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In your Garde Commissary, products are what get ordered and delivered. In receiving units, these products become the items on orders, in inventory, and in PMIX mapping. Setting them up correctly from the start prevents unnecessary cleanup later.
Commissary products vs. regular products: A commissary product is generated from a commissary recipe or vendor item and appears on the commissary order guide. It behaves like any other product in the receiving unit (for inventory, recipes, and PMIX), but its price can update dynamically based on ingredient costs at the commissary. Regular products are tied directly to external vendor purchases. This distinction matters: receiving units should use the commissary product — not the commissary recipe — in their own recipes and inventory counts.
This article covers:
  • How to create products through either a recipe or vendor item
  • How to add new packaging options on those products
To create products that will be available on your order guide, you have two options. Any Restaurant Admin or Garde Admin within the commissary unit can create and edit Commissary Vendor Items or Vendor Recipes.

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1) Create a Commissary Recipe

Pros: Can use multiple products to build the recipe, which automatically creates a linked vendor item and product. The product’s price updates in real-time based on the most recent prices of those individual ingredients. For units with multiple commissaries, these can also create multiple vendor items available in each commissary. Cons: These recipes cannot be deleted, only deactivated.

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2) Create a Commissary Vendor Item

Pros: Quickly create a vendor item and set packaging and pricing for an existing product. The price can auto-update based on recent purchase price, or you can set it as manual (static). Cons: The original vendor item packaging cannot be removed — you can only add new packaging options.

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Commissary Recipes

Commissaries generate products directly from Prepared Items Recipes, then place them on the receiving units’ order guides. The price dynamically adjusts based on the most recent purchase price of the ingredients. Once created, these recipes can only be deactivated, not deleted.
If you are new to recipes, start here: Getting Started with Recipes in Garde For best practices specific to commissary recipes: Commissary Kitchens: Best Practices
  1. From within the Commissary Unit, go to “Recipes” and create a new Prepared Item.
  2. Set the Name — consider including something like “(Commissary)” in the recipe name so it is easy to identify.
  3. Choose the Type — these must be created under Recipes > Setup.
  4. Check the box that says “This is a Commissary Recipe” If you want the resulting vendor item available on the order guides of multiple commissary vendors, select all applicable commissaries.
  1. Set a Category — this is the category for the resulting product that will be transferred, and it defines how costs are booked.
    • By default, “Use Categories of Ingredients” generates categories based on the recipe’s ingredients, splitting proportionally as needed. For example, if your fresh salsa recipe contains only tomatoes, onions, peppers, and limes, the recipe product books as “produce.” If it also contains vinegar, a corresponding percentage of that cost books as “grocery” to account for the vinegar.
    • Alternatively, you can assign categories manually by selecting the category and/or splitting it across multiple categories. If you prefer to book the entire product under a specific category rather than using ingredient categories, set that here.
  1. Define the Packaging — keep in mind that if you are sending a foundational ingredient to another unit for use in a recipe, this packaging unit is what will be associated with the product they use in that recipe. Once set, this cannot be changed later. You can add additional packaging options by editing the Vendor Item associated with the recipe (see instructions at the bottom).
    • Packaging: this is a label description for the order guide. It does not generate a conversion and does not need to be exact.
    • Quantity and Unit need to be actual measurable amounts. A conversion is required if the system cannot handle it automatically.
  1. Restrict the recipe — not required, but generally a good practice. Restricting it to the commissary unit means other units cannot see the recipe details, but can still order the product generated by that recipe.
  1. Move through the remaining steps of creating a recipe. Remember:
    • Price is automatically set in the recipe for the item
    • You can set conversions if you are creating a large batch and selling it by the piece
  2. Click SAVE when finished. Once you save the recipe, it automatically generates a new Vendor Item and a new Product.
  3. From within the Commissary Unit, go to Recipes and create a new Prepared Item.
  4. Set the Name. We suggest you pick a way to easily differentiate these commissary recipes, such as including “(Commissary)” in the recipe name.
  5. Choose the Type. These must be created under Inventory > Recipes.
  6. Check the box that says “This is a Commissary Recipe.” If you want the resulting vendor item available on the order guides of multiple commissary vendors, select all applicable commissaries.
  7. Set a Category. This is the Category for the resulting Product that will be transferred, and it defines how you want to book these costs.
    • By default, Garde will “Use Categories of Ingredients” to generate categories based on the ingredients of the recipe, splitting it up proportionally as needed.
    • Alternatively, you can assign the categories yourself or split across multiple categories.
  8. Define the Packaging. Keep in mind that if you are sending a foundational ingredient to the other unit that will then be used in a recipe to create a dish there, this packaging unit is what will be associated with the product they will use in that recipe. Once set, this cannot be changed later. You can add additional packaging options if needed by editing the Vendor Item.
    • Packaging: This is a label description for the order guide; it does not generate a conversion.
    • Quantity and Unit need to be actual measurable amounts and will require a conversion if it cannot be done automatically by the system.
  9. Restrict the recipe. This is not required, but we find it is generally good practice to restrict this recipe to the commissary unit itself. This means another unit will not see the details of the recipe but can still place an order for the product.
  10. Move through the remaining steps of creating a recipe. Remember that the price is automatically set in the recipe for the item. You can set conversions if you are creating a large batch and selling it by the piece.
  11. Click SAVE once finished. Once you save the recipe, it will automatically generate a new Vendor Item and a new Product.

