Summary
Your COGs reports are a comprehensive overview of your cost of goods reporting that allows you to track and analyse your financial performance.
You can find your COGs reports by going to Reports > COGs
Why Track Your COGS?
Simply put, your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is how much you spend on ingredients and products to make what you sell.
Think of it this way: if you sell a coffee for £3 but the milk, beans, and cup cost £1.50, then your COGS is £1.50. The lower your COGS, the more profit you keep.
Tracking your COGS weekly helps you:
Spot waste before it kills your profits
Price items correctly so you're not losing money on every sale
Order smarter to avoid over-buying or running out
Catch problems early like portion sizes creeping up or ingredients going missing
This dashboard shows you exactly where your money is going, so you can fix problems fast and keep more profit in your pocket
Reports Overview
You can find your COGs reports by going to Reports > COGs. It contains three sub-reports.
Consolidated - Multi-site comparison
Single Site - Deep dive into one location
Variance - Product-level analysis
Universal Controls:
Date Selector: Choose your review period
Site Selector: View specific sites or all sites (where available)
Download: Export reports to CSV
COGs Reports Explained
Consolidated
Perfect for multi-site operators to compare performance across locations and identify variance outliers.
Note: You can choose any date range in the selector, the report will show data between the earliest and latest submitted stocktake within the selected date range.
Metrics
Field Name | Explainer |
Net Sales | The Net Sales per site |
Actual Cost | Actual cost of goods per site |
Actual % | Actual costs as % of sales |
Theoretical Cost | Expected cost based on recipes |
Theoretical % | Theoretical costs as % of sales |
Var Cost | Cost difference (Actual - Theoretical) |
Var % | Percentage variance |
Opening ST | The opening stocktake within the date range selected |
Closing ST | The closing stocktake within the date range selected |
Single Site
Deep dive into individual location performance with category-level P&L breakdown. You can view the time periods between submitted stocktakes.
Metrics
Total Net Sales: Your revenue for the period
Theoretical: What you should have spent based on sales and recipes
Actual COGS: What you actually spent, calculated as:
✏️ (Opening Stock + Purchases + Transfers In - Transfers Out - Waste) - Closing Stock = Actual Usage
A large gap between Theoretical and Actual COGS often indicates waste issues, incorrect recipes, or POS Item Matching problems.
If you're unable to identify the issue yourself, please get in touch with our support team via LiveChat who will be able to assist you.
COGS Breakdown (Class level)
View performance by Class including opening/closing stock, purchases, transfers, COGS percentage, gross margins, and sales.
To see the products or recipes that contribute towards these figures use the Variances report which shows the Class of every item.
Note: COGS only calculates for classes with recorded sales. Items like cleaning products may show as 0.
Sales recorded for 'unassigned' Class are either sales for POS Items which have not yet been matched to a Product/Recipe and so a Class cannot be determined. Or, the related products do not have a Class set.
Changing a Product or Recipes Class
If you change the Class assigned to a product or recipe (e.g., from "Food" to "Beverage"), it affects how costs appear in your COGS Breakdown.
What happens:
Submitted stocktakes: Don't update—they keep the original Class
Purchases and transfers: Update immediately to the new Class
Closing stocktake: Uses the new Class
Result: Costs are temporarily split between two Classes in your breakdown:
Opening stocktake shows costs under the original Class
Purchases, transfers, and closing stocktake show costs under the new Class
When it resolves: After two complete stocktakes with the new Class, all costs will appear under the new Class only.
Metrics
Field Name | Explainer |
Opening Stocktake | Total starting stock value for the category. |
Purchases & Transfers | Total new stock value added/transferred during the week. |
Closing Stocktake | Total remaining stock value at the end of the time period |
COGS (£) | Total calculated cost of goods sold for the class |
COGS (%) | Total cost of goods sold as a percentage of net sales for the category |
Gross Margin (%) | The profitability of the category |
Sales | The total revenue generated by the category |
💡 Why is my Actual Cost different in my Consolidated COGs report to my Single Site COGs report?
The Consolidated COGs report does not include Waste in its actual cost calculation.
In the Single Site COGs report we include Waste by default.
This means the Actual Cost may be slightly different between the two reports.
You can use the include waste toggle to exclude Waste from the Single Site COGs if required.
Variance
Using this report you can identify which specific products are over or under-performing. You'll be shown your top ten variances at the top of the page, click into a variance to see all data points.
Understanding Variances:
Negative variance (-): Using less than expected (check stocktakes, incorrect recipes)
Positive variance : Using more than expected (check for waste, spillage, over-portioning)
Note: "All Sites" view not available for variance reports. Use the site selector in top left to choose which site to view data for.
