Desserts, sauces or bread prepared in the morning are sold throughout the day. If their cost is unknown, the selling price becomes guesswork and the profit report shows a misleading 100% margin. In RoxPos recipes, production slips and the Profit / Loss report work together: ingredients are deducted, the product enters stock at its calculated cost, and when it sells the margin reflects that cost.
Recipes: a product's ingredient list
In Recipe Management each product gets an ingredient list made up of products marked as raw materials. Quantities are entered in each ingredient's own unit, for example flour in grams and milk in litres. Recipes are kept per branch. A recipe determines which ingredients a production slip deducts and by how much; if 'Recipe management enabled' is switched on in the branch settings, the recipe's ingredients are also deducted at the moment of sale. This option is off by default.
How a production slip works
For a prepared product, choose the production document type on the Stock Movement screen and enter the quantity produced; the product must have a recipe. RoxPos deducts the recipe's ingredients from stock at their current average cost and adds the finished product to stock. The product's unit cost is the total cost of the ingredients used divided by the quantity produced. Production slips and the ingredients consumed in production are listed in separate sections of the stock reports.
Example: if 10 portions of rice pudding are produced and the average cost of the milk, rice and sugar in the recipe adds up to 300 units, the product enters stock at a cost of 30 units per portion.
Where the margin in Profit / Loss comes from
The Profit / Loss report shows total sales, total cost, gross profit and gross margin, both as a summary and per product. Cost is calculated from the average cost (AVCO) of the stock card that matches the product code of the item sold. A product whose stock card has no cost counts as zero cost and shows a 100% margin. So for a correct margin, the product has to enter stock with a cost: through an invoice entry with unit costs for purchased goods, or through a production slip for prepared products.
Separating staff consumption from waste
Products used up in production or service but not sold are deducted with a wastage document. Staff meals are recorded under Staff consumption with the person who consumed them, while spoilage, breakage or production waste get their own reasons. Because the reasons are kept apart, the reports let you tell whether rising costs come from waste or from staff consumption.
- Start with the recipes of your best-selling prepared products; you do not have to finish the whole menu in a day.
- Record ingredient purchases with the invoice document type and unit costs; average cost only makes sense with costed entries.
- Watch out: in a branch with recipe management on, selling a product that has a recipe also deducts its ingredients at the moment of sale. If you put a product into stock with a production slip and also deduct its recipe at sale, the ingredients are deducted twice; for prepared products, make sure the deduction happens in only one place.
- Regularly check products showing a 100% margin in the Profit / Loss report; it usually means their stock card has no cost.
A production slip turns the work done in the kitchen into stock and cost records. See our recipe cost guide for the basics of costing, our stock movements article for stock documents, and the production management page.