Settings
Settings decides how batches are made, costed, numbered and posted. Set it up before your first production order and review it with your finance lead.
- Production managers, finance teams and shop floor supervisors
- Updated
In this guide
Recipe approval defaults to Off: use saved versions, preserving existing production behavior. Choose Required: use approved, effective releases to require sign-off for new work. Already planned, waiting-for-materials, running and completed orders keep their retained version when the policy is activated. An unplanned draft is not automatically approved or replaced. Old settings clients that omit this field preserve the current policy.
With approval required, saving a recipe creates a Draft, not a production release. Open the version and select Submit for review. A person with Approve and reject recipe versions can approve it immediately, select a future effective date in the business timezone, or reject it with a required reason. Review feedback and the submitter, reviewer and dates remain with that version. Correct a rejected version by saving and submitting a new version.
The latest saved version stays available for editing and history. Production and What to make use the released version that is effective now, even when a newer draft exists. A scheduled release becomes effective at its recorded time without a scheduled job. Approval cannot be backdated. A successor ends the preceding release at the successor's start; duplicate start times and dates that conflict with an existing scheduled successor are refused. All release instants are stored in UTC and displayed in the business timezone.
If a release changes before an order is planned or started, the order is not silently upgraded. Review the error, cancel the stale order to release its holds, then create a new order from the effective release. Already-started work stays valid. Revoking approval permission prevents new decisions but does not undo an existing valid approval.
Where to find it: Sidebar > Settings
Who can do it: Manage manufacturing settings. The costing rates need View production costs and margins as well.
The page has five sections and a save bar with Discard and Save settings.
3.1 Making a Batch
- Issue materials
- By hand — record the lots and quantities actually used. This is the default
- Automatically from the recipe — materials are taken when output is recorded, scaled to the units made, first expiry first
- Using more than the recipe — Allow, Warn above the threshold (default) or Block above the threshold
- Overuse threshold (%) — default 2%
- When an order is planned — Hold its materials (default) or Only check stock. Held stock cannot be sold at the till or on invoices
- Normal loss allowed (%) — default 1.5%. This is the starting value for new recipes; waste beyond it is written off
- Workshop — the Inventory location where materials are used
- Finished products go to — the Inventory location that receives finished goods
Leave a location on Choose when planning if it differs between orders. What to make creates orders with these defaults, so set both locations before using it.
Start By hand while you learn your real usage. Switch to automatic once your recipes match the workshop. Each order keeps the issue method it was created with.
3.2 Costing
Materials use their current average cost in Inventory. These rates add labour, power and factory overhead:
- Labour, per person-hour — default GH₵18.00. A recipe step can have its own rate
- Power and generator, per machine-hour — default GH₵22.00. Fuel, ECG and generator servicing, averaged
- Fixed factory costs, per month — rent, supervision, generator lease and depreciation
- Normal output, per month — a normal month, not this month
The overhead rate is fixed monthly cost ÷ normal monthly output. For example, GH₵2,400.00 ÷ 6,000 gives GH₵0.40 per good overhead unit. Until you set normal output, overhead is GH₵0.00 per unit and batches carry no fixed overhead. In a slow month, the part not added to batches stays in cost of sales, as IAS 2 requires.
A recipe can count one item as more or less than one overhead unit, so a large product takes a bigger share of capacity. See 4) Recipes.
3.3 Accounts
This section appears when Accounting is on. Each account defaults to a standard code; SikaBooks creates the default account the first time it is needed. An account set on an Inventory product still wins.
Mapping changes apply to new production orders. Existing orders retain their saved mapping choices, and posted batch reports show the accounts actually used. If older open orders or unresolved postings have no mapping snapshot, resolve them before changing mappings; the other settings remain editable. Fix an unavailable saved account rather than switching an existing failed posting to a different account.
