Inventory management and WIP

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Don't overthink the template, just build the columns yourself, it's about 6 of them: batch ID, ingredient, qty used, cost per unit, and date, feeding a running WIP total for that batch. Then a second tab for finished output: same batch ID so it links back, units produced, units downgraded, and the cost basis carried over from the WIP tab split across those units. That's the whole structure. Most inventory template downloads online are built for retail resale. They won't have the WIP-to-split step, so you'd end up ripping half of it out anyway.

4 products and adding 2 a year is still small enough that a structured spreadsheet can carry you further than people think. One tab per batch: ingredients in with cost, a WIP column while it's brewing, then split the output into finished units and downgrade units with their own cost basis. It's basically what the dedicated software does, just typed by hand. The real trigger to pay for something is when you're running enough batches a week that reconciling the numbers by hand starts eating a real afternoon, or more than one person needs to touch the same batch record at the same time and you're emailing versions back and forth. Neither of those hits at 4 SKUs. When it does, look for something built for production inventory specifically, not a basic stock app, since you need the cost to follow the batch through WIP into whatever it splits into.

Agreeing with the spreadsheet advice for now — at 4 products you don't need a system yet. But be clear about the one thing a spreadsheet won't do, because it's the exact thing you described: automatically roll ingredient costs through WIP into a true per-batch cost when a brew splits into finished + downgrade. A spreadsheet can hold the numbers, but it won't keep batch genealogy and cost basis linked once output splits — you'll re-type and reconcile by hand, and that's where errors and margin blind spots creep in. So the honest split: Counting stock + reorder points → spreadsheet is genuinely fine at your size. Ingredient cost → WIP → finished/downgrade with batch traceability → that's a bill-of-materials + production-order problem, where a light production-inventory or brewery-specific tool (Breww, Ollie and the like) earns its keep. General systems with BOM + lot/batch tracking do it too. My steer: stay on the spreadsheet now, but build it batch-first — one row per batch with a batch ID, ingredient cost in, and cost-per-output-unit out (finished and downgrade separately). If you ever move to a real tool, that structure imports cleanly; if you don't, you've still got traceability. The trigger to actually switch is usually one of two things: batch count getting painful to reconcile, or needing duty/excise reporting per batch — breweries hit the second one faster than they expect. Full disclosure, I set up inventory/production systems for small makers, so I'm biased toward "there's a tool for this" — but at 4 products I genuinely wouldn't buy one yet. Are you reporting alcohol duty per batch, or is it purely internal cost tracking for now? That's what decides whether a spreadsheet holds up.

Hi, Tribenest is a tool made for small businesses. Our CMS allows you to build exactly what you described. Happy to help set it up and give you A full month trial to see if that’s what you’re looking for.

At four products, I would try hard not to jump directly into a large ERP. Your requirements are more specific than basic inventory, though, because you are describing a small production and traceability system: ingredient lots received with cost; ingredients consumed into a production batch; work in progress while brewing; yield and loss recorded during production; finished goods created from the batch; product that is downgraded, blended, reworked, or discarded; batch history preserved from ingredient through finished product. The questions that will determine the right tool are: Do you need excise, regulatory, or alcohol-duty reporting from the same system? Do ingredient lots need expiration dates or supplier traceability? (probably not based on your volume?) Are recipes fixed, or do actual ingredient quantities vary by batch? Do you need packaging inventory—cans, bottles, labels, kegs—inside the same workflow? Does downgraded product become another sellable SKU, get blended into another batch, or become waste? Do you need accounting integration, or is internal costing enough for now? How many people will enter data, and will they do it from the production floor? Those answers will tell you whether a brewing-specific platform, a lightweight manufacturing inventory tool, or a simpler configured system is appropriate. Full disclosure: I run a custom software consultancy, and this is the type of workflow we help businesses map and automate. That said, I would not recommend custom development as the first move. I’d document the batch lifecycle first, trial two or three existing systems against a real brew, and only consider custom work or integration if the available products cannot represent the downgrade and traceability requirements cleanly. Once you have sorted otu the basic needs, I would think Directus, or even the fully open source Cairn could be a fit here. (Also former brewer. was a member of the MBAA for a bit. DM me , I'm always willing to chat about the intersection of brewing and software hahaha)

so i work for agentui.... I have seen this before in some of our users, the reason they create their own solution is because is fairly hard to find something that matches all your requirements