Skip to main content

​
Some background

Every product in Garde is coded to a Category. Multiple categories can map to the same GL account in your accounting system, so you can be as granular as you want in Garde without cluttering your chart of accounts. Each category belongs to a Category Type. Garde comes with seven defaults:
  • Food, Beer, Wine, Liquor, N/A Bev, Retail, Other
The category type determines where purchases land on your Controllable P&L. Anything typed as Food, Beer, Wine, Liquor, N/A Beverage, or Retail shows up under Cost of Goods Sold. Anything typed as “Other” goes to Expenses. COGS is calculated by comparing total purchases and inventory adjustments in a category type against total sales in that same type for a given period. For a deeper dive on how all these pieces fit together, see General Ledger Accounts, Categories, and Category Types.

​
Categories inferred from your accounting software

When you connect QuickBooks, Garde pulls in your chart of accounts and uses it to suggest category mappings automatically. If you’ve already organized your GL with accounts for things like Food, Beverage, and Supplies, Garde will pick up on that structure and map your categories accordingly. You’re not starting from scratch.

​
Default non-inventory categories

Garde also ships with a default list of non-inventory expense categories for the things restaurants commonly spend on but don’t count on shelves — utilities, fees, services, rent, insurance, repairs and maintenance, and so on. These are pre-configured as “Other” category types so they land under Expenses on your P&L, not COGS. You don’t need to set these up manually. They’re there from day one, ready to catch the invoices that aren’t food or beverage.
If you find yourself uploading invoices for something that doesn’t have a matching category (say, a new type of service contract), you can always add a new category under the “Other” type. But for most restaurants, the defaults cover the common non-inventory expenses out of the box.

​
What this lets you do

If your restaurant sells something that doesn’t fit the defaults — saké, for instance — you can create your own COGS category type. It’ll show up everywhere the default types appear: your P&L, Usage Report, home page, inventory count sheet setup, and so on. Custom category types apply across all restaurants in the same Company and Concept (i.e., locations that share a product list).

​
What it won’t do

A few things to keep in mind: Custom types are COGS only. You can’t create a new category type that maps to Expenses on your P&L. These are strictly for Cost of Goods Sold. It’s not a revenue center. A custom category type needs both sales and purchased products mapped to it. “Saké” works great — you buy saké and you sell saké. “Catering” doesn’t work as well, because you can’t reliably associate specific purchased products with catering usage. We code products by what they are, not how you intend to use them. An onion is always Food, whether it ends up at a catered event or not. Good rule of thumb: Could your new category type be considered a sub-category of one of the existing COGS types (Food, Beer, Wine, Liquor, N/A Beverage, Retail)? If yes, you’re on the right track.

​
How to set it up

​
1. Create the category type

Go to Accounting > Setup > Category Accounts Mapping and click Manage Category Types, then Add new Category Type. Set the Category Type Name, then choose an Ingredient Type. The ingredient type determines which section this shows up under when building recipes. If the products in this category type will be used in recipes, pick the appropriate one (e.g., “Alcohol” for saké). If not, choose “None.”

​
2. Save

Click Save.

​
3. Create categories for this type

Now you’ll want to create one or more categories under your new type. Make sure to select the correct GL code when you set them up. Here’s how to add new categories.

​
4. Map it in Sales Mapping

Your new category type needs to be mapped so sales data flows correctly. Head to Accounting > Setup > Sales Mapping to connect it. This article walks through the process. Once mapped, you’ll see your new category type on your home page, Controllable P&L (under COGS), Usage Report, inventory count sheet setup, and anywhere else category types appear.