| Account | Default | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Raw materials | 1200 Raw Materials Inventory | Materials issued and returned, unless the material has its own stock account |
| Work in progress | 1210 Work in Progress Inventory | Costs of batches not yet finished |
| Finished goods | 1220 Finished Goods Inventory | Made products. Their sales and returns post here too |
| Labour applied | 5150 Production labour applied | Labour and piece labour taken into batches |
| Overhead applied | 5160 Production overhead applied | Power and fixed overhead taken into batches |
| Abnormal loss | 5170 Abnormal production loss | Losses beyond normal loss, rejected and recalled stock, cancelled runs |
| Excise duty | 5180 Excise duty | Monthly excise returns |
| Production cost variance | 5190 Production cost variance | A late supplier bill that changes an outsourced step after the batch is finished |
| Cost of sales | 5000 Cost of Sales | Month-end and take-apart adjustments for goods already sold, unless the product has its own cost of sales account |
| Excise payable | 2180 Excise duty payable | Excise owed to GRA |
| Customer deposits | 2190 Customer deposits | Job deposits not yet earned |
Factory cost accounts marks your own expense accounts for wages, power, rent and depreciation, so Month end can compare what you spent with what batches took in. Hold Ctrl or Command to select several. Create the suggested accounts adds 6201 Production wages, 6202 Workshop supervisor, 6211 Depreciation, moulds and machines, 6241 Factory rent, 6242 Generator lease and 6251 Factory power and fuel.
Match factory accounts to month-end rows puts each selected account in Production wages, Power and fuel or Fixed factory costs.
When Accounting is off, the section says so. You can still make and cost batches.
3.4 Numbers and Labels
- Production order numbers — default
PRD-{YYYY}-{NNNNN}. Use{YYYY}and{NNNNN}once each - Batch numbers — default
{CODE}-{YYMMDD}-{NN}.{CODE}is the product code. Use{CODE},{YYMMDD}and one counter,{NN}or{NNNNN}
Patterns may also contain letters, numbers, dots, dashes and underscores. Next: previews the next number as you type. A recipe can use its own batch pattern. Print the batch number with the made-on and best-before dates on your labels.
Customer jobs are numbered JOB-{YYYY}-{NNNNN} and recalls RC-{YYYY}-{NNNNN}. These two patterns are fixed.
3.5 Quality
- Check a batch before it can be sold — every new batch stays quarantined after final costing until an independent quality lead releases it. Recipe checks and cure time require a release even when this is off
- Who can release — explicitly choose Any authorized quality lead or Only selected quality leads. The selected policy needs at least one person. Clearing the selection does not silently allow everyone
A saved lead who becomes inactive or loses release permission remains visible as unavailable and cannot release batches. Keep the restriction while an administrator assigns an eligible lead, or explicitly change the policy. Saving unrelated settings does not restore their access or widen the list.
A person who recorded output, work or piece counts, or performed piece work on the order, can never release its batches, whatever this list says.
3.6 Excise Products
Excise rates, plant locations and stamp rules are set per product on the Excise products page, reached from Reports > Excise and tax stamps > Configure excise products. See 16) Excise and Tax Stamps.
3.7 Industry Presets
Open Settings > Industry presets with Manage Manufacturing settings permission. The choices are General Manufacturing, Food / Bakery, Cosmetics / Soap, Garments and Assembly. These are optional, editable suggestions, not compliance certification or a complete quality plan.
Choose an industry, select only the fields you want and edit their text. Preview selection shows each selected field as Not set > proposed value for a new template. Save template saves only that snapshot. Changes to the editable suggestions require another preview. Validation errors retain editable text; correcting it and previewing again does not modify any existing production record.
| Preset | Suggested recipe name | Unit label | Suggested pass / fail check names |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Manufacturing | General recipe | units | Product appearance reviewed |
| Food / Bakery | Food / bakery recipe | items | Packaging and label reviewed |
| Cosmetics / Soap | Cosmetics / soap recipe | items | Packaging and label reviewed |
| Garments | Garment recipe | pieces | Stitching reviewed; Measurements reviewed |
| Assembly | Assembly recipe | units | Assembly reviewed; Function reviewed |
No preset supplies temperatures, expiry dates, cure times, normal losses, material quantities, process hours, labour rates, overheads or financial mappings. Determine these for your actual product and quality requirements. Suggested check names have no numeric safety thresholds.
Saved templates are available on New recipe to people with Manage recipes permission. Loading one only fills the selected name, unit label and pass / fail check names. Batch size, normal loss, shelf life, cure time and overhead units remain blank for explicit entry. Choose or create the made product, enter the real materials and work, then save using the normal recipe form. The existing recipe approval policy still applies; a template neither publishes nor approves a recipe.
Saving a template does not change existing recipes or versions, rates, account mappings, quality policy, roles, production orders, stock or enabled modules. It works without Accounting and never enables a paid module. Repeating the same save request reference and selection returns the original template. A different selection under an already-used reference is refused; start a fresh preview to create another template.