 55; if you end up with 54, enter 54 as the actual quantity when you complete the run.
Editing a run before it starts
Owners and admins can change a Draft or Scheduled run with Edit on the run's page: planned quantity, scheduled date, warehouse and notes. Changing the planned quantity re-plans the ingredient list from the recipe. Once a run has started it can no longer be edited.
Choosing ingredient lots
If the recipe uses ingredients with lot tracking enabled, the scheduling dialog shows an Ingredient Lots section listing one picker per tracked ingredient.
Every picker defaults to Automatic (earliest expiry first). Leave it there and Iraca draws from the lot that expires soonest, using undated lots last. This is the right choice for most runs — it keeps stock rotating and prevents ingredients ageing out at the back of the shelf.
Pick a specific lot when the batch has to come from known material: a customer-mandated source, a supplier you're trialling, or stock you're deliberately clearing. Each option shows the lot number, the quantity on hand in the selected warehouse, and the expiry date where one is recorded.
Two things worth knowing:
- The list is per warehouse. Change the Warehouse field and the available lots change with it, because lot balances are tracked separately in each location.
- A chosen lot is a starting point, not a limit. If the lot you pick doesn't hold enough to cover the whole run, Iraca draws what's there and fills the remainder from other lots, earliest expiry first. Each ingredient shows roughly how much the run needs, and if the lot you chose can't cover it you'll see a note saying how much will come from elsewhere. That's a heads-up, not an error — you can schedule the run either way.
Ingredients without lot tracking don't appear here — there's nothing to choose, and their stock is deducted as a single movement.
Whatever is consumed is recorded lot by lot, so Lot Tracking → Trace shows exactly which ingredient lots went into the batch, and a mock recall on any of them finds this run.
Starting a run
When you click Start Run, a confirmation dialog appears:
- Number of Operators — pre-filled from the planned operator count set at scheduling. Adjust it if the actual crew size differs on the day.
Confirming the start:
- Stamps the start time on the run.
- Records the operator count.
- Deducts planned ingredient quantities from stock (WIP reservation) for every ingredient. Per operator per hour ingredients are deducted at a planned one hour per operator, since the real duration isn't known yet; if you changed the operator count on this screen, those quantities are recalculated before the deduction. Their planned figures are restated against the actual duration when you complete the run.
Completing a run
Click Complete (available from Scheduled, In Progress, and Quality Check statuses). In the completion dialog:
- Enter the Actual Output Quantity — what you actually made.
- Confirm or adjust the Actual Quantity for each ingredient consumed.
- If the output product has lot tracking enabled, enter the Lot Number (required) and optional Expiry Date.
How ingredient quantities are calculated
| Quantity type | Planned qty at completion |
|---|---|
| Per unit produced | recipe quantity × (actual output ÷ recipe yield) |
| Per operator per hour | recipe quantity × operators × actual session hours |
| Per run (flat) | recipe quantity (unchanged) |
Session hours are calculated from the moment you clicked Start Run to the moment you click Complete.
Once the run is complete, its cost per unit becomes the product's cost from then on, for sales and stock valuation alike, until the next completed run replaces it. It takes precedence over a typed Unit Cost and over the recipe's own figure. See How Iraca decides what a unit costs.
Tracking operators and duration
After a run is completed, the detail page shows:
- Operators — how many people worked the session.
- Started — the exact date and time the run began.
- Duration — total session time in hours (calculated automatically).
These values feed into consumable calculations and are available in production reports for trend analysis.
COGS calculation
When COGS tracking is enabled, Iraca calculates cost at completion:
COGS = Σ (ingredient actual_qty × ingredient unit_cost)
+ (labour_cost_per_unit × actual_output)
+ (overhead_cost_per_unit × actual_output)The COGS per unit is stored on the production run and used in inventory valuation.
Cancelling a run
If a run is In Progress, cancelling it returns the WIP ingredient reservation back to stock. If a run is still Scheduled, cancellation simply removes it with no stock impact.
Runs made by a production plan
When you commit a production plan, Iraca schedules one run for each item it worked out you need to make, with the lot number and ingredient lines already filled in. They're ordinary runs in every way that matters: start them, complete them, cancel them, and everything on this page applies.
You'll recognise them by the Planned in production plan note on the run. Runs for sub-recipes (a sauce used in a dish) are scheduled earlier in the day than the dishes that use them, and you'll need to complete the sauce run before starting the dish run, because the dish run draws the sauce from stock.
While one of these runs is open, orders that need the same product wait for it instead of using the ingredients a second time. See Orders waiting on a planned run.
Draft runs
Runs created from the Recipe Studio batch calculator, or from certain import flows, may start as Draft. Use Promote to Scheduled to assign a lot number and move the run into the normal lifecycle.
Saved estimates
The batch calculator's Save to history keeps a costing what-if: what a batch of that size would cost at today's ingredient prices. Nothing is made, so no stock moves and nothing is posted to your journal. These appear in the run list marked Estimate.
Because nothing was produced, estimates are left out of anything that measures real production: they do not set the cost used when you sell the product, and they are excluded from the Production Efficiency and COGS reports. The cost of a sale comes from your most recent real completed run instead, falling back to the product's own unit cost when there hasn't been one — and if that's blank too but the product has a recipe, from that recipe's own ingredients, so a recipe used as an ingredient in another recipe still contributes a real cost instead of nothing.