Materials

By Maxim Izmaylov

• 9 articles

Creating and Editing Materials

Materials are the raw components or ingredients used to make your products. This article explains how to create, edit, and manage materials in the system. Adding New Materials There are three ways to create a new material: 1. Click the “Add” button to create a material from scratch 2. Copy an existing material by opening it and clicking “Copy” 3. Import your materials from a CSV file. See more here To edit a material, open its details by clicking on its name in the materials list, then click “Edit”. Material Details Name The name of the material. Stock Level The initial quantity of the material in your inventory. Unit of Measure The unit used to track this material (pieces, kg, liters, etc.). Minimum Stock Level You can set a minimum stock level for each material that you want to maintain in inventory. When the actual stock falls below this minimum, a red indicator dot will appear next to the material's stock level in the list view. If you have multiple storage locations for materials, minimum stock levels can be set separately for each location. Price When creating a material, you can specify its price, which helps calculate your product costs. Setting a price is optional, but materials without prices won't be included in cost calculations. Categories You can organize materials into categories for easier navigation. A material can belong to multiple categories. In the materials list, click on a category name to quickly filter the list. Supplier You can specify who supplies this material. Notes The notes field is for any additional information you find useful. Files You can attach files to your materials, such as images, specification documents, or any other relevant information. This can help you keep all material-related information in one place for easy reference.

Last updated on Apr 01, 2025

Material Details View

The material card contains complete information about a material, including stock levels, planned operations, transaction history, and additional parameters. Basic Information Material Name The primary name of the material Storage Location Shows the currently selected material storage location. Clicking on the storage location name opens a window displaying this material's stock levels across all storage locations. SKU The material's stock keeping unit. Only displayed if the "Show SKU for materials" option is enabled in settings and an SKU is assigned to this material. Stock Level Current actual quantity of the material at the selected storage location at this point in time. Clicking on the "Stock Level" field opens a window for quick stock level updates. Planned Expected stock level changes based on planned operations. Can be either positive (expected inflow) or negative (expected consumption). Only displayed when there are planned operations. Clicking on the "Planned" field opens a window with detailed breakdown of planned operations. Total Forecasted total stock level including planned operations. Only displayed when there are planned operations. Minimum Minimum stock level below which the material needs replenishment. Price Unit cost of the material. The material card shows the most current price for the material. When calculating production costs, the system will account for the actual cost of materials in inventory. Learn more about this in the production costing article. Supplier The material's supplier. A material can have multiple suppliers. Categories Categories to which the material belongs. A material can belong to multiple categories. Products If the material is used as a component in other products, this displays a table showing those product names and the quantity of this material used in each. Transaction History The bottom section of the card contains a table with all operations involving this material. This table includes all operations: - Purchases - Adjustments - Production - Transfers - Write-offs - Audits - Material creation Editing Operations in History Clicking on "Material creation" allows you to adjust the initial stock values and price that were specified when creating the material. Clicking on an "Adjustment" also allows you to modify that adjustment value. Planned Operations Planned operations in the history are displayed with a clock icon. The operations history includes a filter to display only actual or only planned operations.

Last updated on Jun 09, 2025

Quick Stock Level Update

When viewing your materials list, you can click on the stock level of any material to open a quick stock level update dialog. From this dialog, you can either: - Simply adjust the material's stock level - Create a new purchase

Last updated on Jun 09, 2025

Importing Materials

You can import your materials using a special Excel template. To do this, click the three dots in the upper right corner of the Materials screen and select Import. Next, click Download template. Template Guidelines - Do not modify the import file structure - Do not add, delete, move, or rename columns - Only two fields are required when importing materials: Name and Unit of measure. All other fields are optional. Column Descriptions - Name Material name. Required field. - SKU Material SKU. Optional field. To display material SKUs, you need to enable this option in settings. - Stock level Current material stock level. If you have multiple storage locations, the location currently selected on the Materials screen will be used. Optional field. If not specified, stock level will be set to zero. - Minimum Minimum material stock level. If you have multiple storage locations, the location currently selected on the Materials screen will be used. Optional field. If not specified, minimum will be set to zero. - Unit of measure Unit of measure for the material. Required field. Available values: pcs, pkg, set, kg, g, mg, lbs, oz, box, L, ml, fl oz, gal, cu m, cu cm, cu ft, cu yd, m, cm, mm, km, ft, in, mi, sq m, sq cm, sq ft - Price Current price per unit of measure. Optional field. If not specified, price will be set to zero. - Supplier Material supplier. Optional field. - Notes Any additional information about the material. Optional field. - Category 1, Category 2, etc. Material categories. Optional field. You can add multiple categories to one material by adding additional columns to the right with headers "Category 3", "Category 4", etc. If a material category with this name already exists in Controlata, it will be used. Otherwise, a new material category will be created. After you fill out and save the import file, upload it to Controlata by clicking the Upload materials button.

