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Supplies
If you buy oil by the case and filters by the box, the cost of a service visit isn't what you spent that day — it's a slice of what you bought months ago. Supplies is a light inventory for the consumables you keep on the shelf: what you purchased, what you've used, what's left, and what it actually costs per unit.
It's deliberately small. This is not warehouse software — it tracks fluids, filters and parts on hand, nothing more.
A supply is a thing you stock, like "5W-30 Full Synthetic" or "FRAM PH7317 oil filter". Against it you record:
- Purchases — quantity and total cost, whenever you buy more
- Usage — quantity consumed, usually as part of a service visit
From those, MyGarage keeps a running On Hand quantity and an Average Unit Cost across everything you've bought. When you use some, the cost that lands on the service visit is drawn from that average — so an oil change is costed at what the oil really cost you, not at nothing.
- Go to Supplies in the top navigation
- Click Add Supply
- Fill in:
- Name (required) - e.g. "5W-30 Full Synthetic"
- Unit Type - Volume (oil, coolant) or Count (filters, wipers, plugs)
- Unit (volume only) - millilitres, litres, or fluid ounces, quarts or gallons (US or UK, following your gallon setting). The supply is shown in this unit everywhere. Changing it later doesn't change the amount on hand.
- Part Number and Category (optional). Category suggests the ones you already use, and you can type a new one
- Barcode (optional) - scan the UPC, EAN or QR off the packaging with your device camera, or type it in
- Vehicle - tie it to one vehicle, or leave it shared across all of them
- Click Create
Unit type is permanent. It can't be changed after the supply is created, because every purchase and usage recorded against it is interpreted in that unit. If you picked wrong, create a new supply.
Supplies are shared across the household — the catalog is not per-user.
Above the list:
- Search supplies... matches the name, part number, barcode, category and notes
- Filter by category (All categories), by vehicle (All vehicles, Shared or one vehicle) and Out of stock
- Sort by name, Lowest stock first or category; Group by category or vehicle; switch between Grid view and List view. Your browser remembers these.
A supply with nothing left carries an Out of stock chip.
Add a purchase whenever you buy stock: click Log Purchase on the supply's card (or View history, then Log Purchase), and enter the date, the quantity, and the total cost you paid. Optionally record the supplier, a part number and a receipt.
Each purchase feeds the average unit cost. Buying the same oil cheaper next time pulls the average down, and future usage is costed at the new average.
The point of the feature. While recording a service visit, add the supplies you consumed under the line item's Supplies Used (Add Supply, then the Quantity): two quarts of oil, one filter. MyGarage:
- Subtracts the quantity from On Hand
- Prices it from the current average unit cost
- Folds that cost into the service visit total
So the visit reflects the true cost of the work, including parts that came off your own shelf.
Each vehicle's Financial → Supplies tab shows what that vehicle has consumed over time.
On Hand is simply purchases minus usage. If you log more usage than you ever recorded buying, MyGarage flags it — "Logged usage exceeds recorded purchases" — rather than silently showing a negative figure.
That usually means a purchase was never entered. Add the missing purchase and the balance corrects itself.
Supplies you no longer stock can be archived rather than deleted, which keeps their history intact on the service visits that used them. To archive one, edit it and untick Active (uncheck to archive). Use Show Archived to see them again.
Delete removes a supply only if nothing was ever bought or used from it. A supply with any purchases or usage is archived instead.
Stock doesn't only leave through service visits — bottles get spilled, topped off between changes, or lent to a neighbour. An adjustment (Log Adjustment on the card or in the supply's history) records stock going out without tying it to a service visit, so On Hand stays honest.
Adjustments only take stock out. To correct an On Hand figure that is too low, add the purchase you missed rather than adjusting upward.
- Volume supplies are stored in litres internally and shown in the supply's own Unit. Small amounts keep their decimals: 3 mL of a litre supply reads 0.003 L, not 0.00.
- Share, don't duplicate. A supply left unassigned to a vehicle can be consumed by any of them — you don't need one "5W-30" per car.
- Enter purchases as you buy, not when you use them. The average unit cost is only as good as the purchase history behind it.
- Service Visits — where supplies get consumed
- Analytics — where the resulting costs show up