Food Inventory Tools - Summary

Understanding the Tools for Food Inventory Management

This article summarizes the tools available when managing food inventory. The management of food inventory is critical; and fairly complex from a system management standpoint when considering the web of information tied to each new receipt of food inventory including caloric values, onsite/offsite amounts, nutritional plans, breakout and much more.  This article is to assist Users in understanding the basic functions of the tools available so they know where to turn when managing any aspect of food inventory.

IMPORTANT:  Food inventory is specific to each Facility/Department that is configured for your company.  If your User Permission has access to more than one Facility/Department, it is important that you select the correct Facility/Department from the Company Navigator dropdown before you add or change inventory.

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MASTER FOOD INVENTORY

The "Master Food Inventory" tool is located in the Facility Settings menu (gear icon in upper right corner of app) within the "Food Inventory" list. You must be a Facility Manager User to access this menu. When you click this link, the following tool will launch:

The primary function of this tool is to define the types of fish your facility uses (i.e. - create a master inventory list).  The selections made here will filter all food choices throughout the system to only those listed here.  This tool also allows the option for users to enter values for the following:

1. Offsite Reorder:  Used to trigger alerts when your offsite stock reaches this amount
2. Onsite Reorder:  Used to trigger alerts when you onsite stock reaches this amount
3. % Waste in Prep:  This % is used to calculate the amount of total food required when thawing fish (for breakout) each day.  You will see these total amounts when you click on the "Breakout Totals" button within the Daily Breakout tool
4. Requires Breakout:  Some food items may be stored frozen and require thawing prior to feeding.  This is referred to as "Breakout" in the system.  If you wish to track your inventory by how much food is removed from the freezer each day you will want to click the checkbox in the "Requires Breakout" column.  This will then instruct the system to deduct food amounts when your Facility Breakout tool is used.  Otherwise food is reduced by how much is recorded in the session/feed record tools.  
5. Pieces per Kg:  This can be used if you prefer to enter the number of fish fed to an animal instead of a weight.  To do this the User must enter the estimated number of food items that make up one kg (or lb, depending on your Facility preferences for food weight).

NOTE:  Each of these options listed above are optional.

TIP:  For more detailed information on creating your Facility's master food inventory, check out our article Master Food Inventory.

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MANAGE/RECEIVE FOOD INVENTORY 

The "Food Inventory" tool is located within the Facility menu on the left Navigator panel.  When you click on this button, the following tool will launch:

The first two "bars" at the top of the window titled, "Summary Level" and "Transactions Detail" expand when clicked and reveal information regarding onsite/offsite stock quantities and inventory details.  The primary function of this tool is to RECEIVE or TRANSFER inventory. Anytime new food stocks are acquired, Food Inventory is used to enter the proper amounts into the system.  This is also the tool where all specific nutritional information for each food lot is entered, allowing detailed analysis of animal diets.

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DAILY BREAKOUT

The "Daily Breakout" tool is located within the Facility menu on the left Navigator panel.  When you click on this button, the following tool will launch:

The primary function of the Daily Breakout tool is to record food stock that is removed from freezer storage and prepared for animal diets.  This only needs to be used for food items that are designated as "Requires Breakout" in the Master Food Inventory tool.   When this box is NOT checked, the system will instead reduce food inventory by how much is "fed" using the session/feed records.  

"Utilizing this tool on a daily basis deducts stock from food inventory. For this reason, there is an Alert available in the Communications Center that will provide automatic notification if Breakout is not recorded each day.

This tool also plays a key role in calculating food waste by comparing what was removed from storage vs actual feed records.

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NUTRITIONAL PLANS

The "Nutritional Plans" tool is located within the Animal menu on the left Navigator panel.  When you click on this button, the following tool will launch:

Nutritional Plans are the central tool in prescribing each animal's target food intake.  The values that are entered here push to the Session Records.  Nutritional Plans also carry through all specific nutritional information such as caloric values, protein, fat, etc.  This allows detailed analysis of every animal's diet.