Inventory changes don't take

I've had to correct my inventory so many times now that I'm about to stop using it.  I use it mainly for grains and hops so I know what I have "around" so I know what I can brew and what I need to buy.  The last time I brewed while waiting for the mash I noted and weighed the hops on hand.  I removed and corrected on hand hops.  Now today after dry hopping I noticed I should have had 3.5 ounces of Cascade on hand and I had just enough for the half ounce I needed.  I checked inventory and noticed it also had the Hallertau listed that I used up and subtracted during the correction.  Nothing was saved.  So now I have to do it again.  So frustrating.

Has anyone else had these problems?  Did you solve it?

I've had weird problems and starting using a spreadsheet instead. You can extract your inventory from beersmith as a csv file and import that into a spreadsheet. This allows to track which ingredients are tied to which planned recipe which has been immensely helpful in handling large inventories and ordering large quantities of ingredients in fewer shipments.

I suspect my problems may be tied to the way beersmith saves changes. For example I would change something in inventory, but not explicitly save the file. Then someone else would log on to the computer and shut it down without me getting a chance to save the changes.

There is a log file now I think of inventory changes, but I haven't looked into it yet.

Yeah there is no "save" button in inventory like there is in a recipe file.  I'm in the habit of hitting the save button every time I close a file.  I've lost all my notes from a brew day a couple of times, pre-boil gravity, OG, all of it gone.  It really makes you want to stop using the program and go to a log.  But... all those calculations...  The program is well worth the cost.  I guess it still has some hiccups.

I use inventory all the time and don't seem to have these issues. Exiting the inventory tab via the "close" button auto saves the data. If you click on the "X" above it, you exit without saving.

I have found that the database needs to be correctly formatted and utilized, though. Entering items via the inventory tab or the shopping list is the best way to be accurate. If you're entering items through the ingredients list, things get more dicey.

Here are some important things I've learned.

1) Make sure that each item has a unique name. BeerSmith makes errors when you have more than one "Pale Malt." I use a quick notation after each item to show the manufacturer. See the screenshot, below.

2) When you brew a recipe, make sure that you're actually using items in your inventory. If you don't see an inventory amount in the recipe that's equal or greater than needed, use the substitute button and find the correct inventory item. You'll get an error message when you're out of an item, as long as it's unique. You might not get an error if you have two identical items.

3) When entering an item into inventory, make sure it's in the same units as used in recipes. If you buy a pound of hops, enter it as 16 oz, and so on. If you use the "Add X" button, you can enter it as "1 lb" and it'll convert to ounces. If you just highlight the item in inventory, that conversion function doesn't work.

4) This frustrates me a lot; Don't enter the weights in the price field! I can't count the times I've added a bag of grain and suddenly I have just a few pounds, but it costs $50/lb!

I think one of the problems I had was that other Windows users would log on and subsequently shut the computer down. Beersmith might save the changes if shut down properly. But if I edit the inventory and leave the computer open on a brew day, it doesn't seem to end well.