This guide covers how to perform daily variance counts, track key items, and analyze daily variance reports to enhance cost control in your operations.
Key Steps in the Daily Variance Process
Identify Items to Focus On:
Go to the Ideals tab and find the Food Item Key Targets report. This report highlights the top 10 items with the most significant inventory losses or gains over the last six inventory cycles.
Use this report after completing troubleshooting and before starting a new cycle. You can also view the report for past cycles using the View Past Cycle option on the sidebar.
Select five key items from this report to focus on for daily counts. Focusing on fewer items ensures a more concentrated effort in managing variances.
Activate Daily Variance Count Items:
Navigate to the Maintenance tab, click More, and select Daily Items.
Activate the items you want to count daily. You can also deactivate items when needed.
Conduct Daily Counts:
Go to the Counts tab to print a daily count worksheet:
Click on Print Worksheets, select Daily Count, choose the closing day, and print the sheet.
Use this worksheet to record store-wide counts for the selected items.
After counting, return to the Counts tab and click on Edit Count to enter your data:
Select Daily Count, choose the closing day, and input the end-of-day counts for each item.
The system will advance you through each item until all counts are entered.
Generate the Daily Variance Report:
After entering counts for at least two days, click Exit Edit Count and go to the Reports section.
Click Daily Variances, and choose New Report to generate a fresh daily variance report.
Select the date range. While you can run reports for a single day or multiple days, it's recommended to run reports each morning for the previous day’s data as well as a week-to-date view.
Understanding the Daily Variance Report
The report displays critical information such as beginning count, purchases, ending count, and quantity used, compared against the quantity sold.
The difference between quantity used and quantity sold reveals your loss/gain (variance):
A negative variance indicates using more product than sold (loss).
A positive variance indicates selling more product than used (gain).
The final columns display the item price, the variance in dollar terms, and the efficiency rating as a percentage (100% means using the exact amount sold).
Quick Recap of Daily Variance Steps
Use the Food Item Key Targets report to select items for daily variance tracking.
Activate or deactivate daily items under the Maintenance tab.
Print a Daily Count Worksheet from the Counts tab and record your end-of-day counts.
Enter the counts by selecting Edit Counts and choosing the correct date.
Generate a Daily Variance Report after entering two days of data.
Additional Tips
Timing Matters: Conduct your counts at night, but generate the variance report the next morning after your product mix data has been updated by your POS system.
Support Available: If you have any questions or need assistance, reach out to the Express Help Desk for live guidance.