# How to record your first production

Record what you made, either one make order at a time with a timer running, or a whole week at once from your payroll. Either way the finished stock is added, the ingredients come out, and the labor goes into its cost.

Source: https://www.prophitable.io/help/run/production (updated 2026-10-29)

You can do it two ways. Time a make order while you work, or record a week you've already made in one go.

## Make one order and time it

1. Go to **Make Orders** and click **Add Make Order**.
2. Under **Order Details**, choose **What are you making?** (a product, a recipe or one of its outputs, or a package) and enter **How many are you making?**. Check who it's **Assigned to**.
3. Click **Save**.
4. Set **Production status** to **In progress**, then click **Start Production**. This takes the ingredients and packaging out of stock, and it can't be undone.
5. Go to the **Production** tab. On each task card, press play when you start and pause when you stop. On a phone the buttons read **Start**, **Pause** and **Done**.
6. When a task is finished, press the check mark, then **Complete & Create Batch**. If you didn't run the timer, choose **Use estimated time** or **Enter the actual time spent**.

When every task is done, the make order turns **Done**. In a hurry? Set **Production status** straight to **Done**, and **Quick Complete** finishes every task left with **Complete Order**.

## Record a whole week at once

Only owners and admins can record a week.

1. Go to **Make Orders**, open the menu on **Add Make Order** and choose **Record Weekly Production**.
2. Under **Production Details**, pick the **Week**. Weeks run Sunday to Saturday, and you can record one once it has ended.
3. Under **What Was Made**, check each product and how many you made. The list starts from that week's sales orders, minus anything a make order already made. Click **Add Item** for anything missing.
4. Under **Who Produced Them**, check each person's **Hours**. Your staff are listed at their usual weekly hours. Click **Add Worker** for anyone else.
5. Click **Save**.
6. When it's right, set **Production status** to **Completed** and click **Record This Week**.

A recorded week can't be deleted or changed. If something was off, record the difference in a later week.

## What you'll see

Each finished task makes a batch in stock, numbered like B2026-10-CAR1. It expires after the item's shelf life, or after 30 days if the item has none. The batch costs its ingredients and packaging plus its labor: the time spent at the hourly cost of the person it was assigned to.

Every timed run also updates how long that item takes, so the next estimate is closer to real.

A recorded week makes one make order per product, already complete, and adds the products to stock with their ingredients taken out.

![A make order from a recorded week: 4 cases of Dark Ashwagandha Sea Salt, completed by the weekly log, at $15.75 a unit from its ingredients, materials, labor and the stock it used](https://www.prophitable.io/_astro/production-order-details.CVkUWoLE.png)

Its **Production status** reads **Completed by** and the week's log number, and **View Weekly Log** opens the week. Each one's labor comes from your payroll. The week's pay divided by the hours paid gives a rate, and each product gets its assembly time at that rate. Time that didn't go into a product, like cleaning or setup, is **Indirect Labor** and stays with the week.

Don't see **Make Orders**? It's hidden when **Settings > Production Setup** says a co-packer handles both your products and your packaging.

> [!TIP]
> A labor time you typed in once is your best guess at the time. Each timed run, and each week recorded from what you actually paid, brings your costs closer to what the work really takes.