> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://guide.garde.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How Garde runs your restaurant

> The operating rhythm — what to do daily, weekly, and monthly, and who does it.

Garde is one loop: **sales come in from your POS, purchases come in from scanned invoices, counts confirm what's on the shelf** — and out the other side come your COGS, variance, P\&L, and payroll. Every guide in this section is one habit in that loop.

The product rewards rhythm, not heroics. A restaurant that scans invoices daily and counts monthly gets numbers it can trust; one that batches everything quarterly gets a science project.

## The operating rhythm

| Cadence        | The habit                    | Who owns it                       | Guide                                                               |
| -------------- | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Daily          | Scan and review invoices     | Shift lead scans, manager reviews | [Scanning & reviewing invoices](/operating-guide/daily-invoices)    |
| Daily          | Log waste and transfers      | Everyone on shift                 | [Logging waste & transfers](/operating-guide/daily-waste-transfers) |
| Daily          | Record prep batches          | Prep lead                         | [Recording prep & batches](/operating-guide/daily-prep-batches)     |
| Daily          | 5-minute check-in            | Manager on duty                   | [The daily check-in](/operating-guide/daily-check-in)               |
| Weekly         | Place and receive orders     | Manager                           | [Ordering & receiving](/operating-guide/weekly-ordering-receiving)  |
| Weekly         | Publish next week's schedule | GM                                | [Building the schedule](/operating-guide/weekly-schedule)           |
| Weekly         | Review sales, labor, COGS    | Owner + GM                        | [The weekly review](/operating-guide/weekly-review)                 |
| Monthly        | Full inventory count         | Manager + crew                    | [Monthly inventory counts](/operating-guide/monthly-counts)         |
| Monthly        | Read the variance report     | Owner or chef                     | [AvT variance](/operating-guide/monthly-avt-variance)               |
| Monthly        | Close the books              | Accountant                        | [Closing the books](/operating-guide/monthly-close-books)           |
| Monthly        | Release the P\&L             | Owner                             | [Releasing your P\&L](/operating-guide/monthly-pnl)                 |
| Per pay period | Run payroll                  | Payroll admin                     | [Running payroll](/operating-guide/payroll-running)                 |

Setup work — [items and units](/operating-guide/setup-items-units), [vendors](/operating-guide/setup-vendors), [recipes](/operating-guide/setup-recipes), [chain settings](/operating-guide/setup-settings) — happens once during onboarding, then gets touch-ups. The [Data Agents](/operating-guide/setup-data-agents) keep it clean in the background. Run a commissary? It has [its own section](/operating-guide/commissary-running): the incoming-order queue, order guides, and how stores order.

## Roles & responsibilities

Give every habit a named owner. A template that works for most single locations:

* **Everyone on shift** — waste logging, transfer logging, counting, invoice photos. If you have a shift lead, they own all four for their shift.
* **Assistant managers & managers** — invoice review, ordering, receiving.
* **GM** — schedule, weekly review, data hygiene.
* **Owner** — weekly review, P\&L, targets and settings.
* **Accountant** — journals, exports, month-end close.

Set these people up with the right access in [Invite your team](/get-started/invite-your-team) — approvals in Garde (orders, transfers, invoices) follow roles, so the permission structure *is* the accountability structure.

## Where the numbers come from

Understanding this flow is 80% of trusting your reports:

* **Sales** flow from your POS automatically, mapped to recipes so every sale depletes theoretical inventory.
* **Purchases** flow from invoices you scan — approved invoices set item prices and feed COGS.
* **Counts** anchor reality — the difference between what you *should* have used (recipes × sales) and what you *actually* used (counts + purchases) is your [AvT variance](/operating-guide/monthly-avt-variance).
* **Books and P\&L** read from all three; [payroll](/operating-guide/payroll-running) and labor read from schedules and time clocks.
* The floor work — counts, invoice photos, orders, transfers, schedule requests — also lives in the [Garde mobile app](/mobile/overview), so staff never need a laptop.

Garbage in one stage shows up two stages later wearing a disguise. When a number looks wrong, walk upstream.