How to guarantee the reliability of your ERP numbers (Foodcost)

In organized catering, ERP is an essential tool for running operations and tracking numbers in real time. Depending on the type of user, satisfaction criteria vary:

• The business expertise of the ERP provider's project managers;
• The availability and responsiveness of these teams;
• The ability to develop desired functionalities;
• The ability to explain why to adapt a process or habit;
• The ability to keep to the announced budgets and deadlines;
• The ability to implement EDI exchanges without additional cost.

As for the management of a catering group, its objective is simple: reliable and accurate figures in real time, to be able to target areas for improvement and make the right decisions quickly.
It is on this objective that we will focus in this article: calculation of the Food Cost and other key indicators, Adoria advises you to ensure the reliability of your ERP data.

The method to follow to obtain reliable figures

The ERP is an essential tool to manage your restaurants. But to take full advantage of this tool, it is important to follow certain steps.

Whether it is your team at headquarters or your teams in the field, each actor must use and fill in the ERP with rigor according to their missions.

The involvement and rigor of your teams play a decisive role in the quality and accuracy of the figures in your ERP.

Defining management rules and then setting up the ERP by the head office teams

To obtain reliable figures, it is important to define management rules so that the tool is properly set up by the head office teams. Examples include:

• The framework of orders/purchases/stock entries;
• Inventory rules;
• Production rules (Technical data sheets);
• Sales rules (items for sale, prices, consolidation of sales channels...);

Tip: it is important to set up a team of administrators in charge of updating the settings and supporting users.

Field teams must fill in the ERP with rigor

It is the field teams that perform the operations and entries in the ERP on a daily basis. It is essential that the tool is filled in accordance with the management rules, and that the control tasks are up to date:

• The control of receipts (control of quantities, temperatures, batch numbers; the control of prices is automatic in EDI);
• The counting of inventories;
• The recording of losses of raw materials and finished products;
• The recording of any inter-site transfers or breakdowns;
• The daily closing of sales.

Tricks to encourage ERP usage

To ensure that these tasks are properly performed by each team, and thus benefit from accurate figures, it is important to encourage ERP usage. To do this, it is necessary:

• That the tool is easy to use (intuitive, ergonomic...);
• That the user on site understands the usefulness of what he is doing;
• Trained users with support accompaniment if they need help.

Focus: points of vigilance for an accurate calculation of the foodcost

Many data enter into the calculation of foodcost. An efficient ERP must ensure their accuracy.

• Theoretical foodcost from the Recipe Sheets: it is important to use a Weighted Average Price, in order to take into account changes in supplier prices.
• Actual foodcost:the interface with the cash register software must ensure reliable sales feedback.
• This data allows for the analysis of discrepancies between theoretical and actual consumption to finally accurately identify shrinkage.The ERP must then be able to identify the Recipe Sheets that generate the most losses, allowing the restaurant owner to take action to reduce waste.

Method, user rigor and high-performance ERP are therefore the keys to reliable figures in your ERP.

No. 1 management solution for multi-site catering, Adoria is a 100% web-based solution that optimizes operations (procurement, inventory, production) and management, with accurate foodcost calculation and advanced BI analyses.
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