Units and unit size

Manage → Unit of Measure. Units belong to the list you’re in.

Some things you count — 6 eggs, 3 rolls; some you weigh or pour — 2 kg of flour, 1.5 L of milk; and some come in packs that hold a known amount. InvenDo handles all three: a unit on every item, your own units when the built-in ones don’t fit, and a unit size that says what one pack holds.

Your units

A new list comes with pcs, pack, kg, g, L and ml — in your language. Add your own with + (a name is all it needs): bottle, roll, bag, jar. The pencil renames a unit everywhere it’s used.

Deleting a unit clears it from every item that used it — and takes any unit size with it — so those items become unit-less rather than broken.

Choosing a unit on an item

In the item form, tap Unit of Measure. The list offers None, your units, and Add new unit — add one there and then tap it to choose it. Items don’t need a unit at all; None is fine for anything you just count.

If the item’s category fixes a unit for all its products, the field is locked and says so.

Unit size: packs and what’s in them

Set a unit size when you buy something in packs but think in contents — a 900 g pack of flour, a 6-pack of eggs, a 500 ml bottle.

1. Give the item a unit for the pack — pack, bottle, box.

2. Tap + Unit size underneath and fill in 1 pack = 900 g: the amount, and the unit of the contents.

3. Tap ✓.

From then on:

• Quantity counts packs. Two packs of flour are quantity 2, and the row reads 2 over pack (= 1.8 kg).
• Tap the unit chip next to the quantity to switch the field to contents instead — type 450 g and InvenDo shows = 0.5 pack — the stored value is the same either way. In pack mode the quantity is whole numbers; in content mode decimals are fine.
• The minimum quantity uses whichever mode the quantity is in, so the two never disagree.
• The Shopping List always counts packs — you buy whole ones.
• Open one opens one pack; see Opened items.

Unit size belongs to the product (it’s shared by every entry and the Shopping List), and it needs the item’s unit: change the unit and InvenDo clears the unit size, telling you so.

Good to know

• Two switches carry the name Unit of Measure: the one under Features and Fields turns units off for the whole list; the one under ⋮ → View Options → Show Fields only decides whether units are printed on list rows — and it’s off until you turn it on. See Viewing and finding items.
• Show Total Quantity on category headers adds up bare numbers, whatever the units, and drops fractions: 2 kg and 3 pcs make 5. Use it for categories with one unit.
• A list created with Unit of Measure switched off gets no built-in units, even if you turn units on later — add the ones you need by hand.
• Excel files carry the unit’s name but not the unit size. See Excel export and import.
• Units and unit size are free on every platform.