Metrics
Field Name | Explainer |
Product Name | The Line Level Item, such as "2L Whole Milk" or "Roasted Coffee Beans." |
Product Class | Categories - ie. Beverage, Food, Retail, and Other. |
Pack Type | The type of packaging the product is ordered by (ie. bottle, carton, case) |
Theoretical Usage | The amount of the product that should have been used based on your sales (dictated by the linked recipe/product created in Edify). |
Theoretical Cost | The expected cost of the theoretical usage |
Waste | The amount of the product that was discarded or spoiled during the period. |
Transfers | Tracks any stock that was moved to another site. Find out more here about how transfers are reported in COGs based on sent date. |
Purchases | The amount of the product ordered and received during the reporting period. |
Inventory Start | The quantity of the product in stock at the beginning of the period. |
Inventory End | The quantity of the product remaining in stock at the end of the period. |
Inventory Change (%): | The difference between your last two stocktakes. |
Actual Usage | The amount of the product that was actually used during the period, based on what you purchased, counted in your stocktakes and wasted. |
Actual Cost | The real cost incurred based on the actual usage. |
Variance: | The difference between theoretical and actual usage. A positive variance (+%) indicates overuse (possibly due to unlogged waste, spillages, or over-portioning). A negative variance (-%) suggests underuse (potentia |
Variance Cost (£) | This outlines the financial impact of the variance, showing how much extra the overuse or underuse has cost you. |
Understanding Sub-Recipe Variances
How sub-recipes appear in the variance table
Sub-recipe rows will display any recorded stock movement — opening and closing stock, waste, and transfers of the recipe itself — but the sub-recipe Actual Usage and variance columns are always blank. This is by design: variance is only meaningful at the ingredient level.
Actual Usage:
Any stock movements recorded against a sub-recipe are automatically broken down to their raw ingredients - This movement is reflected in each component ingredient's Actual Usage value, instead of on the sub-recipe row itself.
If sub-recipes are nested within other sub-recipes, the breakdown traces through all levels.
Theoretical Usage:
Theoretical usage is logged against a sub-recipe's component ingredients — not the sub-recipe itself. This means sub-recipe rows will never show a theoretical cost in the variance table — it's already accounted for at the ingredient level.
Example
If you sell a Bacon Sandwich that contains a sub-recipe of Mayonnaise Sauce (which uses Eggs), the theoretical usage will appear against Bacon, Bread, and Eggs in the variance report — not against the Bacon Sandwich or the Mayonnaise Sauce.
Viewing the breakdown
To see exactly how a sub-recipe movement has affected an ingredient, click the Actual Usage figure for that ingredient in the COGs Variance table. The popup will show:
Direct Stock Movement — the raw change in ingredient stock
(opening + purchases + transfers in − transfers out − waste − closing)Indirect Usage — any impact from sub-recipe stock changes, waste, or transfers, labelled by sub-recipe and movement type
Total Actual Usage — the sum of both
Troubleshooting Variances
When you spot unusual variances, check these in order:
Recipe Accuracy: Is your recipe built correctly? Click "Theoretical Usage" to verify correct quantities and units
Stocktake Accuracy: Were opening/closing counts correct?
Purchase Records: Are all deliveries recorded with correct dates?
Waste & Transfers: Are all movements properly logged?
Excluding Items from COGs Calculations
Clean up your COGs reports by excluding items that don't have theoretical usage (like cleaning products):
For Products:
Go to Supplier & Products > Suppliers > Products
Click Edit on the product
Tick Exclude from COGS calculations
For Recipes:
Go to Menu & Recipes > Edit
Tick Exclude from COGS calculations
These items will no longer be used within calculations throughout the COGs Dashboard.
Report | Impact |
Consolidated COGs | Any Products or Recipes that are excluded will not be included in the 'Actual Cost' or 'Theoretical Cost' and so will not be calculated as part of the %s. |
Single Site COGs | The total 'Theoretical' and 'Actual' figures shown exclude all Products and Recipes which have been excluded. |
COGs Breakdown | Even if a Product or Recipe has been excluded we will show the recorded costs for this in the following columns:
However, the cost of the excluded Product or Recipe will not be included in the 'Actual COGs' column; and so will not contribute to the 'Actual %'.
You can see what the Actual COGs would be if these products were included by hovering over the figure in the table. If a Class has no Products or Recipes excluded within it no figure will appear when you hover over Actual COGs. |
COGs Variance | Any Products or Recipes that are excluded are not shown within this report. |
💡 Note: if a Sub-recipe which is excluded from COGs is used within a Recipe which is not excluded from COGs the cost of the sub-recipe within the Recipe will be included in Theoretical and Actual costs, as well as the Actual COGs in the breakdown table.
Troubleshooting Exclusion Issues
If you are still seeing an Actual COGs value in the COGs Breakdown for a Class you believe you have fully excluded:
Check that all products and recipes within this Class do have 'Exclude from COGs' ticked
Check if any products or recipes which are not excluded from COGs have recently had their Class changed. See the above guidance for why this would impact the costs shown in the Breakdown Table.
Using Actual costs for Theoretical
Some products are consumed in your operations but can't be accurately measured per recipe. Common examples include:
Frying oil
Garnishes or condiments applied inconsistently
For these items, you can track them in your theoretical COGS by using their actual usage instead.
How to enable this:
Go to Supplier & Products > Suppliers > Products
Click Edit on the product
Tick "Use Actual use for Theoretical COGs"
What this does:
The product's actual usage (based on purchases, stocktakes, waste etc) will be counted in your theoretical costs
This ensures these necessary costs are reflected in your COGS tracking, even though they're not in recipes
You'll see a forward/back arrow symbol (⇄) next to these products in the COGS Variance report
⚠️ Important: Because actual and theoretical will always match for these products, they will show zero variance. This is expected behaviour.
Important Notes
Important Notes
Price Changes: Historical stocktakes won't change, but theoretical costs will update retroactively
Data Issues: If numbers don't look right after checking the above, contact support via LiveChat
Downloads: It's possible to download all reports into a CSV format, just click the orange download button
Default site: If you have a Home Site set on your Edify User profile you'll be shown this site by default on COGs