Last updated on Oct 06, 2025

Bulk Editing Materials

You can edit multiple materials at once. To do this, select the materials using checkboxes and click Edit in the popup menu at the bottom of the screen. The following fields are available for bulk editing: Minimum stock level Editing the minimum stock level is only available if the selected materials have the same unit of measure. If you have multiple storage locations, the minimum stock level is set for the currently selected location. Categories To change the categories for selected materials, first choose an action, then specify the categories themselves. Available actions: - Do not change — material categories will remain unchanged. - Set — current categories will be removed and replaced with the selected categories. - Add — selected categories will be added to the current material categories. - Remove — selected categories will be removed from materials if they are currently assigned. - Clear — all material categories will be removed. Suppliers Changing suppliers works the same way as categories. To change the suppliers for selected materials, first choose an action, then specify the suppliers themselves. Available actions: - Do not change — suppliers will remain unchanged. - Set — current suppliers will be removed and replaced with the selected suppliers. - Add — selected suppliers will be added to the current suppliers. - Remove — selected suppliers will be removed from materials if they are currently assigned. - Clear — all material suppliers will be removed.

Last updated on Oct 06, 2025

Editing Materials in Excel

You can download your materials list as an Excel spreadsheet, make necessary changes, and upload the updated spreadsheet back to Controlata. How to Download the Template Click the three dots in the upper right corner of the Materials screen and select Edit in Excel. Then click Download template. Template Guidelines - The first column must contain the Material ID — do not modify or delete it. - You can delete other columns if you don't need to change certain data. For example, if you only want to update material prices, you can delete all columns except Material ID and Price. - Delete rows for materials you don't need to edit. - We recommend testing the editing process on 1-2 materials first to avoid making errors across large amounts of data. Column Descriptions - Material ID This column is already filled with data. Do not modify or delete it. - Name Material name. - SKU Material SKU. To display material SKUs, enable this option in settings. - Stock level Current stock level of the material. If you have multiple materials storage locations, the location currently selected on the materials screen will be used. - Minimum Minimum stock level for the material. If you have multiple materials storage locations, the location currently selected on the materials screen will be used. - Unit of measure Material unit of measure. Available values: pcs, pkg, set, kg, g, mg, ctn, t, lbs, oz, box, L, ml, dal, µl, cu m, cu cm, cu dm, fl oz, gal, cu ft, cu yd, m, cm, mm, km, dm, lin m, mi, ft, in, sq m, sq cm, sq dm, sq ft - Price Current price per unit of measure. - Notes Any additional information about the material. - Supplier 1, Supplier 2, etc. Material suppliers. You can add multiple suppliers to one material by adding additional columns to the right with headers "Supplier 2", "Supplier 3", etc. - Category 1, Category 2, etc. Material categories. You can add multiple categories to one material by adding additional columns to the right with headers "Category 2", "Category 3", etc. If a material category with this name already exists in Controlata, it will be used. Otherwise, a new category will be created. After you fill out and save the file, upload it to Controlata by clicking the Edit materials button.

Last updated on Oct 06, 2025

Choosing the Unit of Measure

Guidelines for choosing material units of measure Select Units That Are Easy to Understand For small quantities of material, use appropriate units of measure. For example, if a product uses 0.0001 kg of material, record this as "0.1 g". This: - Makes information easier to read - Ensures accurate calculations The system will automatically perform all necessary conversions during production, guaranteeing correct cost calculations. Use Larger Units for Greater Volumes For significant quantities of material, choose an appropriate scale. For example, if a product uses 10000 g of material, it's more convenient to record this as "10 kg". This: - Makes information more intuitive - Ensures accurate calculations The system will automatically handle all necessary conversions when calculating costs and deducting materials from inventory. Flexibility in Changing Units of Measure You can change a material's unit of measure at any time. When you do: - All existing operations will remain accurate - Inventory levels will be automatically recalculated Need a Unit of Measure That Isn't Available? If you require an additional unit of measure, contact us via chat or email. We're ready to add the options you need.

Last updated on Oct 06, 2025

Deleting a Material

To delete a material, open its details page and click the "Delete" button. You can also delete multiple materials at once. Select them from the materials list and click "Delete" in the bottom popup menu. Warning: Material deletion cannot be undone. It will be impossible to restore a deleted material. How does material deletion work? The material will be removed from all products where it was used as a component. All existing purchases, write-offs, transfers, and other operations involving this material will remain unchanged. The material will still appear in their composition but will be displayed with strikethrough formatting. You can edit these operations and remove this material from them if needed. The material will also continue to appear in the list of used materials in production runs. However, when updating a production run, the system will apply the current product composition, which no longer includes the deleted material. As a result, this material will disappear from the production run.

Last updated on Oct 06, 2025

Exporting Materials

Exporting Materials List You can also export your materials list in CSV or XLSX format. To do this, click on the three dots the upper right corner of the Materials screen and select Export. Then choose your preferred file format. The export will include the materials currently displayed on screen. If you need to export only specific materials, you can filter them first and then export the filtered results. Exporting Material History You can export the transaction history of a material. From the material details screen, click on the three dots in the upper right corner. Then select Export history and choose your preferred file format.

Last updated on Oct 06, 2025