Consumables

Consumables are the supplies you stock and use up: toilet paper, hand

sanitizer, deodorizer, cleaning chemicals, gloves, replacement parts. They

are tracked by quantity, separately from your rental equipment, which has

its own units and availability (see Inventory overview).

Open them from the sidebar item Supplies (the page itself is titled

Consumables). Consumables need the Core plan or higher. The page has two

tabs:

There is no separate analytics tab. Each item's own numbers are on the

Analytics tab of its details (see "Usage numbers" below).

Adding a consumable

Click Add Consumable (on a phone, the + in the header). Add and Edit

use the same form, Add New Consumable / Edit Consumable, with five

tabs. Save with Create Consumable or Update Consumable.

Basic

PortaPro's standard list: Guest Essentials, Deodorizers & Fragrances,

Cleaning & Sanitization, Paper Products, Replacement Parts & Hardware, PPE &

Safety Supplies, Bulk Stock, Maintenance, Office Supplies, Tools, Other.

customer portal (see "Customer supply requests" below). It starts off.

facilities, plus an optional Low-Stock Alert (this location) number per

facility. This grid is where stock quantities live (see "Stock by

location").

Identifiers: SKU (Internal), Brand, MPN (Manufacturer Part

Number), Model Number, GTIN/UPC/EAN Barcode and Supplier Item

ID. The SKU and barcode fields each have a scan button so you can read the

code off the package.

Packaging

Quantity, Fragrance/Color/Grade, Dilution/Mix Ratio.

It drives the Est. Services column.

falls to this number, the item counts as low stock.

let PortaPro work it out (see "Auto-reorder").

Costing: Cost per unit (what you pay your supplier), Price per

unit (what you charge a customer), Case Cost (if different) and Cost

per Use. The labels follow the Base Unit, for example "Cost per case".

Compliance: Lot/Batch Number, Expiration Date, SDS Link (URL)

or SDS File Upload, and GHS Hazard Classifications.

There is no "active" switch. An item is in your catalog until you delete it.

Importing a list

⋯ → Import consumables ("Upload a CSV or paste a list") brings in many

items at once. Rows match existing items by SKU: a matching SKU updates

that item, anything else is created. A row's quantity column (`on_hand_qty`,

`quantity` or `qty`) becomes that item's whole stock, placed at your first

active facility in alphabetical order, and replaces whatever location

quantities the item had. Leave matched items out of the file, or include

their real quantity, if you have already spread their stock across

facilities.

Categories

⋯ → Manage categories opens Consumable Categories, where you can add,

rename and delete categories for your company. Categories you add there do

not yet appear in the form's Category picker or the page's Category filter,

which use the standard list above.

Stock by location

An item's on-hand total is the sum of its quantities in Storage Location

Allocation. You don't type the total anywhere; edit the per-facility

numbers and the total follows.

Every change you save in that grid is written to the item's stock history

as an adjustment. That makes the grid the way to correct a count: open the

item, Edit, change the facility's quantity, Update Consumable.

Two things to know:

toward the item's usage numbers. A big downward correction can make an

item look busier than it is for the next 90 days.

Moving stock between facilities. There is no transfer button on the

Consumables page. Edit the two facilities' quantities in the grid. If you

try to delete a facility that still holds stock (Facilities), the error

offers Move Stock, which moves it to another facility.

Stock status and low stock

Each item shows one of three statuses, and the counts at the top of the

Inventory tab (Total Items, Total Value, Low Stock, Out of

Stock) use the same rule:

Total Value is on hand × cost per unit.

A per-facility Low-Stock Alert (this location) marks that row Low

Stock inside the allocation grid. It does not change the item's status or

send anything.

Low stock alerts (notifications). A Low Stock Alert is sent to admins

and dispatchers when someone creates a job in the job wizard with supplies

that will take an item to or below its reorder point once the job is done.

That is the only thing that sends it: completing jobs, editing stock and

fulfilling customer requests don't. Each person controls it under Settings

→ Notifications → Low Stock Alerts (bell and email on, push off by

default).

The dashboard's Consumables Alert card counts low stock per facility

(using a facility's own alert number when it has one, else the item's

reorder point), so its number can differ from the Low Stock count on the

Consumables page.

