Read food, prime-cost, and margin-leak reports
Reports → Inventory reports → Costs. Choose Week, Month, or Quarter as
applicable and keep the same location/period when comparing related views.
Food Cost
Theoretical cost comes from recipe deductions. Actual cost includes
recorded waste, adjustments, staff meals, and comps. Review Summary, Items, and
COGS to understand the difference. The displayed COGS breakdown uses opening
inventory plus received purchases minus closing inventory.
A missing captured unit cost can withhold the report. Review supplier/opening
costs and the affected movements; do not fill an unknown cost with zero merely
to obtain a result. Check receipts, approved counts, and consumption records
before treating a variance as physical loss.
Prime Cost
The view combines food COGS and labour relative to net sales, with shift and
daily breakdowns. Labour can include estimated rates. Inspect missing recipe
cost coverage and completed sales before using the percentage. The shown
reference band is not a universal target or proof of profitability for this
restaurant; review its own staffing and cost plan.
Margin Leak
The view combines unexplained shrink, waste, and comps. If comps lack recipe
costs, the displayed figure is a lower bound. Completing recipes is different
from receiving stock or correcting a physical count.
Some consumption and discount events appear differently across cost views. Read
the displayed notes: a comp recorded through cancellation differs from one
applied as a discount on a paid bill. Avoid adding overlapping figures as though
they were independent losses.
If figures are missing or unexpected, preserve the period and review the
underlying records with the stock/shift lead. A failed load is not zero cost.
Escalate with location, period, item/recipe, coverage warning, expected source
movement, and exact error.