Merge two products into one

Sometimes one item ends up as two products. A common case is one product for each supplier, made before purchase options existed. Duplicates also come from a CSV import, "Add as new" in invoice review, Describe it, and copying between kitchens. A merge folds the duplicate into the product that you keep.

What moves, and what stays

In this article, the duplicate is the product that you merge away. The kept product is the one that you merge it into.

These move to the kept product:

The stock on hand. The kept product's count goes up by what the duplicate held.
Every recipe that uses the duplicate, and every recipe that makes it.
The ways that you buy the duplicate. Each one becomes another purchase option on the kept product.
The invoice matches that Rinvy learned for the duplicate: supplier item codes and line descriptions.
Its unit conversions and extra storage areas, lines on orders that are not delivered yet, rows on open prep lists, and lines on invoices that are still in review.

The duplicate's history stays with it: counts, deliveries, waste, transfers and the recipe versions from before the merge. The duplicate is archived, and its Product report still shows that history. The two reports link to each other.

Merge a product

On the Products page, open the actions of the product that you want to merge away. On a computer, select the three dots at the end of its row. On a phone, swipe the row to the left and tap the three dots.
Select Merge into…, then pick the product to keep. The list shows only active products of the same kind.
The sheet lists what moves and where the kept product keeps its own settings. If the two products are counted in different units and Rinvy cannot convert them, the sheet asks how many of the kept product's unit one of the duplicate's unit is.
Select Merge. A merge cannot be undone, so read the preview first.

The Merge sheet for Sharp Cheddar (Bulk Goods) with Cheddar Cheese picked in the Merge into field. Under "Moves to Cheddar Cheese" it lists 10 lb of stock on hand and 1 way of buying it. A yellow "Cheddar Cheese keeps its own settings" box names the kept supplier and par. The Merge button is at the bottom.

When the two products disagree

The kept product keeps its own settings: its main recipe, its par, its supplier, its storage area and its accounting category. The preview lists each difference so that you can change the kept product afterwards. The duplicate's stock is booked in the kept product's storage area, so count it there next time.

When a merge is refused

Rinvy does not merge two products in these cases. The preview tells you which one applies.

A count is in progress. Finish or cancel it first.
The two products are tracked differently, for example one by quantity and one by OK, Low and Out.
The two are different kinds of product. One is bought, one is made by a recipe, or one is not inventoried.
Either product is auto-tracked from sales.
A recipe would use the kept product to make the kept product.
The two products are linked to each other.

Reports after a merge

The stock that moves is not usage or a delivery. Food Cost, Usage and the other reports show no usage on the duplicate and no gain on the kept product. Your total inventory value and your food cost do not change when the two products cost the same per unit. When they cost different amounts, the kept product's average cost blends in the duplicate's stock at the duplicate's cost.