Create Key Item Recipes

Overview:

Full-blown recipes (all ingredients) for your menu items are not necessary to perform a theoretical versus actual usage analysis for your key inventory items (key inventory items being your most expensive or heavily used inventory items). All you need to do is to assign your key inventory items to the menu items (Sales Items in COGS-Well) that they are used in. 

COGS-Well provides a fast and easy way to assign key inventory items as an ingredient to multiple sales items. What makes this process even easier is that Sales Items are automatically created in COGS-Well via the interface with your POS system. 

Add an Ingredient to Multiple Sales Items:

To assign a key inventory item to multiple sales items as an ingredient, navigate to the Inventory Item Setup feature, select the item, and then select the Recipe Items tab for the item. Please see the example below: 

In the above example, we selected the "3-1 Round Beef Patty" as the inventory item, and then we selected the Recipe Items tab. The Recipe Item grid on this tab can be used to find sales items and then add the selected inventory item as an ingredient along with the quantity used in the sales item. In the above example, the 3-1 Round Patty has been added as an ingredient for three Burger sales items.   

If we want to add the 3-1 Round Beef Patty to other Sales Items, then we can use the "+" button on the top right of the grid to search and select other sales items. In the example below we are searching for other "burger" sales items: 

For this example, we will select the "Brie Burger" from the drop-down as a sales item to add the 3-1 Round Beef Patty to. Upon selection, the Brie Burger will be added to the grid where the recipe unit will default (but can be changed) and a quantity can be entered (the default quantity is "0"). Please see the example below:

The Unit Cost on this grid is the cost for a Recipe Unit. This cost will reflect the last purchase cost for the 3-1 Round Beef Patty. The Total Cost reflects the Quantity times the Unit Cost. Please click this link to Inventory Items - Assign Recipe Items if you would like added information.  

Inventory Usage Variance Report:

If inventory counts are entered for key inventory items, COGS-Well will calculate their actual usage (beginning count + purchases - ending count). The Actual Usage Report will provide this information. If key inventory items are assigned as ingredients for the sales items they are used in, COGS-Well will calculate their theoretical usage (# of times each sales item is sold X ingredient quantity in each sales item). The Usage Variance Report will compare actual to theoretical usage and determine a variance for each key item in quantity and in dollars (an example of the report is below):

Summary:

A common school of thought for restaurant operations is that 80% of your inventory cost comes from 20% of the items. COGS-Well makes creating "Key Item Recipes" incredibly easy because we automatically create all of your sales items and we have a unique feature for assigning an inventory to multiple sales items to make it fast and easy to do. The Item Usage Variance report above can be utilized to monitor usage variance on your key items after each inventory count. Please click this link for more information on the Usage Variance Report.