Release Notes - Version 21.09.01

Overview:

Release 21.09.01 went live on October 25, 2021. This release includes several new feature updates, a new option to calculate suggested transfer request quantities, two new vendor interfaces, a new POS interface, and new features that expand our functionality for commissaries. 

• A Modifier Recipe item can now be linked to a "Parent Sales Item" for inclusion in menu analytics reports. 
• A new option for "Suggested Transfer Requests" quantities.  
• A new option on the Actual Usage Report to include negative usage items only. 
• Invoices can now be marked or unmarked as exported.
• An added field to display extended cost in Production Entry.
• A new API for interfacing recipe costs from COGS-Well to another system. 
• A new GoTab POS interface.
• A BiRite vendor interface.
• A Performance Food Group (PFG) vendor interface. 
• Multiple new features or options to expand our functionality for commissary control. 
  • Company settings to enable commissary features. 
  • An option to flag a Site as a Commissary Site.
  • Transfers of recipe items from a Commissary Site can convert to inventory items in the receiving Sites.
  • Transfers of recipe items (not produced) from a Commissary Site can update theoretical cost and usage at the Commissary.   
  • Transfers from a Commissary Site can be Marked Up for the receiving Site.  
  • Transfers from a Commissary Site can include Labor Costs in recipes items for the receiving Site.   
  • An Option to flag a recipe item as counted or not counted in a Commissary Site.
  • The Transfer Journal and Export features can now include markups and labor costs if utilized. 

More Detail:

More detailed explanations for some of the updates and enhancements listed above are provided below: 

Parent Sales Items: If you are importing modifiers from your POS and if you have built recipes for the modifiers, then the modifier recipe item can be linked to a "Parent Sales Item". To provide an example, let's say that you sell an item called "Traditional Breakfast" and it is set up as a sales item in your POS. You offer a choice of Bacon, Sausage, or Ham with the Traditional Breakfast, and these options are set up as Modifiers in your POS. You are also importing the sales for both the Traditional Breakfast and the Modifiers so they are all Recipe Items in COGS-Well.  You have also built recipes for each of these Recipe Items. 

COGS-Well will already calculate theoretical usage for all of the ingredients in the above example's Recipe Items correctly. This is because we receive a sales count for each of the modifier recipe items as well as the Traditional Breakfast from your POS. However, the Theoretical Cost of Sales, Theoretical Profit from Sales, and the Menu Engineering reports in COGS-Well will list the Traditional Breakfast, Bacon, Sausage, and Ham as separate items when they report. 

If you link the modifier recipe items to a Parent Sales Item (i.e. link Bacon, Sausage, and Ham recipes to the Traditional Breakfast sales item), then the Theoretical Cost, Profit, and Menu Engineering reports will add the theoretical costs for the modifier recipes into the Traditional Breakfast, and report only for the Traditional Breakfast. This will enable you to analyze a menu item while including the modifier options, and weighted for their popularity (transaction counts). If your modifier recipe items also have an upcharge, then the added price and total revenue will also be added to the Parent Sales Item for these reports.

Summary on Parent Sales Items: While Parent Sales Items provide a powerful way to increase theoretical cost and profit-related reporting, we realize this concept is complex. It is also dependent on the capability of your POS and how items in your POS have been set up. We, therefore, recommend that you contact us at support@cogs-well.com if you would like to learn more about Parent Sales Items.      

Suggested Transfer Requests and Suggested Production: COGS-Well already has an option for creating Suggested Orders and we have expanded this logic to work with Transfer Requests. Suggested Transfer Requests make sense to utilize when you are requesting a larger number of items from another site on a regular basis (a good example is a Site making regular transfer requests to a Commissary Site. The configuration for Suggested Transfer Requests uses the same "Suggested Quantity Type" feature that is utilized by Suggested Ordering. Please click this link to Suggested Quantity Types for more information.       

Actual Usage Report - Only Include Negative Usage Items: This report was created to make it easy for a manager or someone auditing inventory count entry or usage to quickly discover any items that likely have incorrect counts.  Selecting the option to include negative counts only will only report items that have a calculated negative usage. 

Change Export Status on Invoices: This feature is ONLY APPLICABLE to customers who are exporting invoices from COGS-Well to their accounts payable system. If an invoice was exported to accounts payable in error or you would like to correct information on an invoice that was exported, you can now flag that invoice as not exported on the Receipts Export display in Accounting>Receipts Export feature. You can also flag an unexported invoice as exported. An example is below:

A New API for Recipe Costs: We can now share recipe costs with another software system via an API. This will create the potential for the other system to call for recipe cost updates from COGS-Well at any time or on a programmed schedule without any configuration or export requirements in COGS-Well.  

Extended Production Cost: If you are entering Production into COGS-Well, the Production Entry grid now has an added column that displays the production cost for each entry. 

New Commissary Features: The new commissary features were added to provide the ability to: define a Commissary Site, Include labor costs in recipe item transfers, add "cost markups" to transfers, and calculate theoretical cost and usage for a Commissary Site when a recipe item that is not produced is transferred. Because transfer requests to a commissary are typically for multiple items (almost like ordering from a vendor), the new Suggested Order Types for Transfer Requests feature (described above) is applicable. The use of Commissary Features is optional so we made them configurable in Company Settings. Please click this FAQ link for a detailed overview of the new Commissary Features. 

1. Company settings to enable commissary features. 
2. An option to flag a Site as a Commissary Site.
3. Transfers of recipe items from a Commissary Site can convert to inventory items in the receiving Sites.
4. Transfers of recipe items (not produced) from a Commissary Site can update theoretical cost and usage at the Commissary.   
5. Transfers from a Commissary Site can be Marked Up for the receiving Site.  
6. Transfers from a Commissary Site can include Labor Costs in recipes items for the receiving Site.   
7. An Option to flag a recipe item as counted or not counted in a Commissary Site.
8. The Transfer Journal and Export features can now include markups and labor costs if utilized.