Co-Packed Products: Setup and Production Workflow

This article walks through how to set up co-packed products in RoasterTools — finished goods like K-cups, frac packs, or brew bags where you roast the beans in-house and send them to a third-party co-packer to create the finished product.

When to use this setup

Use this setup if you send roasted beans to an outside co-packer to produce finished goods — K-cups, frac packs, brew bags, single-serve pods, canned cold brew, or any other format you don't produce in-house.

If your cold brew is produced via co-packer (e.g., canned cold brew), you can use this same setup for it. The mechanics are the same regardless of what the co-packer is producing.

What co-packing looks like in RoasterTools

Co-packing uses an internal customer account to trigger roasting of the beans you'll ship to your co-packer. Once the co-packer ships finished goods back, you manually update inventory so wholesale customers can order them.

Creating the finished product

1. Your team places a manual order to roast beans for the co-packer (using the internal customer).
2. The order creates demand to roast the beans needed.
3. You fulfill the order for the internal customer.
4. You ship the roasted beans to your co-packer. This step happens outside RoasterTools.
5. Once the co-packer returns the finished goods, you manually update inventory on your finished co-packed products (which are set up as non-coffee products).

One-time setup

The steps in this section are the one-time setup to enable co-packed products. Once it's set up, you'll follow the ongoing co-packing workflow every time you send beans out.

Step 1 — Create an internal customer

A dedicated customer your team uses to place production orders.

1. Go to Sales > Customers and click Add Customer.
2. Name it descriptively — for example, Internal Co-Pack Production.
3. Complete any required fields and save.

Step 2 — Create a production bag (optional)

If you produce and package beans in a unique amount for the co-packer, you can create a dedicated bag for that production run. This bag size matches the weight of roasted coffee you ship to the co-packer per run.

1. Go to Inventory > Bags and click New Bag.
2. Name it clearly — for example, Co-Pack Production – 80 lb.
3. Enter the batch weight in the Weight field (account for roast loss).
4. Make the bag exclusive to the internal customer from Step 1.
5. Don't set this bag as a default — it should only appear on your internal production product.
6. Save.

Step 3 — Create the co-pack production coffee variant

If you are using the unique bag, create a dedicated coffee variant for the beans you send to the co-packer by adding the variant to an existing coffee product (e.g., the roast or blend you send to the co-packer):

1. Activate the co-pack production bag as a variant on the existing product.
2. Because the bag is exclusive to your internal customer (from Step 2), it won't show up for other customers.

Step 4 — Set up the finished co-packed products as non-coffee items

These are the products your wholesale customers actually order. Create one for each finished co-packed product you sell.

1. Go to Inventory > Products > New > Other and create a product for each finished form — for example, K-Cup Case – 24ct, Frac Pack Case – 42ct, Brew Bag – Case of 12.
2. Set wholesale prices, portal visibility, and any other product details.
3. Save.

Ongoing co-packing workflow

Once setup is complete, these are the steps you'll follow every time you send beans out for co-packing and get the product back.

Step 1 — Place a production order from the internal customer

1. Create a new order under the internal customer (the one you set up in Setup Step 1).
2. Add the co-pack production coffee product with the production bag.
3. The order runs through normal production — your team will complete the tasks to roast and/or blend the coffee like any other order.
4. Fulfill the order.

Step 2 — Ship beans to the co-packer

This step happens outside RoasterTools.

After the beans are roasted (from Step 1), your team ships them to the co-packer for processing.

Step 3 — Update finished inventory in RoasterTools

This is what makes the finished co-packed product available to fulfill wholesale orders.

1. When the co-packer ships the finished goods back, go to Operations Dashboard > Inventory > Variants and search for the finished product name.
2. Manually adjust the inventory to reflect the quantity you received.

Step 4 — Fulfill orders

You now have inventory of the finished co-packed products to fulfill wholesale orders as they come in.

Tips & FAQs

Q: Do I need to repeat setup for each roast I send to the co-packer?

A: If you send different roasts for different products (e.g., a house blend for K-cups and a single origin for frac packs), each roast needs its own internal coffee product following Setup Step 3.

Q: Can I use this same setup for cold brew if my cold brew is also co-packed?

A: Yes. The mechanics are identical — internal production order, ship to co-packer, receive finished goods, update non-coffee inventory. Just name your products clearly so the team knows what's what.

Q: Why does this workflow use an internal customer? Couldn't we just track production directly?

A: The internal customer gives RoasterTools a way to roast beans and route them to your co-packer — the beans come out of your inventory when the internal order is fulfilled. It's how the system tracks where roasted coffee is going.