Software – Ice Cream Calculator

Production planning

icecreamcalc — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 08:33:08 +0000

Introduction

If you have a small shop or business the production planning and inventory module is for you. Using a calendar planning tool you add the recipes you will make. Keep track of ingredients, products and prices. Automatically update you inventory when a batch has been produced. Set up an inventory of products and make stocktaking using a barcode scanner.

Here follows a short introduction to the Production and Inventory system.

Calendar

In the calendar tab you add your recipes and the weight you plan to produce.
Clicking the panes brings up the Edit dialog where you can modify the weight, date and type a note for this recipe. You can also print the recipe.
After you have actually made this batch you can click the Produced button to update your inventory. If you have linked your products to ingredients you will be prompted to adjust the inventory accordingly.

List

In the List tab you will see all your production.
Selecting items in the list on the left will update the list on the right with the amount of ingredients or products used. You can also use the buttons above the list to quickly select items. You can select to view ingredients used for the selected recipes or products from your inventory.

Inventory

Sample inventory of products

The inventory tab is where you handle your product inventory.
This module will be easiest to use if you have a barcode scanner as many of the functions are designed for scanners. (It is possible to use this module without a scanner).
Here you will add your actual products and keep track of your inventory.

Adding purchased products using a barcode scanner

Double-clicking on a product brings up the product properties page.

Example product

Here you set all the data connected to the product. Important fields are the barcode id and the Unit weight. The Ingredient link can be set to connect a product to an ingredient in the database. If this link is set you will have the option to automatically update the inventory when a batch is produced.

To the right you see the list of all your purchases. So, every time you purchase this product you will scan it and populate the list. In the purchase dialog you can set quantity, price and dates.

Below the list is the Quantity field. This is the quantity of this product that you actually have in stock. The list will update and is color coded to reflect the Quantity.

Stocktaking

When making a stocktaking you scan your products and update the inventory.
There are different ways to make your stocktaking.
– Full. Updates the inventory with your scanned products and sets all non-scanned products to 0.
– Partial. Updates the inventory with your scanned items and all non-scanned products are unchanged.
– Report only. Does not update the inventory.

This is an example of a stocktaking.

After scanning you press the OK button if you want to save and continue later. You press the Close button if you want to close the stocktaking and update the inventory.

Now you can see all products you scanned, the current quantity and the difference between the current inventory and the scanned products. You can now select to just Close this stocktaking without updating the inventory or to update the inventory database. The Scanned items only checkbox controls if you want to update all products in the inventory or only the scanned products.

Ingredients database explained

icecreamcalc — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 10:15:53 +0000

This post will explain where and how ingredients are saved and stored.

Ingredients can be saved in three different places.

Standard database ingredients
User database ingredients
Recipe ingredients

In a recipe these three types of ingredients are color coded.

So, here Chocolate 70%, Sucrose and Salt are from the online standard database.
Cacao powder 21% is from the user database.
Fructose is a recipe ingredient. This means it is not in the standard or the user database.

A recipe RCP file is a standalone file, it has all the ingredients and their data included. This means that if you open an old RCP file or you get a RCP file from someone else you can always open it and get the correct ingredients, even if it contains ingredients that are not in the standard database or your local user database.

Ingredient IDs

Every ingredient has a unique ID. This means that when you open a recipe the calculator knows exactly what ingredients are in the recipe and which database they belong to.
If the ID is empty or not found in the standard or user database the ingredient is flagged as a “recipe” ingredient and color coded red. The ingredient is absolutely fine it just means that it can not be located in any of the databases.
Using a unique ID for every ingredient also means you can have multiple ingredients with the same name, this is fine but maybe not recommended.

You can see the unique ID and some other info at the bottom left corner of the ingredient dialog.

Modifying ingredients

When you open a recipe file the ingredients will be updated with the data from the database.
What does this mean?
Say you have an ingredient in your local user database and you have used this ingredient in a recipe. Remember this ingredient has a unique ID.
You save the recipe and sometime later you might change the data in the database for that ingredient. Maybe you change the Total fat or PAC or POD or even the Name of the ingredient.
The unique ID is still the same so when you open your old recipe, that you made with the original version of the ingredient, the calculator will detect this and replace the ingredient with the updated version from the database.
The bottom line is that when opening a recipe file the calculator will always try to update the ingredient using the version from the database as long as the ingredient still exists in the standard or user database.

Standard Database

The standard database contains 100+ of the most common ingredients to get you started. This database is an online SQL database that is managed by icecreamcalc. You can not edit the ingredients in the standard database, they are read-only.
If you need to modify a standard ingredient you will have to make a copy to you local user database. This is totally fine and nothing you should avoid doing if you like.
When you start the calculator the standard ingredients are loaded from the online SQL database.
If you do not have an internet connection the calculator will use a cashed copy of the standard database.
In the settings dialog you can choose if you want to load the standard database or not by checking the “Hide standard database” checkbox. If you only use your local database this is advisable.

Local user database

All ingredients that you add yourself will be stored in your local user database. These ingredients are fully editable and you have full control over them. If you use the calculator professionally it is recommended that you only use ingredients from the local database.
These ingredients are saved in a file called user.db. This file is located in the DATA folder, C:\ProgramData\Ice Cream Calculator. The easiest way to open this folder is to go to the Settings dialog and press the “Open data folder” button.
The local database is loaded when you start the calculator and saved when you close the calculator.

Recipe ingredients

A recipe can also contain ingredients that are not found in any database. The reason for this can be that you open a recipe from someone else. If you use the Share dialog and open a recipe that recipe may contain ingredients not found in your database. In this case the ingredient is flagged as a “recipe” ingredient. Another reason can be that you have deleted the ingredient from the database. In any case if you double-click on a “recipe” ingredient to edit it you will be prompted to add it to the database. This gives you control of what ingredients you want to add to your local database.
Another way a “recipe” ingredient can be created is to use the “Evaporate ingredient” button. For example you are making a strawberry ice cream. The strawberries are boiled down to reduce water and intensify the flavor. You start with 300g of strawberries and after boiling them you have 150g left. Instead of adding “Strawberries cooked” to the database you can press the “Evaporate ingredient” and get a correct ingredient. When using the “Evaporate ingredient” you get a selection if you want to add this to the database or not. If you don’t add it to the database a “recipe” ingredient is created.

Language translation support

icecreamcalc — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 11:00:44 +0000

Translations

Finally a new feature that I have had many requests for. The calculator now supports translations to basically any language.

Translations

In the settings dialog you can select a language. You can also decide if you want to translate all standard ingredients or not.
The list of languages to select from will depend on users helping with the translations to different languages.
Pressing the button to the right of the Language list will open up the translation tool. If you think you can contribute and help translating you will need a password.
In case you would like to help please contact me and I will send the password.

After changing language you will have to restart the calculator for all the translations to show up properly.

Making translations

In the translation dialog you have a list of languages. Select the language and then just start translating.

Tip! Double-clicking on the English word will copy it to the clipboard. This can be useful if you like to use for example google translate or if you want to use the same text as the translated word.
Tip! Please translate all words, even words that don’t need translating. This will make it easier to spot new words when new versions are released and it will be easier for other users to know that everything has been translated.

The translations are stored in an online database and will be loaded when the calculator starts.