Brewery Settings: A Complete Guide

The Brewery → Settings page is where you set up the foundation the rest of the brewery module sits on: your facilities and tanks, the units of measure everything is counted in, the measurements your team logs on fermenting beer, and your online ordering portal. A few related settings, such as your logo and BC tax numbers, live on other screens, so this guide also tells you where to find them. Use it as the reference for every option. For a step-by-step setup order, see the Brewery Quick Start Guide.

Before You Start

• The brewery module must be active on your account.
• You need the Brewery → Settings permission (Access Level 43) to change facilities and settings. Owners always have it.
• Users without that permission only see the facilities attached to their own Location.

What's on the Settings Page

The page is made up of four boxes, and a Save button at the top that saves the Order Portal box.

• Facility List: your facilities, covered in detail in Brewery Facilities Explained, with the extras below.
• Brew Log Values: the measurements your team records on a batch.
• Units of Measure: every unit BarSight can use.
• Order Portal: your customers' online ordering page.

[SCREENSHOT: The full Brewery Settings page showing the four boxes]

Facilities and Equipment

The Facility List shows each facility's name, type, Location and how many online pieces of equipment it has. Click a row to edit it, or click Add Facility. Facility types, Virtual Facility, Use Facility Name, Auto Ship and the layouts we recommend are all explained in Brewery Facilities Explained. This section covers the pieces that article only touches on.

Equipment (Tanks)

Each row in the Equipment box of a facility is one tank or vessel. Every row has a Title, Type, Visible, Taxable, Volume and UOM.

• The default tank unit is hectolitres. Accounts in the United States default to barrels.
• Use the move handle on each row to set the order your tanks appear in on Planning and Tank Layout.
• Visible = No keeps a tank on file but hides it from those screens, handy for a tank that is out for repair.
• Taxable marks a tank as an excise vessel. See The Taxable Tank Requirement below.

Extra Boxes on the Facility Screen

When you click Add Facility, you enter a title and type, and BarSight creates the facility and opens its full edit screen. Below Equipment you will find these boxes. Click Save when you are done.

• Portal and Sales: a Sales Sheet Message printed at the top of your sales sheet, and a PDF Footer Message printed at the bottom of customer order PDFs.
• Email Settings: an Email CC copied on order notifications, an Email Message added to the bottom of customer order emails, and an Invoice Prefix of up to 6 characters, so a prefix of ABC shows invoice 123 as ABC123.
• Production Dates: Prefill Action Dates With decides which date BarSight suggests when you transfer, package, split, blend, close or adjust a batch. Today's date suggests the date you are working on. Scheduled tank date suggests the date from the batch timeline, which is better if your team often records work after the fact. You can always change the date before saving.
• Lot Numbers: the format used to suggest lot numbers when you package a batch. See Define Your Standard Batch Lot Codes.
• BC Tax Setup: only shown to accounts in British Columbia. See below.

[SCREENSHOT: The facility edit screen scrolled to show the Portal and Sales, Email Settings, Production Dates and Lot Numbers boxes]

Your Logo

Your logo is not set on the Brewery Settings page. It belongs to your Location and is shared by every module.

1. Go to Settings → Locations and open your location.
2. In the Logo box, upload your image.
3. Click Save.

The logo appears on customer order PDFs and the printable sales sheet. If no logo has been uploaded, your location name is shown as plain text in its place, so upload yours before sending your first order. The company name and address on those documents come from the same Location screen. To show a facility's name instead of your company name, tick Use Facility Name for Customer Orders on that facility. See Location Settings Explained for the rest of the Location options.

[SCREENSHOT: The Logo box on the Location form]

BC Tax Setup (British Columbia)

Breweries in BC get an extra BC Tax Setup box on each facility. Each facility, including each sub brand, keeps its own numbers.

• Store Number: your LDB store number. It is used in BC sales reporting, including as the licence number for counter sales.
• GST Number: your GST registration number.
• PST Number: your PST number, if you have one.
• Disable Taxable Tank Requirement: see the next section.

All three numbers are printed in the seller details on your customer order PDFs. If an order's selling facility has no Store Number or GST Number, the order screen shows a red warning with a link back to the facility so you can fix it.

[SCREENSHOT: The BC Tax Setup box with Store Number, GST Number, PST Number and the Disable Taxable Tank Requirement dropdown]

The Taxable Tank Requirement

In BC, beer must be assessed for excise before it is packaged. BarSight enforces this by checking that the beer has passed through a Taxable tank, usually a brite tank or serving vessel, before it lets you package it. If it hasn't, you see a message like "Cannot package from FV2: 20 hl has not been assessed for excise. Move this volume into a taxable tank (brite or serving vessel) first, then package."

The check passes when any of these are true:

• The tank you are packaging from is marked Taxable.
• The beer was transferred into the packaging tank from a Taxable tank.
• You are packaging directly into a Taxable vessel, such as a taxable keg.
• The product is marked non-alcoholic.

The exception: some facilities, such as a cidery, a soda line or a brewer who tracks excise another way, never use taxable tanks. Set Disable Taxable Tank Requirement to Yes on that facility and BarSight stops enforcing the check for its batches. It is set per facility, so a spirits facility can opt out while your brewery stays on. Make sure you are not skipping a requirement you owe.

