The Theoretical Usage Report compares what you should have on hand (based on your purchases and sales) to what you actually have on hand (based on your inventory).
What You’ll Need Before You Start
Before diving in, make sure you’ve got these pieces in place:- POS connected to Garde — For most customers, this is already done from day one. If you’re not sure, reach out to your Garde contact.
- Recipes built in Garde — At least for the food items you want to track. Beer, wine, and liquor don’t need recipes since they map directly to products.
- PMIX mapping completed — This is where you connect your POS buttons to products or recipes in Garde. (Here’s how to do it.)
- At least 2 inventories completed — Theoretical reports always run between a starting and ending inventory, so you need a minimum of two closed counts.
So, What Does Theoretical Usage Actually Mean?
Here’s the plain-language version: theoretical usage is what perfect operations would look like. Take all your purchases, account for inventory changes, and assume every portion was served exactly to spec — no breakage, no waste, no theft. That’s your theoretical usage. It’s the best-case scenario. (Hey, it’s called “theoretical” for a reason.) Once you know what usage should have been, you compare it to actual usage to see if there’s a gap. That gap is your variance, and it’s where the real insights live. Here’s why this matters. Say two restaurants are both running a 30% food cost. Sounds like they’re performing the same, right? Not necessarily. If Restaurant A has a theoretical food cost of 29.5%, its 30% actual cost means it’s running incredibly tight — great job. But if Restaurant B has a theoretical food cost of 25%, that 30% actual cost means there’s 5% worth of product disappearing somewhere. Same food cost number, very different stories.How Does Garde Make This Work?
Garde already receives your purchase invoices and pulls sales data from your POS at the product mix level (PMIX data). So the system knows what you buy and what you sell — no manual data entry needed. You just have to connect the dots. For beer, wine, and liquor, all you need to do is associate your POS buttons with the products you purchase. For food items, you’ll first build recipes in Garde, then associate those recipes with POS buttons. This whole process is called PMIX mapping.POS recipe mapping and automated depletion: Recipes can map directly to POS items, so when a POS item is sold, the recipe’s ingredients are automatically depleted from your inventory. This is the link that powers theoretical usage — and it means your on-hand numbers stay in sync with actual sales without any extra manual work. Learn more about setting this up in Setting Recipes to be Inventoried.
Theoretical Reporting and PMIX Mapping Intro Webinar
This webinar walks you through the basics of theoretical reporting setup and PMIX mapping. Good starting point if you prefer video.What you need before calculating variance
Can I Just See My Theoretical On-Hand?
Yes. You can adjust the report to show an up-to-date Theoretical On-Hand count instead. It uses many of the same calculations, but instead of comparing two inventories, it starts from one beginning inventory and adjusts through today based on purchases and sales. More details here: Theoretical On-Hand ReportA Few Things Worth Knowing
- Your POS connection needs to be solid. If you use things like “Open Bar” for parties, you won’t get accurate theoretical data for products sold during those events — because there’s no way to track what was actually poured.
- You don’t have to map everything at once. Start with beer, wine, or a few key proteins. These are quick wins that can show value in minutes.
- Historical data works retroactively. If you’ve been doing inventory in Garde for a while, you’ll actually be able to see theoretical reports for past periods once your PMIX mapping is in place.