Tips

If you purchase raw turkey breasts, and
roast them in your establishment, and then slice them for sandwiches, create a recipe that cooks your raw turkey breast and use the recipe as a basis for the sandwiches. It is easier to track this cooking shrinkage in Recipes instead of Inventory.

How CostGuard Calculates Shrinkage and AP/EP Calculations

How easy life in the kitchen would be if all ingredients came ready to use with no trimming, waste, shrinkage or expansion to worry about.  Since that is not the case, CostGuard helps you with these tedious calculations. 

 

AP (As Purchased) is how most items are bought, and that cost is what should be in the Cur Cost field on the main menu.  You need this cost there, as this is what you pay your vendors, and you need to prices your menu to reflect these costs.

 

EP (Edible Portion) is what you have left after you prep the item.  Some examples of AP/EP conversions include:

CostGuard calculates this as shrinkage. With the correct shrinkage percentage entered into the program, you can easily calculate how much to buy for a certain number of customers.  You can also use this information to cost out your recipes and menus accurately.  And, since CostGuard calculates shrinkage for each recipe unit, you can manipulate your usage.  For example, dicing fresh tomatoes means little waste, while slicing the same tomato would yield 60% usable product.  CostGuard allows you to set up several different units for the same item, each with their own shrinkage rate.  

If you need help calculating the Shrinkage rate, then click  icon at the bottom of the Unit Tab screen.  This will take you to an internet site with many of the most common conversion factors.  Also, you can information on an item case, a cookbook, your sales representative, or track before and after weights and measures based on your recipes.

 

To enter Shrinkage,

  1. Click Inventory, click Inventory Manager.  Highlight the item selected and click edit.

  2. Click on Units Tab.  Make sure you enter information in the Pack Units and Physical Inventory fields.

  3. If you did not do it before, type in your Recipe Unit for this ingredient.

  4. Move your cursor to the shrinkage field next to the Recipe Unit and type in the amount as a percentage.  Using the lettuce example above, 35/50 pounds equals 70% yield or 30% shrinkage.  For this example, you would type in 30, and the computer would do the rest.  Click the  to save.

  5. If an item expands in prepping, you will need to enter a percentage.  Using the pasta example from above 18/10 equals an 80% expansion of product.  Type in a 180 in the shrinkage field for the program to calculate the increase.  Click the  to save.