Easily manage purchases in different units while keeping your stock consistent.
Katana allows you to purchase materials and products in units that differ from your stock tracking units. This is useful when vendors supply items in bulk formats (e.g. rolls, crates), but you want to manage your stock in more granular units (e.g. square feet, pieces).
What’s the difference between purchase UoM and stock UoM?
Stock unit of measure (UoM):
This is the default unit used in Katana to track inventory. It’s defined on the item card and used for stock levels, production, and recipes.
Purchase unit of measure (UoM):
If suppliers deliver in a different unit (e.g. rolls instead of meters), you can define a purchase UoM and set a conversion rate to the stock UoM.
Note: Katana will automatically convert quantities between the two using your defined conversion rate.
If you add items to product recipes, the quantity of each ingredient is also defined by the stock UoM.
Example
You buy fabric in rolls but track in square feet.
Set:
Stock UoM: Square feet
Purchase UoM: Rolls
Conversion rate: 1 roll = 100 square feet
On purchase orders, you’ll enter the number of rolls. In your stock, Katana will track the quantity in square feet.
How to set a purchase UoM and conversion rate
Step 1: Enable purchasing in a different unit
Go to the Items screen and select the product or material.
Make sure Buy is enabled (if it's a product).
Open the Supply details tab.
Step 2: Set the purchase unit and conversion
Check Yes, I purchase in a different unit.
In Default purchase unit of measure, enter the purchase UoM (e.g., rolls, boxes).
In Unit conversion rate, define how many stock units equal one purchase unit.
Example: If 1 roll = 100 square feet, enter “100”.
Purchase prices and conversion
When purchasing in a different UoM:
You’ll enter the default purchase price per purchase unit.
Katana will automatically calculate and display the price per stock unit using the conversion rate.
How it works on purchase orders
When items are added to a PO/OPO in the purchase UoM, your stock levels (both In stock and Expected quantities) are displayed in the stock UoM based on this conversion rate.
Before receiving items:
Quantities appear as Expected in stock UoM.After receiving items:
Inventory is updated in stock UoM, based on the conversion.
Notes
This feature works for both purchase orders (POs) and outsourced purchase orders (OPOs).
If an item has multiple variants, the purchase UoM and conversion can be defined per variant.
Katana auto-fills common unit conversions (e.g., boxes to pieces) — but you can override them.
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