Entering Inventory Counts
Inventory counts should be entered on some regular basis to calculate your cost of sales and to calculate usages for each item in you inventory. Weekly counts are most common but you can enter counts whenever you choose.
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Select Inventory / Edit Inventory Count to enter an inventory count. Aspect assumes that inventory counts are taken at the close of business. When entering the date of the count, select the date of the previous day if you are counting inventory in the morning. For example, enter 1/7/98 if your inventory count was taken the morning of 1/8/98.
You can print a count worksheet from the screen that is displayed by selecting Edit / Display Options and double-clicking on the display named Inventory Worksheet. When this report is printed, horizontal lines will be included under each item so that you can write the count in the column labeled Record Count. Make sure to select Edit / Display Options and change the display back to Inventory Count before entering your count so that the counts will be displayed as you enter them.
You can also use the Display Options feature to limit the display to a particular group of items. To do this, select Edit / Display Options and press the Custom button. Next, select an inventory group from the drop-down list labeled Group and press Ok. Aspect will display only those items assigned to the selected group. Note that selecting the Food, Bar or Operating groups will display all items belonging to the group even if those items are assigned to sub-groups.
Double-click on an item in the list to enter a count for the item. After you select OK, you will be prompted to enter the count for the next item in the list. Make sure that you enter your count in terms of the count size displayed. Or, you can change the count size if you wish to change the way that the item is counted.
You can enter multiple counts for an item by separating them with a comma or a space. For example "1 2 3" or "1,2,3". Aspect would interpret both of these entries as 6. You can also use the +, -, x and / symbols. For example, "2x24+16" would be interpreted as 64.
You do not have to enter counts for all items. Aspect will use the perpetual inventory for an item as the ending count if you do not enter an actual count for an item. However, if the ending inventory count for an item is zero, be sure to enter the zero rather than skipping the item. Otherwise, Aspect will assume that you did not count the item and the perpetual ending inventory will be used. You will need to enter counts for all items if you have not entered recipe ingredients since Aspect cannot calculate valid perpetual inventories without recipe ingredients.
Your inventory count is not saved until you close the count window. When you close the count window, Aspect will ask if you wish to save the entries that you made. Aspect will also warn you if you have not entered a count for all items in the inventory. To be safe, you can select Edit / Save Changes Now to save you work as you go. You can also enable the auto-save feature to save your work every few minutes. Select Edit / Auto-Save to enable the auto-save feature.
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Entering Invoices
Aspect uses the invoices you enter to update the price of each inventory item and to calculate the actual usage and cost for each item in your inventory.
Invoices can be entered each day as they are received or you can enter them all at one time at the end of the week or month.
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To enter invoices, select Inventory / Edit Invoices. Next, select Edit / Insert Record or press the INS key to add a new invoice. When recording an invoice, you must select a vender and enter both an invoice date and an invoice number. The invoice number that you enter must be unique for the selected vendor. The remaining information, with the exception of the items purchased, is optional.
Press the Insert button to add each item listed on the invoice. Make sure that you enter the correct size when entering the quantity purchased. Also make sure that you enter the total amount paid for the item and not the unit price. Aspect will prompt you with the total purchase price once you enter the quantity purchased. This purchase price is based on the last price that you paid for the item. Correct the total purchase price if necessary and press Ok.
The most common mistake made when recording invoices is entering the wrong size or entering the unit price instead of the total amount paid. To avoid these mistakes, you can have Aspect warn you when the price of an item changes by a certain percent. To do this, select Settings / System Settings and enter a value after the line "Notify when price changes by". A value between 15 and 25 percent is usually sufficient to catch mistakes and large price changes while ignoring smaller changes.
After entering all items on the invoice, select Ok to save the invoice. Aspect will warn you if the total of the items that you entered does not match the invoice total. If this happens, review your entries to make sure that you entered all the items on the invoice and that you entered the correct values for each item.
If you have a credit invoice, enter it the same as a normal invoice but enter negative values for the quantity purchased and total price paid.
Note: In some states, you may be charged tax for liquor and beer items. If this is the case, select Inventory / Edit Inventory Items and add two inventory items named Liquor Tax and Beer Tax. Assign these items to the Liquor and Beer groups respectively. When entering an invoice, record the tax using these items. Enter the total tax amount as both the quantity purchased and total price paid. Entering the tax amount in the quantity field will set the price of the item to one dollar and keep Aspect from warning you about a change in price.
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Cost Of Sales Report
The cost of sales report is the broadest inventory report, showing total beginning inventory, purchases and cost for each inventory group.
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After you have entered two inventory counts (a beginning count and an ending count) and the invoices in between, select Inventory / Cost Of Sales Report to open a cost of sales report.
When calculating beginning and ending inventory values, Aspect uses the perpetual inventory for each inventory item if an actual count has not been entered. The cost of sales report will be most accurate if you select starting and ending dates for which an inventory count has been entered. For example, if you count monthly, the report should start on the first day of the month and end on the last day of the month.
The cost of sales report initially displays actual costs for each group. If you have entered recipe ingredients, you can also view legitimate costs and variances for each group by selecting Edit / Display Options and choosing the display named Actual Vs. Legitimate.
You can view the items contained in any group by inspecting it. To inspect a group, highlight the group and select Edit / Inspect. Aspect will open a new window displaying totals for each item contained in the group. The totals at the bottom of this window are the same as the group totals displayed in the cost of sales report.
Select Edit / Inspect again for more information on any item in the group.
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Inventory Extensions |
The Inventory Extensions report should be opened each time you enter a complete physical inventory to review usages and costs for each item in your inventory.
There are six pre-defined displays that you should be familiar with. You can choose each display by selecting Edit / Display Options.
The Inventory Extensions display shows usage and cost for each menu item.
If you have entered recipe ingredients in Aspect, select the Actual Vs. Legitimate display to compare actual usages for each item against legitimate usages.
The Price Changes and Price Effect displays call price changes to your attention and help you determine how much those changes affected your inventory cost.
The High Cost Items and High Cost By Group displays help you determine which items contribute most significantly to your inventory cost. These are good candidates for daily counts when inventory costs are high.
You can get detailed information on any item in the report by highlighting it and selecting Edit / Inspect or by right-clicking on the item and selecting Inspect from the pop-up menu.
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