Inventory Restaurants: How to Add Alternative Ingredient Relationships

Overview

There will often be a requirement to purchase the same product from more than one supplier. The alternative ingredient may have a different purchase quantity and cost price to the master product. When this is the case then the solution is to add alternate ingredients to the master product.

A product is the same as another product if it’s interchangeable in recipes. E.g. Either Flour- Plain White 25kg from supplier A or Flour- Plain White (RE234) 1.35kg from Supplier B can be used in the same recipes and are therefore considered the same product.  Flour 00 25kg is not the same product as it will never be used in the same recipes as Flour Plain White.

It is advised to give the master product a generic name (none that are supplier specific) and to let the product codes (for the master and alternate) tell the supplier whether it’s their own brand or a specific brand of the product when ordering.

Fig 1 - Create Alternate Ingredient Link

• Search for the product/Ingredient > Click the Alternates tab.
• Click the ‘Create Alternate Ingredient’ link and a pop-up box will appear.

Fig 2 - Create Ingredient Pop-up

• The Product Name should be edited to match the master product. Remove ‘copy of’.
• The distributor name and distributor code should be changed to the relevant ones.
• The supplier name and supplier code should be changed to the relevant ones.
• The cost price should be changed to reflect this supplier’s cost price against the supply quantity.
• Date into warehouse should be edited to reflect when this alternate becomes available to purchase from suppliers.
• The supply quantity should be edited to reflect what quantity this supplier delivers in.
• It’s advised that the option copy and inherit parent values is chosen. This refers to the extended fields values at the end of the popup. ‘Copy and Inherit Parent Values’ ensures these values are kept up to date in line with the master product details if they are changed on the master product.

Fig 3 - Alternate Ingredient Added Confirmation

• Make the applicable changes and click save and the alternate ingredient details will have been added. Click OK.
• At the top left corner there is the option to edit or delete the details if an error was made, otherwise close the box.

Fig 4 - The Added Alternate Ingredient

• The alternate ingredient can now be seen in the Alternates tab.
• If the alternate should be the preferred ingredient for creating recipes then this can be set while the product is in edit mode.

Fig 5 - Preferred Supplier Radio Button

• Click edit on the product.
• Choose the supplier that should be the preferred supplier. Click Save.

Fig 6 - Changes Saved Confirmation

• A pop-up will show to say the changes have been saved. Click OK.

Fig 7 - Preferred Supplier Changes

• When looking at the alternate tab now, the system will have swapped the preferred supplier.
• Note: The preferred supplier in Master Data is used to work out the theoretical cost of sale for the batches and recipes. At site level in the stock system, however, it’s the allocated supplier for that site will be used to cost the recipe at that site.
• This is because the preferred supplier in Master Data may not be the preferred supplier for all sites where the product is available for ordering.
• This means that there can be a different theoretical COS associated with the recipes in master data compared to the COS for that recipe at site.
• As of 30th October 2025, it will be possible to apply a setting that allows Inventory and Ordering app users to see all product alternate names when ordering - see here for details.

Promote Alternate to Parent

It is possible to change an existing alternate ingredient to become the parent ingredient for its parent/alternate group. This can be useful when changing suppliers and stopping purchases from the current parent ingredient.

This functionality must first be enabled in Global Database Settings via a request to Fourth Support. Once enabled, a new permission — Promote Alternate to Become Parent — will be available in User Groups. Three ingredient permissions are required for this to work: Edit Ingredients, Edit Alternates, and Promote Alternate to Become Parent.

Fig 8 -  New user group permission to change alternate ingredient to be parent ingredient

When the permissions are in place, a Promote to Parent link will appear on each alternate ingredient (except the one that already represents the parent). Selecting this link displays a confirmation pop-up — select Proceed to complete the change.

Note: If either Edit Ingredient or Edit Alternate is disabled, the Promote to Parent link will not be displayed, even if the promote permission is enabled.

Note: The Promote to Parent link will also be disabled if the parent or alternate is locked (being edited by another user, or in an approval workflow).

Fig 9 -  Promote an alternate ingredient to be the parent ingredient appears for all alternates except the alternate that represents the parent ingredient

The following parent ingredient attributes will not change when the alternate becomes the new parent ingredient:

• Nutrition Intolerance

• Ingredient List 

• ABV

• Categories (including Cost Centre Category)

• Sellable Ingredient Portions

For Inventory customers: if the parent and alternate have different base units of measure, a further pop-up will appear to allow the Unit Size value to be updated. The new unit size UoM is automatically set to the base UoM of the new parent. The Proceed button is disabled until a Unit Size value is entered.

⚠️ After the ingredient has been updated, the weighted average must be reset in Inventory. For guidance see [Inventory Restaurants: Weighted Averages Explained].

Fig 10 -  A pop-up will display if the new parent's Unit Size value needs to be amended

Also See

• Inventory | Restaurants - Publish Products to the Stock System
• Inventory | Restaurants - Creating Products in Master Data