Inventory Reports: Alerts Inventory Reports: Alerts Alert Reports grab your attention. They are the Reports that tell you that you need to investigate something, or take advantage of a situation. Alert Reports highlight issues that you need to take care of.
Usage Reports
The first three reports in the Alert Section are the Usage Reports. These Reports save you money by pointing out the discrepancies or variances in your usage. Use Usage Reports to watch for such problems as theft, incorrect portioning sizes, or incorrect recipe amounts. The Usage Variance Report details areas that you need to investigate. Print out the Report, and then start investigating. You need to double check adherence to recipes, especially quantities used, and serving sizes. You may also want to check spoilage and waste on perishable items. If one of those four areas cannot explain them, you will need to check for possible theft. For more information on the Usage Reports in the Alert Section, click here.
Purchase Alert Report
The final Report in the Alert section is the Purchase Alert. This report tracks changes in prices on Inventory Items from receipts and bids. This report will tell you what items have increased or decreased dramatically in price. To set the percentage which triggers the report, click here. This report works by comparing the current bid or receipt price with the last known price. If the percent difference is more or less than your target, the item will appear on this screen. The default is 20%, so CostGuard will highlight Inventory Items that have increased or decreased by that amount. You can use the select option to highlight certain Inventory Items as desired.
If you have items that you only buy occasionally, such as seasonal placemats,
they may appear on this report. You can use the select option to
filter those items out before running the report. Because the Purchase
Alert Report is dependant on a time period, you need to type in dates.
You can click one of the preset buttons for the reporting period.
Or, you can click the Custom button, which will activate the bottom Date
Range fields. Click the 
button, and
the calendar will appear. Highlight the date desired and hit the
enter button to accept. Just make sure that your ending date is
after your beginning date. Click next to continue to the Report.
Use this report to manage your purchases. Run it before you do your ordering. If an Inventory item has a dramatic increase in price, check with other vendors, or check for a possible substitute Where one ingredient is used in lieu of another. for the item. If an item has a dramatic decrease in price, consider stocking up on it, especially if you have the room, and can use it before it perishes. A related function in CostGuard is the Order Alert. When you are creating orders, this feature will show vendors that are cheaper on a particular item, before you order it. For more information, click here. The Shopping Cart feature will also highlight the lowest cost Vendor. For more information, click here.
Click here to return to the Inventory Report overview.
Click here to go to the next section of Reports, Recipe.
Click here to return to the first report screen.