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Calculating Actual usage is essential for proper management of your operation. It answer this question: what did it cost me to run my operation during this period. You may think it’s just your invoices, but that doesn’t tell you what you’ve used; only what you’ve purchased.
Here’s the calculation: Opening level + purchases – closing level.
If we find actual counts, we’ll use them. That makes it more accurate, so we suggest counting routinely, and running this report around those count dates.
We’ll look for a count starting the day *before* the report date, and up to the report closing date. The closing date becomes the opening date for the next report.
If we don’t find a count on the day before your report date (i.e., the close of the previous period), then we’ll calculate the on-hand for you.
Same with the last date of the report. If we don’t find a count on that date, then we’ll calculate the on-hand for you.
Ideally, you want to have counts at each end of the report, so we are reporting actual usage based on your *actual* levels, not the levels we assume based on your inventory fluctuations.
Usage is calculated by product, then presented by item.
The Actual Usage report will now show usage for each prep recipe as well. The prep recipe will appear in the actual usage report (the build amounts act like a purchase). Read more about Prep Build to understand this process.
Why do you see zero usage? If this is a new item and you do not take an opening count we assume zero. Then you may have invoices but no closing count. So we take the zero opening count plus the purchases and then, since there's no closing count we will assume you still have all your purchases on hand and thus you have not used any of your inventory. So you have zero usage!!