The gap between what you should have used and what you did
Actual vs theoretical is the single most useful number in restaurant cost control — and the hardest to produce honestly. Margin produces it weekly, by category, item and location.
- Theoretical usage from recipes and POS sales mix
- Actual usage from counts, purchases, transfers and waste
- Variance attributed down to the item and location
The full cost picture, not just food
COGS & food cost
- Period COGS by category
- Food cost % by location
- Cost per cover and per plate
- Beverage cost separated
Actual vs theoretical
- Variance $ and % by category
- Item-level drill-down
- Trend across periods
- Location ranking
Labor
- Labor cost by location and period
- Labor as % of sales
- Overtime exposure
- Prime cost roll-up
Expenses & budgets
- Operating expense tracking
- Budgets by location and category
- Budget vs actual
- Period accruals
Every number opens
A variance figure that can't be traced gets argued away in the meeting. In Margin, each report drills to the count, invoice, transfer or waste entry behind it.
- Click any figure to see its source transactions
- Attribution to person, location and timestamp
- Period locking so restated numbers are explicit
- Exports carry the same detail as the screen
Airport food cost is 3.2 points above group. Beef usage explains most of the gap.
Weekly control, period-close confidence
Catch the leak inside the period
COGS, prime cost, budget vs actual
Price moves and count exceptions
Reports emailed to the right roles
See your true food cost in a 30-minute walkthrough
We'll use your locations, your vendors and your menu — not a canned demo dataset.
Tailored to your group's structure
Configured with you, not handed over
SmartOPS Margin is part of the SmartOPS OS suite.