The following tips will help you minimize variance between your ideal usage [Ideal usage is a measure of how much stock was theoretically used, based on what was sold (sales information from Terminal) and what sold items contained (the Item Contents defined in Menu Designer).] and actual usage that might be due to unrecorded waste or poor portion control. This preventable variance can contribute significantly to the variance shown in the Usage Variance report (see Interpret the Usage Variance Report).
Tips to Minimize Variance between Actual and Ideal Usage
1.Determine the exact weight of all ingredients in your recipes--enter this in Menu Designer, and remember to use the "prepared" weight, which means you subtract the weight of packaging and packing fluid.
2.Train staff on the importance of being consistent in their portioning and on the need to minimize waste, and reward them for meeting food cost targets. In order to control food costs with Inventory, portion control is a must. To help train staff, you can print ingredient weights on make tickets (see Print Recipes on Tickets).
3.Double-check that all needed custom conversions are accurate and are in place to convert between purchase units, stocking units, and usage units (the way you measure the ingredient when you use it in a recipe). See Units of Measure for more information on converting between UOMs.
4.In your menu, ensure you have entered topping matrixes A Topping Matrix uses a table that lists the amount of modifier to use for each menu item size. It further adjusts this amount based on how many modifiers are already included in the item. for all toppings (see Add Topping Matrixes in the Menu Designer Help).
5.To catch errors caused by missing topping matrixes, on the Menu Designer root Units of Measure tab, choose an "Each" Unit that does not have a conversion to your normal topping UOM (for example, choose "unknown" if your toppings are in ounces).
6.On the make table, weigh high-cost items like cheese, instead of using scoops or handfuls. Scoops are not accurate for goods that may compact.
7.If you use ingredients by the slice, strive for consistent slice thickness, and use the same product in recipes whenever possible (for example, the same size and type of pepperoni log).
8.Collect food spilled on the counter and floor, and trimmings (like vegetable peelings) and weigh them. This is especially important for high-value items like cheese and meats. Post an adjust for waste batch to account for this food in SpeedLine Inventory. See Adjust and Transfer Stock for how to post an adjust batch.
9.Account for any menu items that are dropped or burned, and then remade, by adding the item again in Terminal and then voiding it and selecting "made" when prompted. To set up void prompts for Inventory, see Set Void Options.
10.Always account for free food given to customers or staff by creating a ticket and either applying a manual discount of 100%, or applying a "staff discount" coupon.
11.If you are tracking stock levels of condiment packets, cleaning supplies, or other stock items that are not included in the item contents of your menu items, turn on the Treat Count Transactions as Usage setting in the stock items' General tab. This will prevent inflated variance figures for these items.
12.Make sure soda fountain machines are set to the correct mixing ratio.
13.Prevent theft. See Loss Prevention Strategies.
See Also:
•Interpret the Usage Variance Report
