Batch utility/other costs
Breww allows the inclusion of utility and other general costs such as water, electricity and 3rd party packaging fees against a batch. Rather than needing to create these as stock items, they can be added as "Utility/other costs".
Manually adding costs
Simply apply these costs to a batch with a name and value under the Utility/other costs tab on a batch.
You can then assign a Cost type, enter the cost amount, and add a Batch action to add cost to. For example, if you have had stock contract packaged, and want to add a cost to cans that have been filled/packaged by the 3rd party packager, you can apply a cost to the racking action to reflect the service fee/charge from the contract packager. These costs will then be applied to the product that has been racked. In the example below, you would apply the full amount for the cost of packaging 100 24 X 330ml cases from a 3rd party packager. If it cost you £10 a case, then you would enter £1000 here.
Managing your cost types
Every utility/other cost, whether added by hand or automatically, is given a cost type, such as "Utilities" or "Labour". You manage the list of cost types in Settings -> Production settings -> Utility/other batch costs, in the Batch utility/other cost types section at the top of the page.
Use Add cost type to create one, the pencil icon to rename an existing one, and the bin icon to delete one.
A cost type that is already in use on a batch cannot be deleted, so that your existing batch costs stay intact. If you delete a cost type that isn't in use on any batch, any automatic batch costs set up against it are removed at the same time.
Automatically adding costs to batches
Batch costs can also be automatically added into a batch should you wish to always include a certain cost on all batches. This functionality can be set up in Settings -> Production settings -> Utility/other batch costs, in the Automatic batch costs settings section.
Select Add automatic batch cost and you will be asked for:
- Type of brew to apply automatic cost to - which brew types this cost applies to (Standard, Contract brewed in-house, Collaboration in-house, Contract brewed by 3rd party, Collaboration at 3rd party). This lets you, for example, only include a cost on batches you brew yourself and not on batches brewed by someone else on your behalf. Guest beer receipts never receive automatic costs.
- Sites applies to - the cost will only be applied to batches brewed at the sites you select. Leave this empty to apply it at all sites.
- How to apply the utility/other cost - either Per batch, or per unit of volume into the initial vessel (shown using your own volume unit, for example "Per litre into initial vessel").
- Amount - the cost, in your base currency.
- Cost type - which of your cost types this cost is recorded against.
When automatic costs are applied
Automatic costs are added when the batch is first moved from the brewing system into a vessel. For batches produced by someone else for you, they are added when the batch is marked as started instead.
A per batch cost is only ever added once per batch, even if the batch is moved into several vessels. A per volume cost is added for each transfer into a vessel, based on the volume moved.
Editing, deleting and applying to older batches
Each automatic cost row has three actions:
- Apply cost to historical batches (the coins icon) - opens a list of batches that don't already have this cost and lets you apply it to the ones you choose. Only batches started within the last six months are offered, and planned batches, merged batches and batches created by a data import are excluded.
- Edit (the pencil icon) - changes only affect future batches. Costs already applied to batches are left as they are.
- Delete (the bin icon) - deleting an automatic cost will not affect costs that have already been applied to your batches, they just won't be applied to future batches that you create.
You can always manually adjust the costs on specific batches if needed, even if they were initially added automatically.