In a nutshell, a successful business is all about the numbers.

Are you making enough money to cover your costs, pay your staff, and pay yourself? Can you save on any costs to make a profit, or to reinvest in your business to remain competitive? Are you charging enough for each menu item? Can you change or nix menu items that your customers aren’t buying, and that lead to waste in your inventory?

The way to answer these critical questions and keep on top of your costs is with reporting, the useful set of metrics that tell you the what, why and where of every dollar in your business.

What is Restaurant Reporting?

Restaurant reporting is a detailed look at the numbers in your operation. Leaving no stone – or dish – unturned, a restaurant report drills down to each dollar you spend, save and waste, so you can make better decisions and more money.

Restaurant reports come in all shapes and sizes – if there is a question you have about an aspect of your business, chances are there’s a report to match.

And long gone are the days of paper or spreadsheet calculations to track and analyze your restaurant’s performance. Modern POS systems or restaurant inventory management software make reporting fast, automated and easy, so you can spend less time doing paperwork and more time running a successful business.

Why Reporting Matters to Restaurants

Guesswork and estimates are guaranteed to cost you money. The only way to gain real insight into your restaurant’s performance is with reporting.

Restaurant reporting offers you a precise way to track, monitor and analyze all your costs and profits. You can track your actual versus theoretical variances on all inventory items with total accuracy, find out if you are charging the right prices for each of your menu items, and calculate the expected yield of each prep and batch recipe for your kitchen and more.

Without reporting, there is a lot of room for costly errors and waste, from ordering too much inventory and overpaying for ingredients to charging the wrong price for your menu items and kitchen prep waste.

Like recipe and food costing and proper inventory management, reporting is a key business tool that all restaurant owners and managers need in order to stay on top of costs and profits and identify any hidden losses.

Essential Restaurant Reports

Restaurant Inventory Management Software like Optimum Control offers more than 70 different report types for the hospitality industry. Whether you’re running a lounge or bar, a hotel or casino, or a chain of restaurants, there are reports to analyze all the important aspects of your business.

Powerful reporting features allow you to choose the report you need, from organized categories, with just the click of a button. You can filter your reports to see just the information you want and need to see, and export your reports to many popular file formats.

Read on for an overview of 5 of our most popular reports – all included in every easy-to-use, complete Optimum Control software product.

Profit and Loss

For any time period of your choosing – daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly etc. – you can get exact numbers for your gross sales, costs and expenses and see your total net income. No more guesswork: this key sales report will tell you if you’re running at a profit or a loss, at any point in time.

Usage Summary

Get the actual versus theoretical usage on every item in your inventory. This essential report will tell you where food and ingredients are being wasted, and money lost, on your entire inventory – one of the best ways to eliminate costly errors in your kitchen.

Menu Engineering Worksheet

Analyze the profitability and popularity of all your menu items so you can adjust your prices or menu as needed to better reflect what your customers want, and the price you need to charge to cover your costs and make a profit.

Inventory Items and Purchase Summaries

Account for all of your stock – every food and beverage item you’ve purchased – and keep track of what was purchased from which supplier, when, and how much you paid for it. The foundation of good inventory control, this report will help ensure you are in control of your purchasing decisions and your restaurant inventory.

Invoice Report

An essential way to keep track of invoices and payments to all your suppliers, in one place, and accessible any time you need it. Filter your results to display each invoice grouped by supplier, along with the amount you have paid and amounts owing.

Of course, with more than 70 reports available, Optimum Control restaurant reporting also allows you to view, track and analyze even more details of your business, including bar code listings, daily waste summaries, monthly order sheets, credit card summaries, recipe prep details and so much more.

Restaurant Reporting Made Easy with Optimum Control

Optimum Control restaurant inventory management software, and our built-in reporting software, is used extensively by hundreds of food and beverage providers in North America and in more than 45 different countries around the world.

We help you get real-time data on your restaurant’s performance, and give you one place to store and access all your essential insight and reports.

You can choose to make your reports available to any user with our Reporting Privileges feature, and export, view and share your reports in your favourite format including Excel, PDF and CSV and many more.

In short, effective reporting and professional restaurant software saves you time, manages your inventory, and increases your profits – all benefits you enjoy with Optimum Control software products.

Connect with us today and book a free demo of our restaurant reporting features. Contact us to learn more about Optimum Control today!