Get started adding items
Removing items from inventory.
Setting up syncing
Add non-barcode items
Automatic UPC Lookup
Barcodes and scanning, hints and tips!
Why is there a red bubble on my icon?
What does that lightning bolt do?
Help me manage my Shopping List!
Why do I have to re-scan the items in my Cart?
How do I manage my Tags?
The View Options.
How do I delete items?
Change the Location, Expiration, Quantity
The straight forward Privacy Policy
Get started adding items
Prep & Pantry opens on the Add Items screen. To switch between the green Add Items screen and the red Remove Items screen simply tap the appropriate Add Items or Remove Items button near the bottom of the screen as shown here.
An alternative way to switch between the Add Items and Remove Items screen is to SWIPE the screen LEFT to remove items or RIGHT to add items.
Manually entering item barcodes
Tap the 'enter barcode number' field to enter an item barcode manually.
Refer to the section Automatic UPC Lookup for more information regarding barcodes and what numbers are important.
Also check out the related Add non-barcode items section for more options.
Scanning item barcodes
Tap the 'Scan Barcode' image to access your device's camera to scan barcodes.
See also Barcodes and scanning, hints and tips! and Automatic UPC Lookup .
Removing items from inventory.
There are two ways to remove items from inventory, through the red Remove Items screen (recommended) or by editing an item's Location/Expiration/Quantity (LEQ).
Why would you want to use the red Remove Items screen to remove items from inventory? First, it's super easy. Second, it's how items get added to the cart automatically.
To remove an item through the red Remove Items screen, tap the red Remove Items button near the bottom of the Scan window or swipe the green Add Items screen left. Presented is a screen nearly identical to the Add Items screen. From the Remove Items screen you can manually enter item barcodes or scan item barcodes to remove items from inventory.
After the barcode is entered you will be presented with the Remove Item detail screen. Below the item detail portion of the screen the LEQ subset is presented as shown here.
These are the items grouped by location and listed by expiration dates. The Qty is the count of items in the specific location with a specific expiration date. Tap the red Remove button to increment the count of items to be removed. Tapping the green '+' button will undo it if you tapped the Remove button too many times. Tap Save when finished.
Tip
Know the item that needs to be removed but don't have the barcode number? No problem! Tap the spyglass icon in the top right corner of the Remove Items screen. From there you can scroll to the desired item or search for an item by it's name, tag, barcode, or unique ID. This works for both adding and removing Items.
Learn about Qm and how items are added to the Shopping List in the section Help me manage my Shopping List!
To edit an item quantity manually, see the section Removing items from inventory.
Setting up syncing
Prep & Pantry can sync your inventory between multiple devices. While the device is connected to the internet, syncing occurs in the background, real-time. A change made on one device will appear moments later on the second device.
Syncing happens as a group. You can create a group and allow others to join or, by being provided an existing group's information, join their group.
Group members can be anyone from family members to employees to members of a volunteer group. The only requirements is to have Prep & Pantry installed and internet access either through WIFI or their mobile service provider.
Your inventory is automatically backed up to the server when you are a member of a group, just join the group and the current inventory data will be downloaded to your device. No need for any of the other group members to be online.
Creating a Group
To create a group, start by tapping Create Group from the Syncing page. This will open a window asking for the group name, group password, and an email address.
- Group Name may only be comprised of lowercase characters (a-z), numbers (0-9), or underscore ( _ ). No spaces are allowed.
- Passwords cannot be left blank and spaces are not allowed.
- Email address is optional and is only used for resetting the password. This is important ,the password cannot be reset if you do not enter an email address that you own.
Make sure you are connected to the internet before filling in the requested information. When done tap "Create Group". Prep & Pantry will then contact the server and check the submitted information.
If your requested Group Name is available it will be created on the server and Prep & Pantry will automatically join your newly created group, syncing the inventory data on your device with the server.
While the syncing happens in the background, please note that depending on the number of entries in your database and the speed of the connection, this could take several minutes to complete.
Joining a Group
Note: When joining a group a potentially large amount of data will need to be downloaded initially. This can be extremely slow (and costly) if you are using only a mobile data connection. A WIFI internet connection is recommended for best performance.
