MRO stands for maintenance, repair, and operations — the consumable supplies that keep your workshop running but never become part of the product itself. Cleaning supplies, disposable gloves, equipment lubricant, sandpaper, and packaging tape are all MRO.
MRO is worth tracking as a distinct inventory category because it is a genuine cost of doing business that is easy to overlook. It does not belong in a recipe — it is not an ingredient in any single product — but across a year it adds up, and leaving it out understates your true overhead.
Treating MRO as its own category keeps your recipe costs clean (only true ingredients flow into a product's cost) while still capturing the supporting spend, so your overall expense picture and tax reporting stay complete.
Related terms
Ingredient
A raw material or component purchased from vendors and used in recipes to produce finished goods. Examples: flour, beads, essential oils, fabric.
Packaging
Materials used to package your products for sale or shipping. Tracked as inventory so costs are included in your product pricing and COGS calculations.
Tax Category
An IRS Schedule C expense or income category used to classify transactions for tax reporting. Helps organize your financial data for end-of-year tax preparation.