A Master Product groups the same (or very similar) products from different suppliers into one overall "product" — for example Whole Milk you buy from two different suppliers, counted and costed as one.
Master Product groups appear on your COGS reports, so you can look at costs and variances for the group as a whole rather than chasing individual supplier products across your reports.
Each group is priced using its Weighted Average Cost (WAC) — the average of what you've actually paid, worked out per site.
Creating a Master Product group
Head to Suppliers & Products, then the Master products tab.
In the top right, select Create master product.
Fill in the details:
Name (required) — what the group is called, e.g. Milk.
Class (optional) — a searchable dropdown to help categorise the group.
Category (optional) — a searchable dropdown to help categorise the group.
Unit of measure (required) — standardises the UoM for all linked supplier products and keeps your reports accurate. For items counted individually (e.g. a straw), select Each.
Select Create.
You're taken straight to the new group's detail page, where you can link supplier products and review costs. You can edit the Name, Class, Category, Unit of measure, and Status any time from this page — just remember to Save.
Adding and removing supplier products
There are two ways to add a supplier product to a group.
Option 1 — via the product's details
Go to Suppliers & Products > Suppliers and find the product.
Select Edit next to it.
In the Master Product field, choose the group to assign it to.
Select Save Changes.
Option 2 — via the Master Product group
Open the group — select its row on the Master products list, or use the page you land on after creating one.
In the Linked supplier products section, select Link supplier products.
Search for the product(s) you want. Tick each one to add it — selected products appear under Selected at the top of the list.
Select Link N products (the button shows how many you've picked).
Once linked, the products show in a table with the supplier, product, cost (shown in the group's unit), status, and a Set as default toggle.
To remove a supplier product, select the bin icon next to it in the group, or clear the Master Product field on the product's details page.
⚠️ Once a supplier product is added to a group it no longer appears as an individual product in Live Stock Levels, COGS, Storage Areas, Waste, or Transfers — it's tracked under the group instead.
Unit of Measure compatibility
A supplier product can only join a group if its unit is compatible with the group's Unit of Measure. It doesn't have to be identical — just convertible:
If the product has a Unit of Measure set (e.g. Gram, Litre), Edify checks if it is the same or converts to the group's UoM. Compatible units in the same family work — for example a product in kg can join a group set to g.
If the product has no Unit of Measure, Edify falls back to its Single Unit Type. Single unit types that are real measurement units (G, Kg, L, ml, Oz, Lb) are converted the same way. The rest are container types (Box, Carton, Sachet, and so on), which all convert to each other 1:1 — so any container-type product fits a group that uses Each.
If neither field gives a compatible conversion, the product can't be added.
When you're linking products, the Link supplier products dialog handles this for you:
A Filter by matching UoM toggle (on by default) hides products whose unit isn't compatible with the group.
Any incompatible product that does show is greyed out and tagged Incompatible, so it can't be selected.
💡 If a product is rejected as incompatible, check its Unit of Measure (or Single Unit Type) on the product details page. You may need to update it before it can join the group.
Setting a default supplier product
In the Linked supplier products table, each product has a Set as default toggle. The default is the supplier product the group uses by default across your sites — for example when it's added to a recipe or order.
Toggling it saves straight away (you'll see a Default product updated confirmation), so there's no need to press Save.
If a particular site usually buys a different supplier's product, use Site exceptions to override the default just for that site.
Site exceptions
The Site exceptions section lets you override the default supplier product for specific sites, while leaving the rest of your estate on the group default.
To add one:
Select Add site exception.
In Sites, pick one or more sites (it's a multi-select, with Select all and Clear all).
In Default supplier product, choose which linked supplier product those sites should use instead of the group default.
Add more exception rows with Add site exception if you need to, then Save.
Remove an exception with the bin icon next to its row.
Deleting a master product
To delete a group, open it and select the bin icon at the top of the page. You'll be asked to confirm, with a warning that deleting a master product may affect your reports and can't be undone.
How Master Product cost works
Each Master Product is priced using its Weighted Average Cost (WAC) — the average cost of the products you've actually bought, weighted by how much you bought.
A few principles:
WAC is worked out per site. Each site has its own cost based on what that site purchased, so site-level COGS reflects reality.
WAC is fixed within a stocktake period and recalculates when a stocktake is closed. For any date, Edify uses the WAC from the last closed stocktake on or before that date — so a waste entry or transfer with a past date is costed at the WAC that was valid then, not today's.
WAC isn't rewritten retrospectively. Adding or removing supplier products from a group doesn't change WAC for past stocktake periods — those values are frozen once calculated.
