Products

What is it?

The Products module is your master inventory book of everything you have in stock. Think of a well-organized pantry: each shelf is a category (meat, vegetables, packaging…) and on each shelf, every product has its own card with its name, quantity, price, expiry date, and plenty of other information.

Whether it’s a 25 kg bag of flour, a canister of olive oil, or a roll of cling film, everything is listed here. You know exactly what you have, how much is left, and when you need to reorder.

Each product can be one of two types:

• Component (raw material): what you purchase to make something else. For example: flour, eggs, butter.
• Finished Product: what you sell directly. For example: a cake, a sandwich, a bottle of juice.

What is it for?

• See at a glance all your products and their current stock levels
• Search quickly for a product by name, SKU (item code), or category
• Know the status of each product: OK, Low Stock, or Out of Stock
• Track expiry dates (use-by and best-before) to avoid waste and health code violations
• Manage batches with lot numbers, receiving dates, and the FEFO principle
• Compare prices from your suppliers for the same product
• Analyze consumption with charts and stockout forecasts
• Print labels automatically when receiving goods
• Scan products with a barcode reader from the tablet

How does it work?

Product catalog

When you open the Products page, you see a table with all your products. For each row, you see:

Column	What is displayed
Product	The product name and its SKU (item code)
Category	The product family (meat, vegetables, packaging…)
Current stock	The quantity in stock with the unit (e.g., 12 kg, 45 pcs)
Value	The total amount in stock (quantity x purchase price)
Status	A colored badge: green = OK, red = Low Stock
Actions	A button to view the detailed product sheet

You can search for a product by typing its name or SKU in the search bar. You can also filter by category or stock status (OK or Low Stock).

Tip

Use the “Low Stock” filter to instantly see all products that need reordering. It’s the fastest way to prepare your supplier orders.

Creating a new product

1. Click the ”+ New Product” button at the top of the page
2. Enter the product name (required)
3. Add the SKU / barcode if you have one
4. Choose a category from the dropdown list
5. Select the unit of measure: pieces, kg, liters, carton, or pallet
6. Enter the purchase price (before tax)
7. Choose the storage zone (cold room, dry storage, etc.)
8. Click “Create Product”

Note

The SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) is a unique code you assign to each product. It’s not mandatory, but it’s very useful for barcode scanning. Examples: “FLR-WHT-25” for 25 kg white flour, “OIL-OLV-5L” for 5-liter olive oil.

Stock status indicators

The stock status changes automatically based on the quantity in stock and the alert threshold you’ve defined:

Status	Color	Meaning
OK	Green	Stock is above the minimum threshold. Everything is fine.
Low Stock	Red	Stock is below the minimum threshold. Time to reorder.
Out of Stock	Dark red	Stock is at zero. There is none left at all.

For example, if you’ve set a minimum threshold of 5 kg for flour and there are only 3 kg left, the status will change to “Low Stock”. If stock drops to 0, it will show “Out of Stock”.

Product detail (7 tabs)

When you click on a product, you arrive at its detailed product sheet. At the top, you see a summary with the product name, current stock, and key information. Below that, 7 tabs organize all the information:

Overview

This is the product’s home page. You’ll find:

• The product name and photo
• The current stock quantity with unit
• The alert threshold: below this quantity, you’ll receive an alert
• The average purchase price calculated automatically
• The recent movements: the most recent stock entries and exits
• A small chart showing stock evolution over recent days

This is the view you’ll use most often to quickly check on a product.

Edit

This is where you change the product’s basic information:

• The name and description
• The category (meat, vegetables, etc.)
• The unit of measure (kg, liters, pieces, carton, pallet)
• The minimum stock alert threshold
• The barcode (EAN-13, EAN-8, or any other format)
• The product photo
• The status: active or archived

Tip

If you change the unit of measure (for example from “pieces” to “kg”), remember to adjust the alert threshold accordingly.

Lots & Expiry

This is the most important section for food safety and traceability. Here you manage:

Summary stats at the top:

• Number of active lots in stock
• Total quantity across all lots combined
• Number of lots expiring soon (in orange)
• Number of lots already expired (in red)

For each lot, you see:

• The lot number (auto-generated or manually entered)
• The remaining quantity in this lot
• The use-by date (DLC) with the number of days remaining
• The best-before date (DLUO)
• The receiving date
• The purchase price for this specific lot
• Whether labels have been printed (and how many)

Lot color codes:

• Green border = everything is fine, the lot is fresh
• Orange border = warning, the lot is expiring soon
• Red border = the lot has expired, it must be removed from stock

Caution

Products past their use-by date appear in red with an “Expired” badge. They must be removed from stock immediately to comply with food safety regulations.