Supplies on jobs

From the job wizard. On the products step, Select Consumables adds

supplies to the job.

After the fact. On the Usage tab, Record Usage walks you through

choosing a customer, a job and the item, then the quantity. Every recorded

line shows in the tracker; filter it to one job or one customer with the

filter button.

From kits. A kit's supply parts are added to the job's materials at no

charge (see Kits).

When stock comes off. Recording a supply on a job does not change stock.

Stock comes off once, when the job is completed. It is taken from your

default facility (or, without one, your first active facility, warehouses

first), and only if that facility has a quantity row for the item. If the

item's stock sits only at another facility, the usage is still recorded but

no facility's quantity goes down; correct it in the allocation grid.

Completing a job does not reduce a truck's stock, even when the supplies

were loaded onto that truck (see "Truck stock").

Supplies recorded on a job are not added to an invoice automatically.

Removing a recorded line. The bin on a tracker line removes it and says

the stock was restored. Check the item's allocation grid afterwards: the

facility quantities are not changed, so correct them there if needed.

Truck stock

Fleet → Truck Stock (Truck Stock Management) tracks supplies loaded

onto each vehicle.

Unload moves them back (Unload Truck). Both are recorded in stock

history, and loading takes the quantity off the facility.

jobs need, using Settings → Job Recipes (default supplies per job type,

"Job Type Consumable Recipes").

(equipment and consumables for their jobs).

The Truck Stock page says stock is deducted when jobs are completed. Today

that deduction comes off your default facility, not the truck, so a truck's

balance only changes when you load or unload it.

Usage numbers

Usage figures come only from recorded stock history: supplies consumed by

completed jobs, delivered customer requests, and downward corrections in the

allocation grid. Nothing is estimated or filled in.

On the Inventory tab, the Usage column shows average daily use over 30

days. Expand it from its header to see ADU 30, ADU 90 and Est.

Services (on hand divided by Estimated Use per Service, always an

estimate). An item's Analytics tab (open the item, View Details)

adds Current Days Supply, Target Days Supply, Lead Time,

Calculated Reorder Point and Stock Status.

A dash (-) means there is nothing to measure yet ("No usage recorded

yet"), not zero. A new item, or one no completed job has used, shows a dash

until usage builds up. Est. Services shows a dash until Estimated Use

per Service is set.

There is no consumables report in the Reports library.

Auto-reorder draft purchase orders

PortaPro can turn low-stock items into draft purchase orders once a day.

It is off by default. Turn it on at Settings → Purchasing → Draft reorder

POs automatically. It runs once a day, in the morning (US time).

Each morning it:

locations). An item with no reorder point is never reordered.

partially received).

recommended quantity from the last 90 days of usage, when there is usage

to base it on; else enough to reach twice the reorder point.

Vendor TBD draft. If an auto draft for that vendor is still open, the

new lines are added to it instead of starting another.

Drafts never send themselves. When a run drafts something, admins and

dispatchers get one notification that day, linking to Financials →

Purchase Orders. Receiving a purchase order adds the stock at its

Receive at facility. The whole flow is in [Purchase

Orders](/article/purchase-orders).

Customer supply requests

Customers ask for supplies from the customer portal (Request Supplies),

choosing from the items you marked Available in Portal. Requests are

worked in Inbox → Requests → Supplies (Growth plan). The Requests

button on the Consumables page shows how many are waiting and opens that

section, in a new tab on a desktop.

The office statuses are New → Open → Approved → Dispatched → Completed,

or Declined. Opening a New request moves it to Open. Approve or

Decline (with a reason), then In Route and Mark Delivered, or

Delivered straight from Approved. Messages opens a thread with the

customer about that request.

Delivering a request takes the items off stock from your default

facility (or first active facility) and records it in stock history.

Delivering the same request twice does not take stock twice.

See Customer requests for the

Requests inbox and its notifications.

Scanning

matches exactly, or whose name contains the code. It does not match the

GTIN/UPC/EAN Barcode field.

its UPC barcode, opens Consumables and shows the item's name and how many

are on hand.

Deleting a consumable

Open the row's menu and choose Delete Item. Deleting removes the item,

its facility quantities and every job usage line recorded for it, and can't

be undone. Only delete items you no longer stock.

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