Keeping a waste log can help your team control costs by identifying supply chain, process or portion issues with your products or recipes. Whether your product spoiled, was burnt, or seemed to have walked out the door, let’s log it! If you're on the fence, this post can offer more encouragement to get you tracking.
Recording Waste
This is done on an item-by-item basis, as you can select either products or recipes. And it can be done through the web app or through your mobile app!
1) Go to Inventory > Waste Log and click "Record waste"
Note that after you have recorded your first entry, you can also "Print Waste Log" if you want to have a paper option handy for staff use.
2) A box will pop up with a number of fields, the required ones are:
- Choose any date needed
- Search for and select any product or recipe from your unit's database
- Choose any reason from the drop down menu or provide your own under "Other"
(these options are not editable) - Enter a quantity and a unit of measure
PRO TIP: This list is consistent with what you have set up for how you count your inventory, so if you want to add other options, click here to learn how to add multiple count-bys.
The following fields are optional:
- It will default to show the "reporter" as whoever is logged in, but you can change this to anyone
- You can enter any name under "wasted by" (the, ahem, culprit) for the waste
- Include any pertinent notes for tracking or training
Click "Save and Close" if you are finished, or click "Save and Add Another" if you need to keep going!
Editing or Removing Records
At the end of each record row are two icons. Click the pen/paper icon on the left for editing, and click the trashcan on the right (that turns red to warn you when your mouse hovers over it!) to delete the record.
When editing, you can make edits to the "Reported/Wasted by", "Reason" and "Notes". If the product or quantity needs to change, then simply delete the record and re-enter a new one. Like other places in our software, the price is locked and is based on the most recent purchase price.
Recording Waste on Your Phone
All the same procedures apply! You will have all the same fields to fill in for recording each product or recipe.
To record waste in your mobile app, first go to the "More" menu in the bottom right corner, and click on "Waste Log".
On this screen, you can see past records of waste - the details are hidden by default, but you can click to expand one item, or expand them all to see the full scope of details. The view can also be filtered by waste reasons.
Click "Record Waste" to pop up the box to enter each item needed.
Same fields as described above are provided here. If you have multiple records to enter, use "Save and add another" button. When you are all finished, click "Done"!
Viewing your Waste
From Inventory > Waste Log, you can see all items summarized by date, and the wasted value totaled by date.
To expand to see all details for each day, click the small "+" sign on the left hand side.
From Inventory > Waste Summary, you can drill in a little bit more.
The first chart shows you the top offending reasons for waste. The second chart shows you the top offenders as defined by a dollar value. The date range is controlled by the date picker on the lower chart.
From the lower chart, you can change the date range, filter by the reason or use the search bar to try to find the specific information you desire. You also have an "Export" button to allow you to export as a CSV or PDF to review the information through other applications.
Is this Waste Showing up on my Performance Reporting?
There are two additional places to see your food waste - the Food Usage Report and Theoretical Usage Report. See below for details on each.
Food Usage Report
On the Food Usage Report, you will see three columns on the right hand side detailing any waste reported within the inventory dates selected. But they do not directly impact any other numbers on this report since we assume your ending inventory has already accounted for this waste - this is just supplementary information shown here for your convenience.
The waste numbers you see are calculated as shown below.
Theoretical Usage
On your "Actual vs. Theoretical" report (the default view for Theoretical Usage), you will see three columns on the right hand side detailing any waste reported within the inventory dates selected. But they do not directly impact any other numbers on this report since we assume your ending inventory has already accounted for this waste - this is just supplementary information shown here for your convenience.
The waste numbers you see are calculated the same way they are for the Food Usage Report (see above).
Theoretical On-hand
HOWEVER, if you change your Theoretical Usage report to show your "Theoretical On-hand" you will see the waste used in the calculations here. We are using a selected starting inventory and then factoring in waste alongside your purchases and sales to give you an estimate of what you should have on-hand.
When viewing a summary of a row, you can see the breakdown with the waste information.