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AL Spirits Recipe

AL Spirits Recipe - User guide

How to set up and use the app in Business Central.

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1. Concepts in one minute

  • A recipe lists the ingredients needed for 100 units of what it produces. It is open while you write it and released when it can be used.
  • Items to produce. A recipe can produce more than one item. For each you enter the quantity to produce, or its total net weight, and the app shows the hydrated and the anhydrous liters of that quantity.
  • Alcohol lines. An ingredient counts as alcohol when its alcoholic strength is above the minimum of the setup. The alcohol lines are not consumed in proportion to the quantity: they are sized to supply the anhydrous liters of what you produce, less those brought by the other ingredients.
  • The water line balances the recipe and is not consumed: it stays out of the batch and of the production BOM.
  • Bin and lot. Each line can name where the ingredient is taken from. The app proposes the default bin and the lot with the largest quantity, and reads the alcoholic strength of that lot. Bin, lot and alcoholic strength of the line stay consistent with one another.
  • The alcoholic strength is that of the lot. When an ingredient is taken out of a bin, the journal line takes the alcoholic strength of the lot that is there, and the liters follow it. The alcoholic strength of the item is the starting value, for when the lot has none.
  • You produce with a production order. The production order goes through the standard production of Business Central, with its own number series, so that the recipe is costed like any other production. The batch is kept only for comparisons, where the setup enables it.
  • A pour moves a product from one lot to a new one, with two journal lines.

2. Prerequisites

  • Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, version 28.0 or higher, online (SaaS) and on-premises. The app is not published on AppSource: it is distributed and installed directly by AppLibra.
  • Localization: Italy, because the app depends on AL Excise.
  • The dependencies installed: AL Foundation App, AL License and Trial Management, AL Role Center, AL Message Passing, AL Excise, AL Catch Weight Management, AL Tracking, AL Packaging, AL Document Template and AL Zebra ZPL Label Manager.
  • Permissions: two roles. ALPSPR-USER for whoever works with recipes every day: it writes recipes, sets what to produce and creates batches, pours and production orders. ALPSPR-ADMIN for whoever configures the app: it includes the first one and adds the setup, the ingredients and the deletion of recipes. Whoever had the former set AL RECIPE finds ALPSPR-ADMIN assigned after the upgrade. If the former set was given automatically to new users by license type, that configuration has to be made again by hand.
  • Until 8 October 2026 the app was called AL Recipe. Data and settings are the same.

3. Setup

3.1 Activate the license

Open Recipe Setup (SPR). Saving the setup for the first time starts the trial period; the Add License action installs the license you received from AppLibra.

3.2 Recipe Setup (SPR)

  • Recipe Template Name and Recipe Batch Name: the item journal in which the lines of batches and pours are created.
  • Recipe Item Type Filter: which item types are handled with recipes. The recipe sales lines page shows only the lines of these items, and does not open while the filter is empty.
  • Enable Create Batch: shows the Create Batch action on the recipe card and on the recipe sales lines. The action produces a recipe from the item journal, with no production order. Leave it off where recipes are produced with production orders.
  • Recipe Nos.: the number series a new recipe takes its number from.
  • Prod. Order Recipe Nos.: the number series of the production orders created from recipes.
  • Recipe Journal No. Series: the number series that gives the document number to the journal lines.
  • Min Alcohol %: the alcoholic strength above which an ingredient counts as alcohol.

3.3 Ingredients (SPR)

A register of raw materials, allergens, risks and denominations, each with its type. A recipe can refer to one of each. These references describe the recipe: they do not enter the calculations.

3.4 Journals of each user

On User Setup, for each person who produces from recipes through production orders: the consumption journal and the output journal, each with its template and batch. The recipe card fills and opens these journals for that user. Batches and pours do not go through here: they use the journal of the Recipe Setup.

3.5 The items

The alcoholic strength, the capacity and K come from the item, where AL Excise keeps them: set them there for the items you produce and for the alcoholic ingredients. For an ingredient kept by lot the alcoholic strength of the item is the starting value: when the line has a lot with its own alcoholic strength, that one applies.

4. Daily use

4.1 Write a recipe

Open Recipes (SPR) and create a recipe. If you leave the number empty, the recipe takes the next one from the number series of the setup; the assist button lets you choose another number series among the related ones. A number typed by hand can have 10 characters at most and is accepted only if the number series allows manual numbers. Then enter a description.

On the lines enter the ingredients: the item, the unit of measure and the quantity needed for 100 units of what the recipe produces. Mark the Water line. The Alcohol flag is set by the app from the alcoholic strength of the item. On the alcohol lines the quantity only sets the proportions among them, and the unit of measure can be any unit the item converts to liters.

When the recipe is ready, set the Status to Released. The app does not check the recipe at this point: make sure the lines are complete.

4.2 Choose where the ingredients come from

On each line enter the Location Code. The app proposes the default bin of the item and the lot with the largest quantity in it, and replaces the alcoholic strength of the line with that of the lot. Suggest Bin and Lot does it for all the lines that have a location.

You can change bin and lot by hand, and the line stays consistent:

  • When you change the bin, the app proposes the lot with the largest quantity in that bin and takes its alcoholic strength.
  • When you choose a lot that is in another bin, the line moves there and takes the alcoholic strength of that lot. If the lot is in more than one bin, the app asks you to choose the bin first.
  • A lot with no stock in the location leaves the bin and the alcoholic strength as they are. The same goes for a lot that has no alcoholic strength.
  • Bin and lot are entered after the location.

