Tips
You are in business to make money - or for our non-profit establishments, for your costs not to exceed proceeds. Inventory is what you buy, Recipe transforms it, and Sales makes sure you get the money for it.
There is a very important relationship between Sales and Inventory in CostGuard. Sales depletes – or “gets rid of” the Inventory items on your shelves. Taking the time to connect your Inventory – Recipe – Sales modules and use them to save you money in the long run.
In most cases, with a Sale you receive money for an Inventory Item that you transformed via a Recipe. CostGuard uses the dollar amounts received to calculate Food Cost and Food Cost Percentages. CostGuard also uses the number of each item sold to calculate Ideal Usage – or how much should have been used for this recipe. Later, when you enter in an Actual Count, CostGuard can generate a report detailing problem areas. Suppose you ordered 5 cases of inside rounds during the week. CostGuard’s Ideal Usage Reports will indicate that 2 cases were used based on the Sales Data. If you go into the freezer and find only 1 case: you have an issue as a manager that needs investigation and resolution.
Skipping entering the Sales data weakens significantly these tools. If your Inventory Items are in CostGuard a few minutes of entering in the Sales Data will give you access to these tools. Using the example above, you would need extensive hand or spreadsheet perpetual inventory paperwork to catch that two cases are missing. Yet, by entering in the Sales Data, CostGuard will quickly catch the problem and you can take corrective action to find the missing product – or account for it.
Since CostGuard is so flexible with the programming, you can modify the Sales – Inventory relationship to meet your operational requirements. You can create a “Standard Special” recipe that tracks the main ingredient – beef, chicken, or pork that your chef chooses for the nightly special. It is easy to add the main ingredient in, right before importing the Sales Data. You can also track the high-ticket items such as liquor that would cost you the most money if they go missing. Using all of CostGuard’s features makes it easy to find the missing Inventory Items.
If you do not use the Sales Function, then you need to enter physical counts on a regular basis to account for your inventory. Counts will update Inventory on hand, but cannot generate Food Cost and Food Cost Percentages. Adjustments can also deplete Inventory, but again, with no offsetting dollars, you do not have any idea if the items were sold or stolen.
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