Inventory products are the raw ingredients and supplies your business uses — flour, chicken breast, olive oil, takeaway containers, and so on. They are the foundation of Papaya Inventory: everything else (recipes, stock counts, goods receipts) depends on your products being set up first.
Creating a product
Navigate to Inventory → Products (merchant level) and click Add product. Fill in the following:
Field | What it means | Example |
Name | The ingredient name | Chicken breast |
Category | Group for organisation | Proteins |
Inventory UOM | How you store and count it | kg |
Usage UOM | How recipes reference it (can differ from inventory UOM) | g |
Purchase UOM | How you buy it from suppliers | kg |
Yield % | Usable portion after prep (trimming, peeling, etc.) | 85% |
Par level | Ideal stock level to maintain | 10 kg |
Reorder point | Stock level that triggers a low-stock alert | 3 kg |
Shelf life | How long the product stays usable | 5 days
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‼️ Yield % matters for accurate deduction. If you buy 1 kg of chicken breast but only 850g is usable after trimming, set yield to 85%. The system accounts for this when deducting stock from orders
Choosing your units of measure
Every product has three kinds of unit, and they all convert back to one base unit — the Inventory UOM:
Unit | What it’s for | Example |
Inventory UOM | The base unit you store and count stock in. Everything else converts to this. | kg |
Usage UOM | How recipes draw the product down. You can add more than one, each with a factor back to the Inventory UOM. | g (1,000 g = 1 kg) |
Purchase UOM | How you buy it from suppliers. You can add more than one, each with a factor back to the Inventory UOM. | Box (1 box = 10 kg) |
Standard metric units (kg↔g, l↔ml) convert automatically. For a unit Papaya doesn’t recognise — a Tray, Bundle, or Case — create a custom UOM at Inventory → Inventory setup → Custom inventory UOMs, then give it a conversion factor when you add it as a usage or purchase unit.
‼️ Pick the Inventory UOM carefully — it can’t be changed later. Once a product is created, the Inventory UOM is locked, because all stock, counts, goods receipts, recipe deductions and costs are stored in that unit. To switch it, archive the product and create a new one. Usage and purchase UOMs stay editable.
Unit conversions
Papaya automatically handles conversions between related units. For example, if your inventory UOM is kg but your recipe uses g, the system converts seamlessly. Common automatic conversions include kg↔g and l↔ml.
Bulk upload
If you have many products to add, use the bulk upload feature. Upload a CSV or JSON file with your product list to create them all at once. Go to Inventory → Products and look for the import option.
Categories
Categories help you organise products into logical groups (e.g. Proteins, Dairy, Vegetables, Packaging). Go to Inventory → Categories to create and manage them.
Categories are optional but recommended — they make it easier to find products when you have a large inventory.
Outlet-level product view
At the outlet level (Inventory → Products), you can see each product with its current stock, par level, reorder point, latest purchase price, and total inventory value. Low-stock alerts appear automatically when stock falls below the reorder point.
You can customise which columns are visible using the column visibility toggle in the table header.
FAQ
What's the difference between Inventory UOM and Usage UOM? Inventory UOM is how you store and count the product (e.g. kg). Usage UOM is how your recipes reference it (e.g. g). The system converts between them automatically.
Do I need to set up products at each outlet? No. Products are created at the merchant level and shared across all outlets. Each outlet then tracks its own stock levels independently.
Can I change a product’s Inventory UOM after creating it? No. The Inventory UOM is the base unit that all stock, counts, goods receipts, recipe deductions and costs are stored in, so it’s locked once the product exists — changing it would silently reinterpret every existing number. If you picked the wrong one, archive the product and create a new one with the correct Inventory UOM. Your usage and purchase UOMs stay fully editable.