SoapMaker Features

What's New in SoapMaker 3?

Just about everything! - With a new look, and many new features and improvements, SoapMaker 3 is easier to use and more capable than ever.

A New Look

• Toolbars and pop-up menus help you can accomplish common tasks quickly and easily.
• Context Help buttons take you immediately to the Help topic which describes the current task.
• SoapMaker 3 supports international numbering systems and currency symbols. It is no longer necessary to set your system to US style numbering.
• Three management centers which provide easy access to all the information and commands associated with a particular activity...

MyRecipes

• The Recipe management center now includes a hierarchical view showing recipe Groups (previously called "Classes") as folders, and recipes as documents.
• You can drag a recipe from one group into another, or use the Move Recipes button to move a bunch of recipes all at once.
• Recipe icons indicate each recipe's type (Solid soap, Liquid soap, Cream soap or Non-soap). Yes that's right -SoapMaker 3 now supports Cream soap recipes!
• In the List view, you can choose to list all recipes in the selected group, or only recipes of a particular type.
• The Archive group is now given special treatment. When you list All Recipes in MyRecipes or MyProducts, any recipes in the Archive group are not shown. You can still list recipes in the Archive group itself. Use this group to save old recipes you don't use anymore, but want to keep for reference.
• When you use the new Update Recipes feature to capture the latest supply costs, archived recipes are omitted to save time.

MySupplies

• The new Supplies management center consolidates the old MyShelf and the various Ingredients dialog windows of version 2. Everything to do with adding ingredients, purchasing supplies, and tracking usage is done from here.
• SoapMaker3 comes with more than 80 base oils defined.
  • To keep the list manageable, you can select your favorites which will appear in the stocklist and be available in recipe oil drop-down lists.
  • Base Oils properties now include the fatty acid composition, and this is used to compute the graph quality numbers. If you add a new oil and can find out the fatty acids, enter them yourself to get the correct qualities. Or you can have SoapMaker 3 copy all the properties of an existing similar oil.
  • You can change the SAP value or any other property of a Base Oil, even if it is a standard oil included with SoapMaker. You can always Revert back to the standard values.
  • If you have added a custom oil which is similar to one of the standard oils provided with SoapMaker, you can merge them into one using the Merge Oils command.
• A new supply type, Packaging has been added. Use this for all your labels, bottles, etc. and any thing else you want to include in recipes without contributing to the recipe's weight. You can even include labor-hours.
• Additive ingredients can now be organized into Categories.
• Special icons show at a glance when a supply is getting low or is all used.
• You can safely rename an ingredient, and the new name will automatically appear in all affected recipes.
• Want to know which recipes use a particular ingredient? Just click the Recipes button to see a list.
• When you receive a new shipment of supplies, record the cost and amount of each item, as well as the total shipping cost, tax, etc. and SoapMaker will calculate the actual adjusted cost of each supply.
• The Purchase History report shows, for each supply, every purchase you made, when you made it, the name of the Supplier, the quantity and cost of the purchase, and the quantity still left in stock from that lot.
• Create custom blends or infusions using 2 or more ingredients, and save the blend as an ingredient that can be used in your recipes.
• The Usage report lists all batches made with a selected ingredient within a specified time period.
• That annoying reminder to re-save affected recipes every time you record a new sale is gone for good! Now you get one optional reminder after all changes are made, and SoapMaker 3 will update all your recipes at once.
• Base Oils properties now include the fatty acid composition, and this is used to compute the graph quality numbers. If you add a new oil and can find out the fatty acids, enter them yourself to get the correct qualities. Or you can have SoapMaker 3 copy all the properties of an existing similar oil.
• You can change the SAP value or any other property of a Base Oil, even if it is a standard oil included with SoapMaker. You can always Revert back to the standard values.
• If you have added a custom oil which is similar to one of the standard oils provided with SoapMaker, you can merge them into one using the Merge Oils command.
• INCI codes are provided for all the standard Base Oils provided with SoapMaker, and you can add INCI codes for any new oils or additives you create.

MyProducts

• Each product batch can now be split into as many as four sub-batches, each with different sized bars or portions.
• You can now choose a date range for viewing or printing your list of batches (handy at tax time). You can also restrict the list to batches which still have remaining stock.
• You can create a sales record for each customer order or sales venue, and include products from any batch. You can then create a customer invoice to bill your customer. On the list of invoices you can track whether each has been paid or not.
• A Sales History report shows every product sold, when and to whom (or where) it was sold, the batch and recipe it came from, the price you charged, and your profit margin.
• Save a photo of each of your products.