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Quick Recipe Checklist

  • Did you add something to the recipe name to identify it as a commissary recipe?
  • Did you set the category allocation so costs flow accurately to reporting?
  • Did you restrict the recipe to the commissary unit?
  • Did you choose packaging that will be useful for the receiving unit’s own recipes?

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Things to Note

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Things to Note

  • Item code is automatically created from the recipe name.
  • If there is a price change on an ingredient in a Commissary Recipe, the price of the corresponding Vendor Item updates in all units in the company concept.
  • Once created, a commissary recipe can only be deactivated, not deleted.

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Using a Single Commissary Recipe to Create Multiple Commissary Vendor Items

You can make an existing or new commissary recipe available as a Vendor Item in two or more commissaries. This gives you the benefit of maintaining just one recipe while making it available through multiple commissary vendors. Here is how it works:
  • When creating the recipe, select which commissary Vendors should have this available for their order guide.
  • Each commissary Vendor gets its own Vendor Item, which you can manage on each commissary’s order guide.
  • You can manage the Pack Size globally or locally:
    • Globally — on the recipe, which affects all linked commissary Vendor Items
    • Locally — on the commissary Vendor Item itself, which affects only that Vendor Item
  • All commissary Vendor Items linked to a recipe are automatically mapped to a single commissary Product, regardless of how many Vendor Items there are.
  • Because this is one Product across all commissary Vendors, you can build sub-recipes with it or PMIX map with it (and easily copy across all units) for consistent and streamlined management.

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Commissary Vendor Items

To add a new Vendor Item, go to Vendors > Vendor Items and click “Add new Vendor Item.”
  1. Select your Commissary Vendor.
  2. Give it an Item Name and Item Code. There are no strict requirements, but choose names that your team will recognize easily.
  3. Select the corresponding Product so that inventory adjusts appropriately.
  1. Set the Packaging. This is a label description for the order guide and does not generate a conversion. Keep in mind that if you are sending a foundational ingredient to another unit for use in a recipe, this packaging unit is what gets associated with the product they use.
  2. Quantity and Unit need to be actual measurable amounts and require a conversion if the system cannot handle it automatically. Once set, this cannot be changed later. You can add additional packaging options by editing this Vendor Item and clicking “Add Packaging Options.”
  3. Set the Price and Ratio (always “1” for the first packaging created). The default commissary setting keeps the price static. To enable auto-updates based on recent purchase price, adjust the Commissary Vendor settings. See Commissary Kitchens: Vendor Settings for details.
  4. Decide if you want this Vendor Item to automatically go on the Order Guide. You can always adjust this later.

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Adjusting or Adding Packaging for a Vendor Item

To change or add packaging for a commissary vendor item, edit or add new packaging and then adjust the order guide.
For a Vendor Item created from a commissary recipe, you can adjust the packaging name, but all other fields are locked — you need to create new packaging instead. For a standalone Vendor Item created directly for the commissary, you can adjust all values and only need to create a new one if you want multiple options.
  1. Go to Vendors > Vendor Items and search for the item you need to adjust. Click to open it.
  2. Click the “Edit Vendor Item” button.
  1. Scroll down to the packaging options and click “Add New Packaging.”
  1. Fill in the necessary fields. Pay special attention to the conversion rate. In this example, our original packaging was one liter, so a half gallon has a ratio of two.
  1. Click SAVE when finished.
  2. Go to Commissary > Order Guides and search for your commissary vendor. Click the pencil icon to edit the Order Guide.
  1. On the corresponding product, click the pencil icon to edit it.
  1. A dialog appears showing the available packaging options. If you do not want both options available, select only the one you want to keep and click SAVE.