Adding a new lot:

1. Click ”+ Add Lot”
2. The lot number is generated automatically (you can modify it)
3. Enter the quantity received
4. Fill in the use-by date (DLC) if applicable
5. Fill in the best-before date (DLUO) if applicable
6. Verify the purchase price for this lot
7. Set the expiry alert (number of days before expiry to be notified)
8. Click “Add”

Printing a label: Click the printer icon next to a lot. A label opens in a new window with the product name, lot number, and expiry date, ready to be printed and stuck on your product.

Movements

This is the complete history of everything that happened with this product:

• Entries (green arrow): when you received stock (supplier delivery, return…)
• Exits (red arrow): when stock was used (consumption, loss, breakage…)
• Adjustments (orange arrow): when you corrected stock after an inventory count

Each movement shows:

• The date and time
• The quantity entered or removed
• The reason (delivery, consumption, loss, inventory count…)
• Who made the movement (employee or manager name)

Note

The movement history cannot be modified. This is intentional: it guarantees complete product traceability for HACCP audits.

Suppliers

The same product can be purchased from multiple suppliers at different prices. In this tab:

• You see the list of suppliers that sell this product
• For each supplier: the price, the supplier reference, the packaging
• You can choose the default supplier (yellow “Primary” badge) that will be pre-selected when placing orders
• You can add a new supplier for this product
• Suppliers are sorted from cheapest to most expensive (best price appears in green)

Tip

Regularly compare your suppliers’ prices for the same product. Sometimes a simple supplier switch for a key product can save you several hundred euros per month.

Analytics

Charts and numbers to understand how you use this product:

The 4 key metrics (at the top):

Metric	What it shows
Average daily consumption	How much of this product you use per day (30-day average)
Days until stockout	How many days before stock reaches zero (red if < 7 days)
Stock value	The total euro amount of this product in stock
Movement count	How many movements (entries + exits) over the last 90 days

Consumption by period: Three blocks showing total consumption over the last 7, 30, and 90 days. Useful for seeing whether consumption is increasing or decreasing.

Weekly chart: A bar chart showing entries (green) and exits (red) over the last 12 weeks. At a glance, you can spot trends.

Movement breakdown: The total entries, exits, and adjustments with exact quantities.

Price history: The list of the last 8 purchase prices with the date and lot number. You can see if your suppliers are raising or lowering their prices.

Price by supplier: A comparison of prices across all your suppliers for this product, with the primary supplier marked in yellow and the best price in green.

Settings

Advanced product settings, organized in two sections:

General configuration:

• Stock type: Component (raw material) or Finished Product
• Product category: choose from your custom categories
• Storage zone: which physical zone this product is stored in

Traceability settings:

• Expiry date tracking: enable/disable use-by date tracking
• Default shelf life: standard number of validity days (e.g., 30 days for cheese)
• Expiry alert: number of days before the use-by date to be alerted (e.g., 3 days)
• Mandatory batch tracking: require a lot number for every stock entry
• Automatic label printing: print a label each time a lot is received

Caution

The danger zone at the bottom of the page allows you to permanently delete the product. This action is irreversible and also deletes the entire movement history.

Batch and expiry management

Batch management is at the heart of food traceability. Here are the key concepts:

Use-by date vs Best-before date: what’s the difference?

	Use-by date (DLC)	Best-before date (DLUO)
Applies to	Fresh products (meat, dairy, prepared meals)	Dry products, canned goods, frozen items
After the date	Product is dangerous, must be discarded	Product is still safe but may lose some quality
Label wording	”Use by…"	"Best before…”

The FEFO principle (First Expired, First Out)

FEFO stands for “First Expired, First Out”. It’s the golden rule in food service: always use the lot that expires soonest first, even if it’s not the one you received first.

For example, if you have:

• Lot A received March 1, expires March 15
• Lot B received March 5, expires March 10

You must use Lot B first because it expires before Lot A.

Capnio displays lots sorted by expiry date to help you apply this rule automatically.

Tip

Enable the “Automatic label printing” setting in the Settings tab. Every time you add a lot, a label with the name, lot number, and expiry date will be generated automatically. All that’s left is to stick it on the product.