The requirement is a BC feature. Accounts outside BC don't see this option and are never blocked.

Brew Log Values

Brew log values are the measurements your team logs while a batch is fermenting, such as temperature, pH or gravity. They also drive the fermentation graph on the batch.

1. Click Add Measurement in the Brew Log Values box.
2. Enter a Title, such as Temperature or pH.
3. Choose its Unit of Measure.
4. Pick a Graph Color for its line.
5. Tick Enabled to offer it when logging, and Display on Graph to plot it.
6. Click Save.

Greyed-out rows are disabled. Once a measurement has been used in a fermentation log it can't be deleted, so untick Enabled instead and it stops being offered while your history stays intact.

[SCREENSHOT: The Create Brew Log Measurement form]

Units of Measure

Every quantity in the brewery module is stored in a unit of measure, or UOM: ingredient stock, recipe amounts, tank sizes, batch volumes and purchases. BarSight comes with the common ones built in. The Units of Measure box lists them with their type, and greyed rows are disabled.

Built-in Units

• Weight: kilogram, pound, gram and ounce.
• Volume: litre, hectolitre, millilitre, barrel, gallon, quart, cup, fluid ounce and tablespoon.
• Other: each, volumes (carbonation), specific gravity, plato, Fahrenheit, Celsius, pH, PSI and kilopascal. These are mainly for brew log measurements.

Built-in units can't be renamed or deleted. If you never use one, open it and untick Enable to keep your dropdown lists short.

Creating Your Own Unit

Custom units are for things you buy or count in a particular package, such as a 12.7 kg bucket of puree or a block of yeast.

1. Click Add UOM in the Units of Measure box.
2. Enter a Title, such as 12.7kg puree bucket.
3. Enter an Abbreviation, such as 12.7kg. Abbreviations must be unique, and BarSight will tell you if one is already used.
4. Under Equivalent To, choose a built-in weight or volume unit, or Each.
5. In Volume, enter how many of that unit one of yours equals. A puree bucket is 12.7 kilograms.
6. Click Save.

This equivalence is how BarSight converts between units. It is what lets you buy by the bucket, store by the kilogram and use grams in a recipe. A custom unit that is saved without an equivalent volume is created disabled, so always fill both fields in.

[SCREENSHOT: The Create UOM form with Equivalent To and Volume filled in]

Editing and Deleting Units

• Once a unit is in use, such as on an inventory item, a recipe, a batch, a purchase or a tank, you can still rename it, change its abbreviation or disable it, but you can't change what it is equivalent to. This keeps old numbers correct.
• A unit that has been used can't be deleted. Disable it instead.
• A unit that has never been used can be deleted from its form.

To learn how an inventory item uses the main, display and purchase units, see Adding Items To Your Inventory.

Order Portal

The Order Portal box controls your customers' online ordering page. This is the only box saved with the Save button at the top of the page.

• Enable Online Ordering: when off, customers can still log in and see past orders but can't place new ones.
• Welcome Message: shown at the top of the product list when customers browse. It supports formatting.
• Order Notification Email: a staff address that receives a message every time a customer places an online order. Leave blank for no notifications.

Click Open Portal in the box header to see the page the way your customers do. Which facilities and prices each customer sees are set on the customer, not here. See Setting Up Customer Price Lists.

[SCREENSHOT: The Order Portal box with the Open Portal button]

Other Settings Elsewhere in the Brewery

These aren't on this page, but you'll look for them here:

• Inventory Settings (item categories and more): Brewery → Inventory → Settings → Inventory Settings.
• Packaging groups, taxes, GL accounts and payment types: Brewery → Packaged Products → Settings. See Defining Packaging Groups.
• Order fees and order defaults: the Order Settings page, reached from the Orders page.
• Bulk loading data: see Importing Brewery Inventory Items.

Tips and Best Practices

• Set up your facilities, tanks and units before you receive inventory or start batches. Stock and batches belong to the facility they were created at.
• Mark every excise vessel as Taxable when you create it, so batches don't get blocked at packaging time.
• Create custom units before importing inventory, so your import file can use them.
• Use the same abbreviation style across units so they are easy to pick, for example 12.7kg rather than a mix of words and symbols.

Troubleshooting

Problem: I can't package a batch and it says the volume hasn't been assessed for excise.

Solution: Transfer the beer into a Taxable tank first, then package. If you don't have one, mark the right tank Taxable on the facility. If the facility never needs the check, set Disable Taxable Tank Requirement to Yes.

Problem: The BC Tax Setup box isn't on my facility form.

Solution: The box only appears for accounts in British Columbia. If you are in BC and don't see it, contact support.

Problem: My order PDFs show my location name as text instead of a logo.

Solution: Upload your logo under Settings → Locations.

Problem: My new unit isn't in any dropdown.

Solution: It was saved without an equivalent volume, which creates it disabled. Open it, fill in Equivalent To and Volume, and tick Enable.

Problem: "The abbreviation is already used in the database."

Solution: Every unit needs a unique abbreviation, including disabled ones. Pick a different one.

Problem: I can't delete a unit or measurement.

Solution: It has been used. Disable it instead.

Related Features

• Brewery Quick Start Guide
• Brewery Facilities Explained
• Adding Items To Your Inventory
• Define Your Standard Batch Lot Codes
• Setting Up Customer Price Lists