To join an existing group, fill in the Group Name and Password fields on the Syncing page first, then tap "Join Group". (Make sure you are connected to the internet before filling in the group information otherwise Prep & Pantry will not allow you to continue.)
First you will be presented the option to either Use the Group Data, Merge the Data, or Cancel.
- Using the Group Data will remove ALL of your current inventory data before downloading the group inventory data. This means that everything including any Tags, Locations, or items in the Cart List will be overwritten with the group data.
- Merging the Data will do just that, it will combine both the group data and your current device data. If there is any duplicate data, that data will then show up twice. For example if you have "Acme Beans" in your inventory and the group inventory also has "Acme Beans" the combined list will now have two entries of Acme Beans.
Prep & Pantry will check the internet connection then contact the server. If the provided information is correct you will be joined to the group and the group inventory data will start downloading and syncing to your device. A counter will appear on the screen and show you the syncing status.
Please note that depending on the number of entries in your database and the speed of the connection, this could take several minutes to complete.
Resetting the Password
Tap Reset Password located in the bottom right corner of the Syncing page. Resetting the password is a three step process.
- First fill in the Group Name field and tap "Get Reset Code". Prep & Pantry will look-up the email address that was entered when the group was created and send a RESET CODE to that address.
- Second, after receiving the reset code at the designated email address, copy or write down the 10 digit alphanumeric code, you will need to provide this in the final step.
- Finally, from the Get Reset Code page, tap the "I have a reset code already" button.
Enter the Group Name, the 10 digit reset code you just received, and the new password. Tap the "Reset Password" button when each field has been filled in. Prep & Pantry will reconfirm the group name with the reset code and then resets the password. A completion screen will appear when the reset finishes successfully.
Remember, if an email address was not provided during the initial group creation, the password reset cannot be accomplished. There is no work-around for this. Tech support cannot bypass this requirement.
Add non-barcode items
A common misconception has been that a barcode is required for every entry. Each item does require a unique identifier; this is how the database filing system works, however, there are several options for identifying an entry. For items that do not even have barcodes or if you prefer to catalog items by something other than a barcode, you can enter the item name or make up a unique identifier instead. You can track bananas if you want to! Later, you can look up the item by name, tag, barcode, OR that unique ID.
To enter an item without a barcode, tap on the 'enter barcode number' field. A keyboard will appear. Tap the 'No Barcode' button just above the keyboard. Prep & Pantry will create a new blank item and assign a unique identifier to it, automatically.
To enter an item using an ID you assign, tap the 'abc' button on the tool bar. You can now enter letters or numbers. Use "bananas" to track, well, bananas. This also works well for homemade meals that are individually frozen, bulk quantities that you individually package, canned goods, etc. "Single-Serv-Lasagna-1", "Chicken-qtrs", "Strawberries-pint-summer2010", "Canned-peaches-2011".
Tip: On the bulk items that you individually package mark the ID you assigned as well as the Use By date i.e. "Single-Serve-Lasagna, Use by 23-March-2013".
To add or remove an item without having to enter a barcode or item ID, tap the spyglass icon at the top right corner of the screen (Either the green Add Item screen or the red Remove Item screen). From there you can scroll to the desired item or search for an item by it's name, tag, barcode, or unique ID. This works for both adding and removing Items.
Automatic UPC Lookup
Prep & Pantry uses a dedicated online database of over 1 million items encompassing a wide variety of international products using the EAN-13, UPC-A, and UPC-E barcodes!
Something You Should Know When Enter an Item Manually
Make sure that when you enter an item barcode manually that you include those numbers "outside" the barcode. In the UPC-A example above that would be the zero to the left of the barcode and the seven to the right. Also, no spaces. The number you enter should appear similar to one the blue numbers in the barcode example above.
Enabling Automatic UPC Lookup
Every time you scan or manually enter a barcode you will see one of three messages -"Success!", "Item not found", or "Barcode is not UPC/EAN". If you are not seeing one of these messages and you have a working internet connection, it means that the Automatic UPC Lookup is not enabled.
