Xero inventory management for food brands: keep Xero, add batches and use-by

Xero gives you tracked inventory inside your accounting system. Its UK inventory page says you can "manage up to 4000 finished items". When you buy or sell a tracked item, Xero updates the quantity, and it posts cost of goods sold automatically.

For a brand that buys finished stock, sells it from one place and never needs to know which batch went where, that's enough. Plenty of brands start there, and it works.

Pesto runs your orders, stock, batches and production. It sends Xero the financial records that come out of them.

• Invoices from what you dispatched. Pesto builds each Xero invoice from the dispatched quantity multiplied by the order price, so a short delivery never becomes a full invoice. Create them one at a time or in bulk.
• Auto-invoice on dispatch. Switch it on and Pesto raises the Xero invoice the moment you mark an order dispatched.
• Everything mapped. Each invoice carries the right Xero contact, item code, account and tax rate. Chart of accounts mapping rules decide which account each line posts to.
• Invoice date rules. Date each invoice by dispatch date or delivery date. You can also block invoicing until an order has a dispatch date.
• Units or cases. Invoice in units or cases, whichever your customer expects, and expand assortments into their components.
• VAT handled. Mark VAT-exempt customers in Pesto. Tax rates sync from Xero, so Pesto uses the rates you already run.
• Draft invoices you can still change. Update a draft invoice from Pesto and view the invoice PDF without opening Xero.
• Stock and COGS movements. Each day Pesto sends Xero the stock and cost of goods sold movements behind that day's invoices, at the actual lot cost of what you dispatched, so your accounts move with your stock.
• Supplier POs. Send purchase orders to suppliers through Xero, or as a branded PDF.
• Draft supplier bills from production runs. Record the actual service costs on a production run (labour, co-man fees, logistics) and Pesto drafts the Xero supplier bill for each supplier invoice. → Brands that make and use co-packers

The dispatch note and the invoice now say the same thing, because they come from the same record.

Your accounts. Your ledgers, bank reconciliation, VAT returns and financial reports all stay in Xero, with your accountant working the way they already do.

Pesto works out cost of goods sold at the actual lot cost of the stock on each dispatched line, shows it on the Gross Margin dashboard, and sends the daily stock and COGS movements to Xero so the figures agree. → COGS & margins