Recipe Form

The recipe form has been extensively reworked to provide a less cluttered task-oriented interface.

There is now virtually no limit to the number of ingredients in a recipe. The recipe form adds more rows as you need them.

The following features make the recipe form easier to use:

• True autofill makes it easier to fill in a recipe form. When you start typing an ingredient name or units, SoapMaker 3 fills in the rest with the best match from the available list.
• To keep the drop-down list of Base Oils short, it only includes those oils you choose as your favorites. You can add more at any time by selecting the "More Oils" item from the list.
• New recipes are named and assigned to a group when you save, just as in other applications.

Separate pages with tabs are provided for each ingredient type, and other recipe features:

• The Fatty Acid Composition of the recipe is displayed and can be included when you print the recipe.
• An Options page enables you to change preferred units, etc. without having to open the main Preferences window. From here you can also set the recipe to be your "benchmark" on the qualities graph.

  You can now specify either the size of bar/portion or the total number of bars/portions in the recipe.

  You no longer have to put up with many useless decimal places. You specify your scale's precision, and calculated quantities are automatically rounded to match. Calculated weights can now be expressed in fractional pounds as well as pounds-ounces.

• The quantity of water in soap recipes can be controlled either by specifying a discount as before, or by specifying the desired lye solution strength.

  A new Cream soap recipe type is available. It enables you to include both NaOH and KOH lye is the same recipe.

• Additives are now organized into Categories. Create as many categories as you like (e.g. scent, color, etc.) to keep the recipe drop-down lists short for easy entry.

  A new fragrance calculator is built into the Recipe form. It suggests an amount of fragrance based on the total amount of base oils. You can set your preferred fragrance ratio for each type of recipe.

  When you create a new Liquid or Cream soap recipe, special calculators are available to help with process-specific additives.

• Packaging items are now entered on a separate page. For each entry, you can specify either the total number of items in the recipe, or the number per bar/portion.

Other recipe features:

• Recipe printouts can include the list of INCI codes used in the recipe (sorted by quantity), and the fatty acid composition of the recipe.
• You can export a recipe's ingredient list with INCI codes which can be edited and used for labels.
• The recipe summary information also includes the volume as well as the weight.

Resize Recipe

New options are available for resizing a recipe. You can now resize to:

• Total recipe weight
• Total Base Oils weight
• Total volume
• Percentage of original size
• Number of bars/portion of specified size
• Fit any quantity each of up to 4 different molds

When you resize a recipe, SoapMaker 3 always opens a copy for resizing, so the original recipe is unchanged.

The New Mold dialog window now provides the option for you to select the type of mold, enter mold dimensions and have the volume calculated for you.

Graph

The Predicted Soap Qualities Graph has a new look with 3D colored bars. The new Auto-scale option will scale the graph to accommodate the largest value instead of always scaling to the maximum of 10.

The graph window now indicates the name of your current benchmark recipe.

When several recipes are displayed on the graph, you can see the numbers for a particular recipe by moving your mouse over one of the colored bars.

The graph can now be printed.

Printing

A new Print Preview option is available whenever you print a recipe, an invoice, or one of the list reports.

When printing a recipe, you can choose whether to include the quality numbers, fatty acid composition, notes and INCI code list.

Batches

• You can make a batch for a selected recipe in MyRecipes, or repeat a batch in MyProducts, without having to open the recipe.
• When you make a batch, the quantity to be used and the quantity which will remain in stock are shown for each ingredient.

  Special icons flag any ingredient which you may need to re-order (based on minimum quantities you set).

  You have the option whether to adjust your supplies inventory for any or all ingredients in the recipe.

  For each ingredient you want adjusted, the quantity is deducted from your supply stocklist, starting with the oldest purchase record which still shows stock remaining.

• On the Purchase History report, the supply lot which will be used for the next batch is flagged with an arrow.

Shopping List tool

This new production planning tool determines what supplies you need to purchase to make planned recipes.

Preferences

The new MyPreferences form includes many new options, and is organized by recipe type, so you can specify different default values for each type.

On a Recipe form, the Options page allows you to override the defaults you have set in MyPreferences, and if you like you can save the recipe options as new defaults for all recipes of the same type without having to open MyPreferences.

Supplier and Customer lists

You can maintain lists of your Suppliers and your Customers and sales venues, and record contact information.

When recording supply purchases or product sales, you enter the Supplier or Customer Name by selecting it from a drop-down list.

Taxes

SoapMaker provides several features to assist you in tracking sales tax or value-added tax, as well as revenue and inventory totals for your income tax return.