What happens at each stocktake close, per site:
Situation | Cost used |
Purchases were made in the period | WAC = total purchase cost ÷ total quantity, converted to the group's UoM |
No purchases this period, but a previous WAC exists | The previous WAC is carried forward unchanged |
No purchases and no previous WAC | An estimate: the simple average of the linked products' list prices |
No supplier products linked | Cost is 0 |
Worked examples
Example One — one supplier, two deliveries
Purchase | Quantity × price | Cost |
Delivery 1 | 100 × £10 | £1,000 |
Delivery 2 | 10 × £15 | £150 |
Total | 110 units | £1,150 |
WAC = £1,150 ÷ 110 = £10.46
Example Two — two suppliers blended
Purchase | Quantity × price | Cost |
Product A | 100 × £10 | £1,000 |
Product A | 10 × £15 | £150 |
Product B | 5 × £12 | £60 |
Product B | 8 × £17 | £136 |
Total | 123 units | £1,346 |
WAC = £1,346 ÷ 123 = £10.94
Example Three — carrying cost forward
Period | Purchases | WAC |
Period 1 | Bought stock averaging £3.00 | £3.00 |
Period 2 | No purchases | £3.00 (carried forward) |
Period 3 | Bought stock, averaging £7.00 | £7.00 |
The Cost variance section on the group
Open a group to see the Cost variance section. It shows the Company average WAC and the Range across sites, then a per-site breakdown.
Each site row shows that site's cost in the group's unit, with a bar showing how it compares to the rest of your estate. On the right of each row:
Sites with purchases show the date their WAC was last calculated (the last closed stocktake), e.g. 20 Jun 2026.
Sites without purchases show their figure in italics tagged Estimated — that's the simple-average fallback (the average of the linked products' list prices) until the site makes a purchase and closes a stocktake.
Updating recipes to use a Master Product
If a supplier product is still used directly in a recipe after it's been added to a group, Edify flags it so you can switch the recipe over to the group.
On the Master products list, a Migrate button appears in the Action column for any group that has recipes to update. Selecting it opens the Migrate recipes to master product dialog:
A Summary shows the master product, how many linked products are involved, and how many recipes are affected.
The Recipe list shows each affected recipe (marked with a ⚠️), with its supplier, product, quantity, and yield loss. Tick the recipes you want to migrate.
Select Confirm. You'll see an N recipe(s) migrated confirmation, and those recipes now use the Master Product.
The Migrate button stays on the list until every affected recipe has been switched over, so you can migrate in batches.
💡 Pointing recipes at the Master Product means COGS uses the group's WAC, so your recipe costs reflect whatever supplier each site actually buys from.
Using Master Products in recipes
Add a Master Product to a recipe instead of a single supplier product - This might be applicable where you buy the same ingredient from more than one supplier. Edify understands any product in the group could be used, and costs the recipe using each site's WAC.
To add one:
In the recipe's Ingredients section, select + Add Ingredients.
In the search box, start typing the group's name. The search covers masters, supplier SKUs, and sub-recipes — Master Products are tagged MASTER in the results. Select the one you want.
Set the Quantity and Unit (the group's Unit of Measure is pre-filled, and you can switch to any compatible unit).
Once added, a Master Product ingredient shows Master product in the Supplier column, and its cost is a clickable figure that opens the cost breakdown.
💡 There's no separate "Master Product" ingredient type to choose any more — just search and pick the result tagged MASTER.
Master Products as variable ingredients
Master Products can also be used as variable ingredients (extras and replacements). Select + Add Variable Ingredient, then in the Add variable ingredient dialog:
Choose the Type — Extra or Replacement (e.g. almond milk replacing semi-skimmed milk).
In the Ingredient search, pick the Master Product (tagged MASTER).
Optionally set a Custom name to override how the ingredient appears in the recipe.
Set the Quantity and Unit, and a Yield loss % if relevant.
Select Add, or Add & next to keep adding more.
Remember to Save the recipe — the ingredient cost recalculates once saved.
Seeing the cost breakdown
In a recipe, the Ingredient Cost reflects the view you're in: viewing all sites shows the average cost across all sites; viewing a single site shows that site's cost.
Select an ingredient's cost to open the breakdown — the Total Average Cost, the range (lowest to highest), the number of sites, and the Weighted Average Cost by site listed out. When you're viewing as a particular site, that site's row is shown in bold.
POS matching
Menu items and modifiers can be POS matched to a Master Product group, so the system depletes stock and calculates COGS from your actual sales. When matching, an MP symbol in the dropdown marks Master Products apart from individual recipes and products.
This is useful when a product could come from several suppliers — for example, if you sell bottled Coca-Cola sourced from two suppliers, match the menu item to the Coca-Cola group. When a bottle sells, Edify depletes stock from the group and costs it using the group's WAC.
Stocktakes and Live Stock Levels
Counting Master Products in a stocktake
A Master Product can be added to Storage Areas just like an individual product, and once a supplier product is in a group, you count it under the group rather than on its own.
Rather than only counting in the group's single Unit of Measure, you can count by the pack types of the linked supplier products — so an Avocado group isn't stuck only counting in "each".
Where several linked products share the same pack type, Edify combines them into a counting group, so a single input line can cover multiple products. This means you enter one figure for all your 4-pack avocados, rather than counting each supplier's 4-pack separately.
⚠️ If a supplier product is already in a storage area and you then add it to a group, the individual product converts to the group — or is removed if the group is already in that storage area.
Master Products in Live Stock Levels
Master Product groups appear in Live Stock Levels alongside individual products, with Master Product shown in the Type column. In the logs you'll see both the overall movements for the group and the individual purchase logs for each supplier product within it.