Who should take this course?
Anyone who is creating or costing recipes, or would like further knowledge about how units interact in Galley.
When should I take this course?
You can take this course anytime! Whether you are still learning the basics or you are a Galley master, this course will help you conceptualize units and conversions in the system.
If you're struggling to understand why your recipes aren't costing, this course is for you!
Table of Contents:
Introduction to Units & Conversions
Ingredient Units & Conversions
Vendor Items Units & Conversions
Introduction to Units & Conversions
Welcome to the units and conversions course! We are going to look at units and conversions at each of the data structures where they exist, starting at the recipe, moving into the ingredient, and finishing up with the vendor item.
Galley has two main classifications of units: Canonical and Custom.
In short, canonical units are universal to every organization. A gram to you is a gram to someone else. Therefore, we have made these units available and ready-to-go for all Galley users. In contrast, custom units are unique on a per customer and a per-item basis. One “scoop” may not mean the same to your organization as it does to another. Likewise, one “case” of chicken is likely not the same size as one “case” of onions. Therefore, we need to create and define each custom unit.
In addition to adding units, you must also add conversions between units for Galley to know, for a given item, how much one unit is in relation to another. However, these conversions do not need to be added between units of weight, or between units of volume. For example, a pound is always 16 ounces and a liter is always 1000 milliliters. As these conversions are the same everywhere, they are already hardcoded into the system. Throughout this course, we will describe units that have this relationship as being the "same kind" of units.
The overall relationship of units in Galley can be described in the image below. Here, you can see how there are two major classes of units: Canonical and Custom. Each of those classes of units is then further divided into sub-sections. In the graphic, units that are separated by a solid line—whether that line is surrounding an entire section or a specific unit—require a unit conversion. In contrast, units that are not separated or are only separated by a dotted line do not require a conversion.
Recipe Units & Conversions
We will start our discovery about units in the core data structure of Galley: the recipe. A recipe's units are all centered around one measurement, the recipe's yield.
Let's take a closer look. This recipe's yield is currently defined in terms of volume, 1.4 gallons.
We can define a yield however we want, whether it is a canonical or a custom unit.
A recipe’s yield becomes even more powerful when we add conversions to other types of units. These conversions allow us to call on the recipe through the associated unit types, and they will let Galley know to scale the recipe to the given quantity and unit.
In the image above, we can see that we have our yield unit, serving. As 'serving' is a custom unit, it is colored in light green. We have a conversion from the custom unit to a unit of weight (colored in the dark teal) which is grams.
Finally, we have a density conversion from another unit of weight, ounces, to a unit of volume (colored in gold), cups. Based on these conversions, we can call on this recipe by any unit of weight, by any unit of volume, and by our custom unit, serving, and Galley will know exactly how much of this recipe we need.
Ingredient Units & Conversions
Ingredient units are incredibly important in Galley! Without knowing how much of each ingredient is being used in a recipe, the recipe becomes useless. A type of conversion that is very important for many ingredients is a density conversion. These conversions are from a unit of weight to a unit of volume or vice versa.
A density conversion is important for ingredients because they are often purchased in one type of unit and measured in a different type of unit. For example, salt is often purchased by weight, such as by the pound, while it is measured by a unit of volume, such as by the teaspoon. Ingredients have the ability to receive a density conversion in a way that recipes do not: by linking the ingredient to an item in the USDA database.
On top of this functionality, you can also add units and conversions to an ingredient in the same way you do a recipe, through the Custom Units & Conversions dropdown.
In the image above, there is an ingredient custom unit, "pinch," which is defined in a unit of volume, teaspoon. Additionally, there is a density conversion from teaspoons to grams.
Note: When a density conversion is added manually, it will overwrite a density conversion that is brought in by the USDA. With the set of ingredient conversions above, the given ingredient can be called on in terms of a pinch, a unit of volume, or a unit of weight, and Galley will be able to know how much of the ingredient is needed.
Vendor Item Units & Conversions
Vendor item units are the final topic that we will cover. All of your costing, purchasing, and inventory information comes from your vendor items. Therefore, making sure that these units are correct is vital for using those workflows.
A vendor item's units and conversions can be found in two places. The first is in the Vendor Items section of an ingredient that is linked to a given vendor item. Simply click the Units dropdown to view the item's units and conversions.
The second option is on a vendor item's own page. You can reach a vendor item's page via the catalog page of the associated vendor, or by clicking the vendor item's name while on the page of an associated ingredient. For the remainder of this lesson, we will be looking at a vendor item's page.
In the onboarding process, the Galley team added unit information to your vendor items based on the vendor information that was provided. The most important unit for a vendor item is the cost unit. This unit tells Galley how you can order the item and at what price.
Let's take a closer look. In this example, the vendor item is purchased by the "case" and one "case" costs $53.95.
The goal of the conversions for a vendor item is to translate the cost unit into something that can be used by an ingredient. You can think of this conversion as the pack size.
While a vendor item's conversion usually ends with a canonical unit, it can also contain the custom units from an ingredient that is linked to the given vendor item. The conversion below is between two custom units, "case" and "#10 can." Notice how there is a different icon next to "case" than there is next to "#10 can." The box and dolly icon next to "case" signifies that "case" is a vendor item custom unit. In comparison, there is an onion icon next to "#10 can." The onion icon signifies an ingredient custom unit. Therefore, "#10 can" was created as a custom unit for the ingredient that is linked to this vendor item. Ingredient custom units can be used by ALL vendor items that are linked to a given ingredient.
Finally, we have the inventory unit. A vendor item's inventory unit is the unit that is initially suggested when taking a cycle count. This value will initially be set to the cost unit, however, if you measure the inventory of an item differently from how you purchase the item, you can change the inventory unit to reflect that. Be sure that the inventory unit has a conversion to the cost unit; otherwise, Galley will not know how much of the item you have on hand.