Automatic UPC lookup is enabled by default, but if you recently upgraded versions and it doesn't seem to be working, you should double check the settings. Go to the Settings tab> UPC Lookup. Even if the switch shows ON, tap it once to OFF, then once again back to ON. Occasionally on version upgrades the automatic setting doesn't fully engage and doing this resets it.
Every Item I Scan Returns "Item not found"!
While the database does contain over 1M items, it is not all food items. Nor is it guaranteed that
every item you scan will be found. Sometimes it will seem as though "nothing" is being found. There are gaps in the database but there IS better product coverage for more countries than any of the other databases researched.
The intention is that this database is a good starting point to grow from, for everyone. The goal is, with the upcoming Prep & Pantry version 2.1, to do what is called "crowdsourcing". This is where we all will have an opportunity to help each other out. In v2.1 there will be the option to submit items to the database that were not found with the automatic lookup. It is expected that those gaps will be filled quickly with this approach and the information will be acutely relevant to the users or Prep & Pantry.
Barcodes and scanning, hints and tips!
Prep & Pantry currently recognizes EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, and UPC-E formats.
Make sure there is plenty of light as lighting is very important. Distance should be about 3 to 5 inches. Sometimes it might be necessary to shake your device to force the camera to wake and focus. Give it a moment for the auto focus to finish and recognize the barcode.
The fixed focus camera of the iPod Touch 4G requires a slightly different "touch" from the iPhone. Lighting is very important. Bright, even lighting with no glare spots on the barcode. Hold the camera approximately 6 inches from the barcode to be read. A couple of different methods some of Prep & Pantry users have found to work very well - Holding the iPod Touch horizontally with the home button to the right and then placing the barcode in the upper right hand corner of the view screen. For those stubborn barcodes, try rotating the camera 90 degrees (turning from portrait to landscape) during the scan, often the camera will recognize the barcode instantly.
Prep & Pantry's barcode scanning is optimized to work with iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, the iPad 2 and the new iPad. [Please note: It has been found that some iPad 2's are not compatible with Prep & Pantry's scanning feature. This has been most apparent with the early production iPad 2, while the current production iPad 2 appears to work just fine. If you are concerned about Prep & Pantry working with your iPad, please download the "Lite" version from Apple. It's free to download and free to try!]
Prep & Pantry will work with handheld bluetooth scanners that support Bluetooth HID. Here are a few of the known supported scanners:
- Socket Bluetooth CHS 7Xi / 7XiRx
- KDC200i Laser Barcode Data Collector
- KDC300i Imager Barcode Data Collector
- Opticon OPN-2002 Bluetooth Barcode Memory Scanner
Why is there a red bubble on my icon?
That little red bubble is called an icon badge. If you go to the Settings tab> View Options > Icon Badge Options you can configure what that badge represents or simply turn it off.
For the desktop icon, you have three choices. 1) Show the number of Expired Items in your inventory. 2) Show the number of items on your Shopping List. 3) Off.
Those icon badges on the tabs in Prep & Pantry work similarly. The badge next to the List tab icon shows you the number of Expired Items in your inventory. The badge next to the Cart tab icon shows you the number of items on your Shopping List. If you go to the Settings tab> View Options > Icon Badge Options you can configure which badges you see.
What does that lightning bolt do?
This lightning bolt is called Zap! because it is an easy way to add additional items. You will find the Zap! button in several places. The bottom right corner of the Add Item, Add Existing, and Item Detail screens. Tap it and you can quickly add an additional quantity of the item you are currently viewing. Set the additional quantity, location, and expiration, tap Save and you are done! This works great for when you have several quantity of an item with differing expiration dates and/or locations. Try it, you'll see!
On the Cart Shopping List screen, Zap! is a quick way to add items to your shopping list. You can add items from your inventory or non-inventory items.
Help me manage my Shopping List!
Zap!
As you've read above, Zap! is a quick way to add items to your shopping list. Tap the icon and you will be presented with the options Add Inventory Item and Add non-Inventory Item.
- Select Add Inventory Item to be presented current and previous inventory items. Select the item to add and that item is added to the Shopping List. You may then select the item from the Shopping List to modify the quantity needed and/or the location. You will also be presented the current information for that item such as the current inventory count and locations.
