How do old invoices entered in prior periods impact completed counts and historical usage reports?
Counts are the primary source for on-hand data and override quantities from previous transactions. We never change the quantity you entered in a count. This applies only to quantities, not prices.
Invoices (and other transactions such as sales or waste) affect usage reports based on the transaction date, not the entry date. For example, entering an invoice today for a delivery received last month will reduce the variance in last month’s variance report. All reports are recalculated each time they are generated.
Do usage and inventory reports use historical costs or the most recent costs?
- Recipe costing uses the LIFO method, so recipes display ingredient costs based on the most recent invoice for that ingredient.
- Reports use historical pricing data. Prices reflect the date range of the report, not the moment the report is generated. You do not need to export reports to capture a snapshot in time.
Does timing of spillage or waste entries matter for usage reports?
No. Waste is tracked based on the transaction date, not the entry date. For example, if you enter a waste transaction today with a date in November, it will appear in reports for November 1–30.
How should I handle the same ingredient from different vendors?
If you have identical products from multiple vendors (e.g., tomatoes from Vendor 1 and Vendor 2), follow these steps:
- Add the most commonly ordered product to the real location.
- Add the less commonly ordered product to a ghost location.
- Turn on Initialize Zero Counts in the count options.
Staff will ignore ghost location sheets, and all tomatoes will be counted under the most common product. Reports consolidate products and display them as top-level ingredients, so reporting remains accurate.
Exception: If two identical products have significantly different prices and you cannot identify the vendor during counts—and this happens often enough to affect pricing—you may need to manually adjust the count sheet.
Before taking counts:
- Go to Menu > Counts > Products.
- Set Show Products Without Locations to ON.
- Add new products to the correct location or ghost location as needed.
How are products ordered in the count sheet?
Products appear in the order they were added to the count sheet. You can:
- Use the search bar at the top of each location to find products quickly.
- Manually reorder products while viewing the count sheet. This new order will persist for future counts.
- Note: Products added on the fly appear at the top of the sheet.
What if a product is counted under the wrong vendor?
That’s common. Reports consolidate products into their top-level ingredients, so reporting remains accurate.
Is there any type of WIP (Work in Progress) reporting?
Yes. The best practice is to create a prep recipe for each step stored long enough to be counted. Examples:
- Create prep recipes for:
- Chicken in Buttermilk
- Chicken in Flour
- Do not create prep recipes for:
- Diced onions added immediately to soup
- Create prep recipes for batch-prepared items:
- Baked apples for pies
WIP items are treated like normal prep recipes. They can be counted and reported on. To report separately, assign them to a different group or category.
Is there a way to discontinue ingredients or recipes?
There is no archive function, but you can:
- Merge duplicate ingredients: Menu > The Optimizer > Merge Ingredients.
This creates multiple products under one ingredient. - Note: Vendors cannot be automatically merged.
Is it possible to track labor?
Yes. Add the average cost of a labor hour as an ingredient in recipes. Allocate labor cost per recipe by including it as an ingredient.