Maintaining Accurate Inventory Costs in RoasterTools (Green and Non Coffee Variants)

Overview

RoasterTools tracks your inventory and the cost of the inventory for green coffee, coffee product variants and non coffee product variants. Below is an overview explaining how to ensure the costs of inventory are accurate and more information to understand how the costs are calculated.

Requirements for Accurate Inventory Costs

To maintain accurate inventory costs, you must have these settings enabled

(reach out to support@roastertools.com to turn these settings on for your account):

1. Positive Green Inventory Required

What it does: Prevents green coffee inventory from going negative. Once enabled, you cannot complete a roast or pre-blend task if there isn't enough green coffee.

What happens: If you try to complete a task without enough inventory, you'll see a "not enough inventory" message. You'll need to either:

• Purchase more green coffee, or
• Change the roast recipe to use green coffee that has inventory available

2. Positive Variant Inventory Required

What it does: Prevents variant inventory from going negative during fulfillment.

What happens: If you try to fulfill an order without enough inventory, you'll see a "not enough inventory" message. You'll need to:

• For coffee variants: Complete packaging tasks to create more inventory
• For purchased products: Record a purchase (best practice) or adjust inventory

Best Practices

Record Purchases at Beginning or End of Production Day

Recommendation: Record green coffee and purchased product variant purchases at the beginning or end of your production day - not while your team is actively completing tasks.

Why: When you record a purchase, it changes the weighted average cost. Tasks completed use the current average cost at the moment they're completed. If you record it mid-day, some orders will use the old cost and some will use the new cost. This can create inconsistency in your daily reports.

Your overall costs will still be accurate, but daily reporting will be cleaner if you follow this practice.

How Costs Are Calculated

Weighted Average Costing

RoasterTools uses weighted average cost. When you purchase green coffee at different prices, the system calculates an average.

Example:

• You have 100 lbs @ $5/lb. ($5 * 100 = $500)
• You purchase 50 lbs @ $7/lb. ($7 * 50 = $350)
• New average: $5.67/lb. for all 150 lbs --> ($350 + $500 ) / 150 lbs = $5.67/lb.

How Inventory Moves through the system and how the costs are calculated

Inventory is created (or subtracted) when you complete a task by checking the box. (either on task pages or fulfill page)

The cost of that inventory is dynamic and depends on the current average value of either the green coffee (for coffee products) or the product variant (non coffee). For coffee products, the system does NOT use stored roast or blend costs to calculate coffee variant costs, It looks directly at the current average green cost and calculates based on that.

This means all coffee variant inventory costs always reflect your current green coffee average.

When inventory goes to Zero

When inventory levels go to zero, the existing average cost will remain.

Where to See Your Costs

Green Coffee Costs

Location: Inventory > Green > (three dots on right) > Purchase

You'll see:

• Current weighted average cost
• Purchase history
• Transaction history
• Current inventory value

Purchased Product Costs

Location: Inventory > Products > Variant > (dropdown on right) > Purchase

You'll see:

• Current weighted average cost
• Purchase history
• Current inventory value
• Transaction History

Reports That Include Costs

Several reports show cost, inventory and value data:

Insights > select report (MORE INFO COMING ON THIS SECTION LATER)

• Customer Purchases Report (?) Example Total Value Sold
• Inventory Report - Example Net Value Change, and Total Value
• Product Sales Report - Example Total Value Sold
• Production Summary -> Coffee Products Report - Total Value
• Production Summary -> Customer Report - Total Value and Profit Margin
• Production Summary -> Green Operations Report - Green COGS
• Production Summary -> Other Products Report - Total Value
• Production Summary -> Summary - Total Value

Common Scenarios

"I recorded a purchase and now my costs changed"

This is expected. Your weighted average updates immediately when you record a purchase. Any tasks completed after the purchase will use the new average.

"Two orders fulfilled the same day show different costs"

This likely means you recorded a green coffee purchase between fulfilling those orders. Each order captures the cost average at the moment of fulfillment. Your overall costs are still correct.

"My costs reset to zero"

Check if your green coffee inventory hit zero. This triggers the "clean slate" behavior where the average resets to $0. Your next purchase will establish a new average.

Summary: What You Need to Do to ensure accurate costs

Must do:

1. ✅ Enable "Positive Green Inventory Required" setting
2. ✅ Enable "Positive Variant Inventory Required" setting

Recommended:

3. ✅ Record purchases at beginning or end of day (not mid-operations)

Result:

• Accurate cost tracking across all products
• Reliable profitability reporting
• Consistent weighted average costing

Need Help?

If you have questions about your inventory costs or see unexpected values, please reach out to support. We're here to help ensure your costs are tracking accurately.