- Select Add non-Inventory Item and you will given a very short form to fill out. Only the name is necessary, the other fields (location, quantity, notes) are optional.
Qm
You may have noticed when you add an item to your inventory, one of the optional fields is Qm. This is for setting the Minimum Quantity for an item and works as the trigger for when an item is added to the Shopping List.
- Set this to zero (to indicate no minimum) and this item will NOT automatically be added to the Shopping List.
Alternately, set Qm to a number greater than zero, for example 4. When you remove an item from your inventory and the total quantity on hand falls below your Qm, that amount is added to the Shopping List. So for our example, if your Total Quantity is 5 and you remove two, only one is added to the Shopping List because the Total Quantity is now 3, which is one below the Minimum Quantity of 4. This feature is disable by default, to enable it go to the Settings tab> Cart Options. There is an On/Off switch. Make sure the switch is in the OFF position then Qm will take over the job of putting items in the cart. - Some might want to add every item to the Shopping List when you use it. Go to the Settings tab> Cart Options. There is an On/Off switch here. Set it to ON. That's it! Now, each item you use will be added to the cart, one-for-one.
Clearing the List
There are two ways to remove items from the Shopping List.
Swipe the line to delete an item directly from the Shopping List.
Go to the Settings tab> Cart Options and select Clear Cart. This will remove all the items from the cart.
Email the List
Tap the Envelope icon located in the upper right corner and your shopping list will be inserted into an email message needing only an email address before sending it on it's way.
Why do I have to re-scan the items in my Cart?
aka Why do I have to re-scan an item on my shopping list to move it back into inventory?
There are actually several reasons for needing to scan an item back into the inventory, but it really comes down to having an accurate inventory.
- The item has a new expiration date.
- The manufacturer might have changed barcode numbers (it does happen!)
- You might have purchased a slightly different product from what was on the shopping list, purposely or by accident. (Lite Canned Peaches instead of Peaches in Heavy Syrup)
- What was the quantity purchased? (Only needed one but you bought three because it was on sale.)
What location is the item stored in? (Put one in the kitchen and those two extra will go in the pantry.) - Keep in mind that you will not need to re-enter the item's specific information. You do however need to confirm the item expiration date, location, and quantity.
For people that keep a super minimalist inventory (one item, one location, nothing with an expiration date), re-scanning the item is still super easy. Just scan the barcode and tap Done. Everything is filled in by default.
How do I manage my Tags?
Tagging is a powerfully versatile way to categorize and sort your inventory. With tags you can create very flexible lists and groups of items.
You can use tags to organize items by a commonality, like milk for example. There is evaporated, powdered, fresh, sweetened condensed milk, individual creamer servings, powdered creamer.
Some tags that might apply are: refrigerated, dry, canned, milk, sweetened condensed milk, long term storage, fresh, travel necessities, high turnover, family favorite, allergen, dairy, soy, vegetarian.
Use tags to group different brands together. There might be four different brands of sweetened condensed milk in your pantry on two different shelves with an extra can in the cabinet with the baking supplies. Tagging keeps them all together.
Creating and Managing Tags
You can create and manage your tags one of two ways. Through the Settings tab> Manage Tags or as you are entering items to your inventory.
As you are entering your items into inventory you add tags to an item by tapping the Tags row on the New Item screen. If you already have tags created, they will be presented to you. If you don't already have some tags created or you want to create a new tag, tap the "+" next to Add/Edit Tags. This takes you to the Manage Tags window. Here you can add or delete tags as well as re-order them.
Re-order them, why would I want to do that you ask? You might want to group your tags or put them in a particular order.
- Group common tags together to find them quickly like First Aid items. For example you might want to organize your supplies by gauze, bandage, splint, ointment, pain reliever, etc.
- Keep your most commonly used tags at the top or the end of the tag list if you prefer.
Organize and Re-order the Tags
- From either of the Manage Tags screens tap the "Edit" button in the top right.
- This will bring up a screen with red icons to the left of the tags and an icon that looks like a small stack of three lines on the right.
- Tap the three-line icon and hold it. The Tag you've selected will become active (when active, it appears to be slightly above the other Tags).
- Drag the Tag to the position in the list you want it to have and let it go.
- Click "done" in the top right and your tags will be reordered.
