Skip to main content

How to start

You've created your workspace and logged in for the first time as its Admin (see Create your account and workspace). This page is a single, ordered walkthrough for going from an empty workspace to your first recorded sale. Follow it top to bottom the first time — each step's data is used by the step after it.

1. Set up your dictionaries first​

Before entering any real data, fill in the lookup lists that materials, products, and purchases will reference. Doing this first avoids re-opening records later just to add a missing type or warehouse.

Open Profile (the avatar/gear icon at the bottom of the sidebar) → Dictionaries tab (Admin only). It has six sub-tabs:

  • Warehouses — at least one physical or logical stock location (e.g. "Main warehouse"). Materials, purchases, and finished goods are all tied to a warehouse.
  • Material types — categories for your raw materials (e.g. "Wax", "Fragrance", "Packaging").
  • Product types — categories for sellable product cards.
  • Item types — categories for component/semi-finished cards.
  • Suppliers — who you buy materials from; used on purchases.
  • Other expenses — reusable fixed or percentage-based cost items (packaging labor, marketplace fees) you'll attach to BOM cards later.

Each sub-tab works the same way: click Add, fill in a name (and optional description), save.

While you're in Profile, also check Settings tab → Currency — set this once, early, since it's used across BOM costing and analytics.

2. Add your first materials​

Go to Materials in the sidebar → Create material. For each raw material, fill in:

  • Name, material type (from the dictionary you just set up), and unit of measure
  • The warehouse(s) it can be stocked in
  • Minimum stock (optional but recommended — this is what drives the dashboard low-stock warning)

A freshly created material starts at zero stock — stock only enters the system through a purchase (next step) or a manual stock audit.

See Materials for the full field reference.

3. Bring in stock with a purchase​

Go to Purchases → Create purchase. Choose the material, receiving warehouse, supplier, quantity, and total cost, then move the purchase through its lifecycle:

Draft → Ordered → Delivered

Stock and the material's cost lot are only created once the purchase is marked Delivered — Draft/Ordered purchases don't touch stock. Repeat this for each material you need on hand before production.

If your starting stock didn't come through a purchase you want to record (e.g. you're migrating from another system), use Stock Audit instead to set the actual counted quantity directly — see Stock movements & audit.

See Purchases for the full lifecycle and receipt attachments.

4. Build your product catalog with BOM cards​

Go to BOM Cards → Create card. Decide first whether this is:

  • A product card — a sellable finished good, or
  • An item card (toggle "is item") — a component used inside other cards

Add a composition line for each material or component the card needs, with the quantity per unit produced and a loss coefficient (leave at 1.0 if there's no waste). If a product is built from sub-components, create the item cards first, then reference them in the product card's composition.

While here, set up Prices & margin per sales channel (you'll create channels in step 6) and any other expenses from your dictionary, so margin is visible from day one.

See BOM cards for versioning, multi-level BOMs, and costing details.

5. Record your first production​

Go to Finished Goods (for product cards) or Ready Items (for item cards) → Create production record. Choose the BOM card, the source warehouse to reserve materials from, the quantity produced, and a production date.

Masto Control checks whether enough of each required material/component is available before letting you confirm, and tells you exactly what's short if not. Once confirmed, the produced quantity becomes its own batch with its own cost, ready to sell.

See Finished goods & ready items for rework and production planning.

6. Create a sales channel​

Go to Sales Channels → create a channel for each place you sell (e.g. "Etsy", "Local market", or a connected Shopify store). Set its commission % — this feeds directly into the margin numbers you set up in step 4.

If you're connecting Shopify, see Shopify integration for both connection methods (installing from the Shopify App Store, or connecting from within Masto Control).

7. Record your first sale​

From Finished Goods/Ready Items, open a batch with available stock and use Sell, choosing the sales channel from step 6. This deducts the sold quantity from stock and immediately feeds sales analytics — cost, margin, and revenue by product and by channel.

8. Invite your team​

Once the core flow works end to end, bring in your team. Set these up in this order, since each one depends on the last:

  1. Roles (sidebar → Roles) — define permission sets first (e.g. "Production", "Sales", "Warehouse").
  2. Departments (sidebar → Departments) — group users by team or responsibility.
  3. Users (sidebar → Users) — invite each teammate by email and assign their department and role.

See Users & roles for the full permission model.

You're set up​

From here, the day-to-day loop is: purchases keep material stock topped up, production records turn materials into finished goods, and sales deduct stock and feed analytics. Revisit dictionaries any time you need a new warehouse, type, or supplier — nothing in steps 2–7 is one-time, you'll keep adding to all of it as your catalog grows.