Track Menu Item Cost Trends
Overview:
The Item Cost Trend Chart enables you to view the cost trend for an inventory item, combined item, or recipe item (sold or not sold), over a selected period of time. For recipe items, the cost trend for each ingredient is included. This report is a great way to see what ingredients contribute the most to the cost of recipe items and what ingredients have the biggest price fluctuations,
The Item Cost Trend Chart is accessed via Recipes & Sales>Reports>Item Cost Trends. An example of the Cost Trend Chart is below:
Select Another Item: Use this button to select a new Item to chart.
Number of Days: Use the drop-down to select a different number of days to look back. 60 days is the default.
Theoretical Cost (Vertical Axis): This is the theoretical recipe cost, based on its ingredient costs and portion sizes.
Time (Horizontal Axis): This is the earliest date (based on the number of days selected) on the left through the current date on right.
Total Cost: This is the blue line in the graph and it represents the total theoretical cost for this burger. In the above example, the theoretical cost of this burger has gone from under $2.50 to over $2.50, for the 60-day period displayed.
Other Colors: Each color in the bars of this chart represents the cost amount and the cost trend for a recipe ingredient in this burger. There will be a color code guide listing the color for each ingredient on the right of the chart. In the above example, you can see that the biggest portion of this burger's cost is coming from 3-1 Round Beef Patty ((approximately $1.15). Also using the above example, the cost for the 3-1 Round Beef Patty has been very stable while the cost of the 12/14 Daily Bacon has been more variable over the last 60 days.
Cost Source and Date: You can hover over a bar for a date, and over the color of an ingredient, and the chart will display the source and cost for the ingredient at that date.
Ingredient Sort on Cost Change: The chart sorts and lists the ingredients so that the ingredient with the most steady cost is displayed at the bottom and the ingredient with the most variation in cost at the top.
Ingredient Cost Detail: You can click on one of the bars, and in the color zone of a specific ingredient, and the chart will display the cost for a specific ingredient (Inventory or Recipe Item) over the same date range. In the below example, 12/14 Daily Bacon was selected:
