Do you "add" water to your recipies?

I have been using Beersmith for a few months and really like it.  What I am wondering is if it is necessary to add water as an ingredient to the recipies?  I am an extract brewer and obviously I am using about 4 gallons of water per 5 gallon batch of beer and I am wondering if I need to add this amount to my recipies (currently I just add malt, hops, yeast, etc.) or if the program makes assumptions based on batch size.  Hopefully this makes sence.  I am not asking about the actually production of the beer but about tracking the production of the beer in Beersmith.

Mike

Hi Mike,
I am not an extract brewer, however I think you will find that once you have set up your equipement settings within beersmith and filled in your Options settings under  the "Tools" tab including your "batch Size" eg.  23lt ect, then Beersmith will calculate how much water is required at the start of your brewday, you will not have to enter the water quantity yourself.
Make sure you select "Extract" in the recipe view drop down menu and enter your recipe as usual and Beersmith will work out the rest.

Cheers
Andrew

So then to what benifit is it to add water as an ingredient in the session window?

Frugalbrewer, the add water button is used if you are "making" a specific water profile for your brew eg.burton water for a pale ale, you can  create the burton water using salt additions and then specify in your recipe how much of this water is to be used on your brewday, Beersmith then calculates how much, if any, normal tap water is required to make up the total volume for your session, and this is seen on the brewsheet.

Cheers
Andrew