The Actual Food Cost Report is an excellent way to view a snapshot of your actual food cost usage across departments and subdepartments, helping to identify potential problems, such as: excess waste, over-ordering, potential theft, or counting issues.

Accessing the Report

To access the Actual Food Cost Report:

1. Click on the Menu icon in the top left corner.
2. Click on Food Cost.
3. Select Actual Food Cost.

Viewing the Report

1. Select the appropriate unit.
2. Select the countsheet type you wish to use to populate this report. Types include shift, daily, weekly, or monthly.
3. Choose the date range from and to dates. Please note: the “To Date” will always be one day prior to the date of the ending countsheet.
4. After making your selections, click Run to populate your report.

Actual Food Cost Detail

Actual Food Cost is determined by the percentage of total sales spent on food products. This is calculated by taking the starting inventory (the beginning countsheet), adding purchases (from invoices), and calculating usage based on the difference in ending inventory (ending countsheet).

Beginning count + Purchases – Ending count / Food sales = Actual Food Cost

Operators will use Actual Food Cost and compare it to the business’s operating budget. This will provide a target amount that will allow a profit. Store managers may have a target based on the operating budget.

View Totals By

You can easily view the details by the Department, Subdepartment, or Inventory Item level.

More… Hyperlink Options

To the right of the View Totals By dropdown, you’ll find a hyperlink with page shortcuts.

Show/Hide Departments

You can select which Departments and Subdepartments are displayed on the selected report. Click update report.

View Beginning Countsheet, View Ending Countsheet, and View Purchases

These are shortcut keys to allow quick access to the countsheets and the Purchase Analysis Report in the event that you need to troubleshoot. Clicking on a button will open a new page so you can easily toggle between.

1. View Beginning Countsheet will open the beginning countsheet used in the Actual Food Cost calculations.
2. View Ending Countsheet will open the ending countsheet used in the Actual Food Cost calculations.
3. View Purchases will pull up the Purchase Analysis Report, which displays all invoiced purchases received during the date range selected for the Variance Food Cost Report.

Interpreting the Actual Food Cost Report

To see detailed information pertaining to each grouping, simply click the + sign to the left of the desired Department or Subdepartment within the Actual Food Cost Report.

Larger View

Column Headers

Along the top of the report are columns that break down each component of the report. You can click on each column independently to sort details by ascending or descending order.

Larger View

• Department – The departments within your inventory.

• Subdepartment – The subdepartments within your inventory.

• Description – The names of your inventory items.

• UOM – Refers to the reporting unit of measure that was selected to view usage within food cost reporting (this selection can be changed within the Inventory Item window, for more instructions please view the guide for Food Cost Configuration – Configure Inventory – Inventory Items Tab).

• Beg # – The quantity of product counted on the beginning countsheet.

• Beg $ – The value of product from the beginning countsheet.

• Purchase # – The quantity of product purchased for the selected period.

• Purchase $ – The value of product purchased for the selected period.
• Trans In # – The total number of inventory received into the location from another for the selected period.
• Trans In $ – The total value of inventory received into the location from another for the selected period.
• Trans Out # – The total number of inventory transferred from the location for the selected period.
• Trans Out $ – The total value of inventory transferred from the location for the selected period.
• Beg # – The quantity of product counted on the ending countsheet.
• Beg $ – The value of product from the ending countsheet.

• Actual # – The quantity of product used.

• Actual $ – The value of product used based on purchases.

• Actual % – The value of the product used divided by the net sales (default comparison value).

• Waste # – The quantity of product added to Waste Countsheets. (NOTE: This quantity is for reference only, this total is not depleted from the Actual #)

• Waste $ – The value of product added to Waste Countsheets. (NOTE: This quantity is for reference only, this total is not depleted from the Actual $)

• Waste % – The value of the wasted product used divided by the net sales (default comparison value). (NOTE: This quantity is for reference only, this total is not depleted from the Actual %)

• Comparison Name – Refers to the comparison metric (by default the net sales comparison is used). 

• Comparison Sales – The value of the sales for the Comparison Name (by default the net sales comparison is used).

Food Cost Breakdown

The Food Cost Breakdown Report gives you an in-depth breakdown of the selected inventory item by the reporting unit of measure.  Simply double-click on the inventory item within the Variance Food Cost Detail Report. A tri-colored breakdown will appear showing the Actual, Ideal, and Variance Food Cost. 

Once you have identified the highest variance inventory items, you can double-click the inventory line item for a Food Cost Breakdown.

Here you will get a detailed breakdown of your actual, ideal, and variance details.

The Actual section shows how the Actual Food Cost is calculated for the selected item.

• Beginning On-Hand Count – The # and value of the selected inventory item counted in the beginning countsheets.

• Purchases – The # and value of the selected inventory item purchased between the beginning and ending countsheets.

• Transferred In – The # and value of the selected inventory item transferred to another location between the beginning and ending countsheets.

• Transferred Out – The # and value of the selected inventory item transferred to your location between the beginning and ending countsheets.

• Ending On-Hand Count – The # and value of the selected inventory item counted in the ending countsheets.

• Actual Usage – The calculated # and value of the selected inventory item used within the reporting period. 

Ideal shows how the Ideal Food Cost is being built for the selected inventory item by displaying each Menu Item that contains the selected inventory item and the quantity going into the recipe.

Note: Recipes must have been input in order to view this information.

• Menu Item – The menu item(s) that contain the selected inventory item in the recipe.

• # Sold – The quantity sold of each menu item (based on the Menu Items Sold report in QSR)

• # UOM in Recipe – The quantity of the selected inventory item in the recipe for the menu item.

• Total # UOM – The total quantity of the selected inventory item in the recipe multiplied by the # Sold.

• Cost – The value of the selected inventory item used in the recipe.

• Ideal Usage – The calculated totals of the Total # UOM and the Cost.

Variance will show the difference between the Actual and Ideal Food Cost. 

Note: Recipes must have been input in order to view this information.

• Actual Usage – The calculated totals of the Total # UOM and the Cost from the Actual section.
• Ideal Usage – The calculated totals of the Total # UOM and the Cost from the Ideal section.
• Variance Usage – The calculated totals of the Total # UOM and the Cost derived from subtracting the Ideal Usage from the Actual Usage.

Export Options

Once the report has generated, it can be exported by clicking “Export”.  

Choose the desired file format from the drop-down list.  The file format options included

• Microsoft Excel 2003 – 2007 (xls)
• Microsoft Excel 2010 (xlsx)
• Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf)
• Comma Separated Value (csv)

Click the desired file format.

The document will begin downloading to the computer.

Troubleshooting