Tracking waste

Spoiled milk, unsold pastries, a dropped tray — it all costs you, and none of it shows up in a sale. The Waste page is where you log it, so you can see what’s ending up in the bin and what it’s costing you.

Logging a waste event

Anyone on your team can log waste. Pick what went in the bin, type how much, choose a reason, and save. A short note is optional if you want to remember the why. It takes a few seconds, so it’s meant to be done as it happens, right from a phone.

The picker covers three things, grouped so they’re easy to find:

• Inventory items — a raw ingredient or supply, measured in that item’s count unit, the same way you’d count it on the shelf (a gallon of milk, a bag of beans).
• Prep recipes — a batch you made in-house, like cold brew or a syrup. Log it in the recipe’s own yield unit (the litres of cold brew you dumped), and it’s priced at that recipe’s cost.
• Menu items — a finished drink or plate that got made and never sold. Log it in servings, and it’s priced at the recipe’s cost per serving.

What the reasons mean

• Spoiled: went off before you could use it — soured milk, moldy produce.
• Expired: past its date, pulled from the shelf.
• Damaged: dropped, crushed, or otherwise unusable.
• Prep waste: lost in prep — trim, a botched batch, an over-steamed pitcher.
• Other: anything that doesn’t fit the rest.

Totals and cost

Each entry is priced automatically — from the item’s cost, or the recipe’s cost per serving or per batch — so a logged quantity becomes a dollar figure. Choose a period and you’ll see totals broken out by reason plus a grand total, so it’s obvious whether your money is going to spoilage, over-prep, or breakage. If an item has no cost set, or a recipe’s cost hasn’t finished recalculating, the event is still recorded; it just won’t have a dollar value attached.

Who can do what

Everyone can log waste and see the list and totals. Only a manager or admin can delete an entry, which is there for the occasional mistaken log. There’s also a Download CSV button for the period if you want the raw list for your own records.