Viewing Tagged Items
There are two ways to view tagged items. Entering the tag name into the Search Bar at the top of the A-Z List view or by selecting Tags from the view options on the List tab.
Selecting the Tags view will present you with your list of tags in the order you defined. Select a Tag to view all the items with that tag assigned.
The View Options.
Prep & Pantry provides several options for customizing how information is presented.
List View Options
In the A-Z List view you can show a thumbnail image of the item next to the item information as well as view the first line of an item's description.
In addition to increasing the amount of information displayed on the list, disabling the thumbnail images will allow the list to display more quickly.
Disable the description row. When there are only two lines of information, more information is able to be displayed on a small screen such as the iPhone versus the large screen of the iPad.
Date Format Options
Prep & Pantry provides eight different date viewing options! Pick the date view that is easiest for you to work with.
- Month-Year • 7-2012
- Day-Month-Year • 4-7-2012
- Month-Day-Year • 7-4-2012
- Year-Month-Day • 2012-7-4
- Month-Year • July-2012
- Day-Month-Year • 4-July-2012
- Month-Day-Year • July-4-2012
- Year-Month-Day • 2012-July-4
Icon Badge Options
The icon badges on the Home icon, the List tab icon, and the Cart tab icon are configurable. Refer to the section Why is there a red bubble on my icon? for details.
How do I delete items?
Items are never deleted, just removed from inventory. When an item's quantity reaches zero it is removed from the main lists. If you want to see a list of items regardless of quantity go to the Cart tab> Zap!> Add Inventory Item. You will be presented a list of every item that is or ever was in your inventory and conveniently, a single tap will add that item to your Shopping List.
If you truly wish to remove an item because you will never use it again or you made a mistake entering the barcode you need to wait for one of the upcoming releases of Prep & Pantry. Several "Power User" features are planned, one of which will be the ability to permanently delete items from inventory database.
Remember, the only field that cannot be edited at this time is the barcode. A mistakenly edited barcode can really mess up the database, so it is restricted. With that said, any other field CAN be edited. If you make a mistake you can fix it, unless it's the barcode that was mistakenly entered. If that's the case, just set the item's quantity to zero, it will disappear from view and you start over with the correct barcode.
Change the Location, Expiration, Quantity
In the inventory there is the item, then there is the subset of that item consisting of an item's Location, Expiration and Quantity. In short this is referred to as LEQ.
An item's LEQ is found on the Item Detail screen reached through any of the view options on the List tab. Using view A-Z for an example,find the item in the list view by either scrolling to the item's list location or by entering the name or tag in the search bar. Select the item and the Item Detail screen is presented. Below the item details is the LEQ section. From here there are two ways to modify the items LEQ.
Tap to edit the LEQ
Tap the line you wish to modify to show the Edit LEQ screen.
To change the expiration date for this subset of items tap the expiration date row.
To move items from one location to another tap the location row.
To change the quantity tap the quantity row.
To move a partial amount of items from one location to another, set the quantity row to the quantity you wish to move to the new location then set the desired location.
IMPORTANT! If you change the expiration date AND the quantity, you are then editing the item information NOT moving items. Changing the location is the trigger that tells Prep & Pantry that you want to edit an item, not move it.
Swipe to delete the LEQ
Swipe to delete will remove the sub items listed quickly. In the above example, there is only one item that expires on 24 Feb 2014 at the Home location. This will be completely removed and the total quantity (Qt) updated accordingly.
The straight forward Privacy Policy
- Prep & Pantry does NOT collect any personal data.
- Your inventory data is NOT shared with anyone else.
- Yes, when you create your sync group you are asked to OPTIONALLY provide an email address ONLY if you want to be able to reset your sync group password. This email address is NOT shared with anyone in any way.
- Your sync group name is as anonymous as you want it to be. The sync group password is stored in an encrypted form and Galaloo LLC has no means by which to decrypt it. If you forget your password and you opted out of providing your email address, Galaloo LLC cannot recover it.
- Location data is NOT collected.
- Your device's UUID is NOT collected or even looked at by Prep & Pantry.
Here it is in legalese: TRUSTe Prep & Pantry Privacy Policy