Creating your first Blueprint

A Blueprint is a recipe — it tells Stash which inventory items to deduct whenever you sell a finished product. Use Blueprints for anything you sell that's made from one or more components: a menu item with ingredients, a retail bundle, a gift box, a kit, a pre-packed combo.

Every time the linked POS product sells, Stash deducts the components automatically (within ~15 minutes of the sale closing).

Two examples:

Café drink: a Blueprint for a Cappuccino deducts 18g of coffee beans and 150ml of milk from inventory on each sale.
Retail: a Blueprint for a Holiday Gift Box deducts 1 candle, 1 notebook, and 1 greeting card from inventory on each sale.

For modifiers (oat milk, extra shot, gluten-free bun, premium gift wrap), use a Modifier Blueprint instead. See Creating your first Modifier Blueprint.

Who can do this

Only Admins can create or edit Blueprints. Members can view them.

Before you start

You need at least one location (shop) set up. See How to add your first location.
The components you want to use must already exist in your Inventory. Add them first if they don't. See How to add your first inventory item.
For components stored in packaging (a bag of beans, a bottle of syrup, a case of 24 cans), you'll get the most accurate deductions if you've filled in Each [container] contains on the item. See How "Each container contains" works.

Step-by-step

From the sidebar, open Blueprints.
Make sure you're on the Blueprints tab (not Modifier Blueprints).
Click + New Blueprint in the top right.
Enter a Name. Use the same name as your POS product where possible — it makes linking easier later. Examples: Cappuccino, Holiday Gift Box.
Select the Location this Blueprint applies to. Each Blueprint is tied to one shop, because components live at specific locations.
Pick the POS Product this Blueprint corresponds to. The picker shows products from any active POS connection mapped to that location. If your POS isn't connected yet, you can leave this empty and link it later.
Set Makes — this is your yield. For most products it's 1 Serving, 1 Box, or 1 Each. For batch production (a 2-litre soup pot, a tray of 12 muffins, a 24-pack assembly), set the actual batch size — e.g., 12 Muffins or 24 Each.
Under What this uses, click Add component for each item the product is made from.
For each component, pick the inventory item, then enter how much of it the product uses (e.g., 18 Gram of coffee beans, or 1 Each of candle). The unit picker only shows units that are compatible with how you store the item.
Watch the deduction preview under each row. It shows exactly how much of the inventory item will be deducted per sale. If you see a warning here, fix it before saving (see Troubleshooting below).
Optionally add a Description with notes for your team.
Click Create Blueprint.

That's it. The Blueprint is now live. If you didn't pick a POS product in step 6, the next step is to link it to one — see Linking a Blueprint to a POS product.

How "Makes" affects the math

Components are deducted using this formula:

component_quantity × (sold_qty ÷ Makes)

Examples:

Blueprint Makes 1, component is 18 Gram beans, you sell 1: deduction = 18 × (1 ÷ 1) = 18 Gram
Blueprint Makes 1, component is 18 Gram beans, you sell 3: deduction = 18 × (3 ÷ 1) = 54 Gram
Blueprint Makes 12 Muffins, component is 500 Gram flour, you sell 1 muffin: deduction = 500 × (1 ÷ 12) = 41.67 Gram
Blueprint Makes 12 Muffins, component is 500 Gram flour, you sell 4 muffins: deduction = 500 × (4 ÷ 12) = 166.67 Gram

Fractional results are written as-is — Stash does not round. So a single sale that consumes 0.018 Bag of beans is recorded exactly that way. Over many sales the fractions add up to whole-bag amounts naturally.

When you actually want a Modifier Blueprint instead

Stop and use a Modifier Blueprint if the product you're setting up is something a customer adds to a base order rather than orders on its own. Examples:

Oat Milk, Almond Milk, Soy Milk (added to a coffee)
Extra Shot, Decaf, Vanilla Syrup (added to a coffee)
Gluten-Free Bun, Cheese Upgrade (added to a burger)
Premium Gift Wrap, Monogramming (added to a retail purchase)

These typically need to swap out something the base product already deducted (oat milk replaces cow milk, GF bun replaces the regular bun). Modifier Blueprints handle that swap natively. See What is a Modifier Blueprint? for the full reasoning.

Good to know

Why pack size and "Each [container] contains" matter

Stash needs to know how much usable product is inside a container to convert component units to inventory units. Examples:

A 1kg bag of coffee beans stored in Bag: set Each Bag contains to 1000 Gram (or 1 Kilogram). Now an 18g component will correctly deduct 0.018 of a bag.
A case of 24 candles stored in Case: set the pack size to 24. A component using 1 Each will deduct 1/24 of a case.

If this isn't filled in for a packaging item, the deduction preview will warn you and the component won't deduct. Stash never guesses a unit conversion — it just skips. See How "Each container contains" works.

Decimal separator

Stash uses a period (.) for decimals everywhere — so 0.5, not 0,5.

Editing a Blueprint later doesn't change past sales

If you change components or quantities after sales have happened, only future sales use the new recipe. Past deductions are preserved as-is — the audit trail is immutable. See Editing or deleting a Blueprint.

Troubleshooting

"Cannot convert [unit] → [unit]"

The component unit and the item unit aren't compatible. Either change the component unit to one in the same family (e.g., both weight, both volume, or both count), or fix the inventory item's unit setup. Stash never invents a conversion. See Understanding units of measurement.

"Set content info on [item] to enable automatic deduction"

The inventory item is stored in a packaging unit (Bag, Bottle, Box, Can, Case, etc.) but doesn't have Each [container] contains filled in. Open the item and add the content quantity and unit (e.g., 250 Gram or 24 Piece).

The deduction amount looks wrong

Check the Makes field. A Blueprint that Makes 12 divides every component by 12 per sale. If you meant the Blueprint to deduct full amounts, set Makes to 1.

Sales are happening but stock isn't moving

Run through these in order:

Wait at least 15 minutes — sync runs every 15 min
Confirm the Blueprint is linked to a POS product
Confirm the Blueprint and the POS product are at the same shop
Check the POS connection is healthy on the Integrations page
Confirm the order was placed after the Blueprint was created (Stash doesn't retroactively process orders that were synced before the Blueprint existed)

Full troubleshooting at Why my Blueprint isn't deducting stock.