Categories

Categories let you group your products by family. Common examples:

• Meat & Poultry
• Fish & Seafood
• Fruits & Vegetables
• Dairy Products
• Spices & Condiments
• Beverages
• Packaging & Consumables
• Cleaning Products

You can create as many categories as you want. They are used to:

• Filter the product list (see only vegetables, for example)
• Organize your catalog visually
• Generate reports by product family

Analytics

The Analytics tab on each product gives you a complete picture of its usage. Here’s how to interpret the data:

Average daily consumption: This figure is calculated over the last 30 days. If your flour shows “2.5 kg/day”, it means you use an average of 2.5 kg of flour per day. This is useful for calculating your order quantities.

Days until stockout: Capnio divides your current stock by the average daily consumption. If you have 25 kg of flour and you use 2.5 kg/day, it shows “10 days”. If this number drops below 7, it appears in red to alert you.

Weekly chart: The green bars show what entered stock (deliveries) and the red bars show what left (consumption). If the red bars are regularly larger than the green ones, your stock is declining. This is a signal to order more frequently or in larger quantities.

Price history: Monitor this section to detect price increases from your suppliers. If the price of the same product keeps rising lot after lot, it’s time to negotiate or look for an alternative supplier.

On the tablet

Your employees can interact with products directly from the Capnio tablet installed in the establishment:

• Scan a barcode: the product is immediately identified and its sheet is displayed
• See the current stock of a product
• Record an entry (receiving goods) or an exit (consumption, loss)
• Check expiry dates of lots in stock

1. The employee opens the stock app on the tablet
2. They tap “Scan a product” (or search by name)
3. They pass the barcode in front of the reader
4. The product sheet appears with the current stock and lots
5. They can record a stock entry or exit directly
6. The movement is logged with the employee’s name, date, and time

Note

To use the scanner, the tablet must be connected to a Bluetooth or USB barcode reader. See the Stock on tablet page for setup instructions.

Buttons and options

Button	What it does
+ New Product	Opens the new product creation window
Search	Search for a product by name or barcode
Filters	Filter the list by category or stock status
View (eye icon)	Open the detailed product sheet
+ Add Lot	Create a new lot in the Lots & Expiry tab
Print (printer icon)	Generate and print a label for a lot
Edit (pencil icon)	Edit a lot’s information
Delete (trash icon)	Delete a lot or product (with confirmation)
Save	Save changes in the Settings tab

Frequently asked questions

How do I add a new product? Click the ”+ New Product” button at the top of the list. At minimum, fill in the name and unit. The SKU, category, and storage zone are optional but recommended for better organization.

My product doesn’t have a barcode. Is that a problem? No, the barcode (SKU) is optional. But if you have one, add it: it makes tablet scanning much faster and avoids data entry errors.

What’s the difference between use-by date and best-before date? The use-by date (DLC) applies to fresh products that spoil quickly (meat, dairy, fresh meals). After the use-by date, the product must be discarded. The best-before date (DLUO) applies to dry or canned products. After the best-before date, the product is still safe to eat but may have a slightly different taste or texture.

What’s the difference between Component and Finished Product? A Component is a raw material that you purchase and transform (flour, butter, eggs). A Finished Product is something you sell directly to the customer (a sandwich, a salad, a bottle). This choice helps Capnio calculate your production costs in recipe sheets.

How do I correct a stock error? Go to the product’s Movements tab and create an inventory adjustment. Enter the actual quantity and the reason for the correction (for example, “inventory count” or “data entry error”). Both the old stock level and the new one will be recorded in the history.

How do I know when to reorder a product? Two methods: (1) Filter the list by “Low Stock” to see all products that need ordering. (2) Check a product’s Analytics tab to see the number of days until stockout. If that number is less than your delivery lead time, order immediately.

Can I delete a product? Yes, in the Settings tab, at the very bottom in the “Danger zone”. But be careful: deletion is permanent and erases the entire history. Prefer archiving the product (by setting its status to “archived” in the Edit tab) if you no longer use it but want to keep the history.

How does automatic label printing work? Enable the “Automatic label printing” option in the product’s Settings tab. Then, every time you add a new lot (via the admin interface or the tablet), a label containing the product name, lot number, and expiry date will be generated and ready to print.

How many suppliers can I associate with a product? As many as you want. There is no limit. The benefit of having multiple suppliers is being able to compare prices and having a backup supplier in case your primary one runs out of stock.

Pro tip

Tip

Make a habit of doing a quick inventory once a week on your 10-20 most important products (the most expensive ones or the ones you use the most). Compare the stock shown in Capnio with what you physically count. If there’s a discrepancy, make an adjustment. The more regularly you do inventory checks, the more reliable your stock will be, the more accurate your orders will be, and the more correct your production costs will be. In just 15 minutes per week, you can save hundreds of euros per month by avoiding losses and overstock.