Archiving lets you take an inventory product out of active use — hide it from your default product list, stop it from being added to new recipes, and skip it during order stock deduction — without deleting it. Past goods receipts, counts, movements and recipe history stay intact, and you can unarchive at any time.
Use archiving when a product is seasonal, discontinued, replaced by a new SKU, or temporarily unavailable from your supplier. For a primer on inventory products, see Inventory Products & Categories.
When to archive vs. delete
Situation | What to do |
Product is seasonal or temporarily off-menu | Archive — keep history, unarchive later |
Supplier replaced one SKU with another | Archive the old, create the new |
Product was a duplicate or typo | Delete if it has no history; archive if it does |
Product is referenced in active recipes you still sell | Don't archive yet — replace the ingredient first, otherwise stock won't deduct on those orders |
How to archive a product
Go to Inventory → Products at the merchant level and open the product you want to archive.
Scroll to the bottom of the product form and click Archive.
Confirm in the dialog. The product is archived immediately.
What changes after archiving
On the Products page
The row is dimmed and shows an Inactive badge in the Status column.
Archived products are hidden from the default view. Click Filters and toggle Show archived products to see them.
All fields on the product form are locked. To make any change you must unarchive first.
On Recipes, Prep Recipes & Option Ingredients
Anywhere the archived product is used as an ingredient, you'll see a red warning icon next to the recipe / prep recipe / option name. Hover for the message:
"This recipe contains archived ingredients" (recipes)
"This prep recipe contains archived ingredients" (prep recipes)
"This option contains archived ingredients" (option ingredients)
Inside the recipe, the archived ingredient row turns red with the note: "This ingredient is archived. Please replace it."
In ingredient pickers
Archived products still appear in the dropdown when adding ingredients to a recipe, but they are disabled and labelled (Archived) so you can't accidentally select one.
On the POS — order stock deduction
‼️ Important: When an order is confirmed, any ingredient that is currently archived is silently skipped — its stock is not deducted and no movement is recorded for it. The order itself still goes through.
This means if you archive an ingredient that is still part of an active recipe, you'll over-promise stock on every order containing that recipe. Always replace the ingredient in the recipe (or take the menu item offline) before archiving.
How to unarchive
In Inventory → Products, open Filters and turn on Show archived products.
Open the archived product (the row with the Inactive badge).
Scroll to the bottom of the form and click Unarchive, then confirm.
The product becomes active again, all fields are editable, and stock starts deducting normally for any recipe that uses it. Red warnings across recipes / prep recipes / option ingredients clear automatically (you may need to refresh the page once).
FAQ
Does archiving delete my past stock history?
No. Counts, goods receipts, movements, and recipe changelogs are all preserved. Archiving only affects the present and future.
Will my reports still show archived products?
Yes — historical reports continue to include data from when the product was active.
Can I archive a prep recipe?
Yes — prep recipes are inventory products, so they archive the same way. Any regular recipe that uses the archived prep item will show the red warning.
What if I receive new stock for an archived product?
You can still record a goods receipt against an archived product, but stock won't move during order deduction until you unarchive it.
Can outlet staff archive products?
No — archive / unarchive is a merchant-level action. Outlet pages will show the warning indicators but the action lives on the merchant Products page.