The alcoholic strength of a lot is that of the loads of the lot still in the bin: AL Excise keeps it on the entries.

4.3 Say what to produce

In Recipe Items enter the item the recipe produces and the Qty. To Produce. If you know the weight instead, enter Tot. Net Weight To Produce and the quantity is calculated through K. The line shows the hydrated and the anhydrous liters of that quantity.

4.4 Produce with a production order

The first time an item is produced with a recipe, its production BOM has to be certified by hand. Create or Update Recipe Item BOM writes it from the recipe and opens it: check it and set its Status to Certified. Until it is certified, Open New Production Order stops and says so. From the following orders on, the app updates it from the recipe and sets it back to certified by itself.

Open New Production Order updates the production BOM of the item from the recipe, creates a released production order for the quantity to produce and opens it. If a released order of the same recipe item with nothing finished yet already exists, that one is opened. From the recipe card, Calc. Consumption fills your consumption journal from the order and Explode Routing Recipe Output Journal fills your output journal; then post them as usual.

Each consumption line takes the alcoholic strength of the lot that is in the bin it takes from, and the liters of the line are recalculated with it. If the lot has none, the line keeps the one it had.

Create or Update Recipe Item BOM updates the production BOM alone, without creating an order.

4.5 The batch, for comparisons

A batch produces a recipe straight from the item journal, with no production order. It is kept to compare the results with the former way of working, and the action is shown only when Enable Create Batch is on in Recipe Setup (SPR): where recipes are produced with production orders it stays hidden.

Create Batch writes, in the journal of the setup, a positive adjustment for the quantity to produce and a negative adjustment for each ingredient, water excluded, and opens that journal. Nothing is posted: check quantities and lots, and post. The quantity to produce goes back to zero.

Each negative adjustment carries the bin, the lot and the alcoholic strength of the recipe line. When you change the bin in the journal, the app reads again the lot with the largest quantity in that bin, its alcoholic strength and the liters.

4.6 Pour a product into a new lot

Create Pour writes two journal lines for the quantity to produce: a negative adjustment on the lot with the largest quantity and a positive adjustment of the same item on a new lot number, and opens the journal of the setup. The two lines start in the location of the recipe item, the one a production order of that item would take. Change the bin in the journal if the product moves, then post.

4.7 Start from the sales orders

Recipe Sales Lines (SPR) lists the sales order lines not yet shipped of the items handled with recipes. Show Recipe opens the recipe of the item. Order Prepare opens it with the quantity to produce set to the outstanding quantity of the line, and keeps the link: the batch takes the order number and the location of the line. When the output is posted, the sales line receives the quantity produced, its net weight and alcoholic strength, and the lot produced.

5. Where to find it

  • Tell Me: search "SPR" (every page of the app is tagged), or the page by name, for example "Recipes (SPR)".
  • Role centers: a Spirits Recipes (SPR) group with recipes and recipe sales lines on the production planner role center. The setup pages are on the AppLibra hub.
  • AppLibra hub: Shift+F12, Explore other roles, AppLibra.
  • Manual Setup: the setup page is registered in the Manual Setup list.
  • User Setup: the journals of each user.

6. Tips and troubleshooting

  • The recipe sales lines page does not open. The Recipe Item Type Filter of the setup is empty. Fill it in.
  • Create Batch is not there. Enable Create Batch is off in the setup.
  • Create Batch does nothing or stops. The recipe must be released, and the journal template and batch of the setup must be filled in.
  • A recipe number is refused. The number has 10 characters at most, and typed by hand it is accepted only if the number series of the recipes allows manual numbers.
  • A line is not marked as alcohol. The alcoholic strength of its item is not above the Min Alcohol % of the setup.
  • The alcohol consumed is not what I expected. On the alcohol lines the quantity only sets the proportions: the consumption comes from the anhydrous liters to produce, less those brought by the other ingredients. Check the alcoholic strength of the lots on the lines.
  • The app says that an alcohol line has no alcohol content. An alcohol line with no alcoholic strength cannot be sized, in any unit of measure. Enter the lot, with Suggest Bin and Lot or by hand, or the alcoholic strength on the line.
  • The app says it cannot calculate the quantity of a line. It happens on an alcohol line in a unit the item does not convert to liters: the quantity comes from the anhydrous liters one unit holds. Check the units of measure of the item. If the ingredient has to be dosed for the quantity written in the recipe, like a flavoring, clear the Alcohol flag: its alcohol is counted all the same.
  • The alcoholic strength of a journal line differs from that of the item. The line that takes stock out of a bin takes the alcoholic strength of the lot that is there, even when the item card has another one. If it is not the one you expected, check at which alcoholic strength the lot was loaded.
  • Water is missing from the batch. It is meant to be: the water line is not consumed.
  • Open New Production Order says that the production BOM is not certified. It is the first production of that item with that recipe, or someone has removed the certification. Use Create or Update Recipe Item BOM, check the production BOM and certify it, then open the order.
  • The consumption or the output journal does not open. The journals of that user are not set on User Setup.
  • A user gets a permission error on the setup. The role centers show the setup action to everyone; the setup page needs ALPSPR-ADMIN.
  • What the app does not do. The allergen, risk and denomination of a recipe are descriptive and are not printed or checked by the app. Releasing a recipe does not validate its lines.

7. Support and resources