If you’re just getting started with Theoretical Usage, these pages will help you get set up first:
Once you’ve mapped at least some of your PMIX and have two closed inventories in the system, you’re ready to start looking at the data. Go to Performance > Theoretical Usage.
Report Filters
At the top of the page, you’ll see several filter options:
- View by: Shows all product categories by default, or you can narrow it down to a specific category.
- Show (All Products or Mapped Products): Default is all products. Switch to “Mapped Products” to see only items you’ve mapped in PMIX.
- Show (All Used Products or Inventoried Products Only): “All Used Products” includes anything bought or sold, whether or not it was inventoried. “Inventoried Products Only” limits the view to items on the starting or ending inventory (or both).
- Starting Date: The first day of the reporting period — one day after the selected inventory date. If the inventory was counted on 2/12, the period starts 2/13. (Even if you counted the morning of 2/13, enter the inventory date as 2/12 in Garde.)
- Ending Date: The last day of the period, matching the ending inventory count date.
- Actual vs. Theoretical: Toggles between the standard two-inventory comparison and the Theoretical On-Hand report, which projects from a single inventory.
Viewing Theoretical Usage for a Product
By default, the page shows totals rolled up by category. Click the ”+” on the left side of any row to expand it and see individual products. Click the ”+” next to “Categories” to expand everything at once.
Here’s what each column means:
| Column | What It Shows |
|---|
| Report By | The inventory unit for the product (editable on the Edit Product page) |
| Sold Units | How many units were sold, based on all POS buttons mapped to the product |
| Sold Revenue | Revenue from those sold units |
| Used Units | Starting inventory + purchases - ending inventory |
| Used Value | Used Units multiplied by the last purchase price |
| Difference Units | Used Units minus Sold Units. A negative number means you used more than you should have. |
| Difference Value | Difference Units multiplied by the last purchase price |
| Target Food Cost % | The cost percentage if Used = Sold (your theoretical best case) |
| Actual Food Cost % | The cost percentage you actually hit (Used Value / Sold Revenue) |
| Wasted Units | Quantity of waste recorded for this product |
| Wasted Value | Dollar value of that waste |
| Waste % | Wasted Value / Used Value |
Where to focus your attention: Look for products with large Difference Units or Difference Value numbers. Those are the items where your actual usage doesn’t match what should have been used based on sales. Big variances are where you’re losing money — whether from over-pouring, theft, waste that wasn’t logged, or a missing invoice. Start with the highest-dollar variances and work your way down.
Investigating a Variance
When you spot a product with a variance worth digging into, click on the row. A detail window will open showing all the data behind the calculation: starting and ending inventory counts, purchase amounts, specific POS buttons that drove sales, and purchase details.
Common explanations for variances:
- Unusually large variances often come from inventory mistakes — a bad count, or entering a count for the wrong product.
- Positive variances (you sold more than you depleted) usually mean a missing invoice. Check the purchase details at the bottom of the detail view to make sure all invoices have been processed. It’s not physically possible to sell more than you used, so something is off in the data.
