xtraCHEF: Get Started With Budget Reporting

In this Article:

• Budget Overview
  • Prerequisites
• Budget Setup
  • Manually Add or EditBudget Information    
  • Import Existing Budget(s)
• How to Use Your Budget Tool
  • Budget Dashboard
  • Insight Breakdown

Budget Overview

With xtraCHEF's Budget feature, you can set a projected sales and spending amount and track your real sales and purchases within a specified timeframe. The result is a declining budget that shows you exactly where you are during the course of your fiscal period informing you where adjustments may be needed.
 

This 7-minute video tutorial walks through your Budget report in xtraCHEF.

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Prerequisites

Before you can begin using the Budget tool, you'll first need to ensure you have completed a few vital configuration steps. Use this checklist to make sure you have everything in place before continuing with budget setup:

• Complete cost of goods sold (COGS) mapping.
• Configure your accounting period.
• Upload or continue uploading invoices and receipts to xtraCHEF. The budget tool will require at least one month of consistent uploads in order to report on your business spending.
• Have integrated xtraCHEF with your Toast POS and completed sales setup.
• Gather your existing monthly sales data and create an estimate for your future anticipated sales.
• Determine your target food costs. You will use this to inform your forecasted budget in the setup steps below. If you rely on an existing budget, prepare to import it into xtraCHEF.

Once you have a good baseline of data, you're ready to begin using the budget tool to manage your income and expenses. 
 

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Budget Setup

To navigate to the budget page, select Budget from your left hand navigation rail. This page contains three tabs: the main Dashboard (default view), your Budget creator, and an Import tab that will allow you to import existing budget information. 
 

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Manually Add or Edit Budget Information  

In order to populate your budget tool with Estimated Sales and Estimate Budget values, you will first need to input your monthly budget. You can do this manually by following the steps below or you can fill out and import a budget template. Importing is the fastest method for configuration if you have budgets already established by accounting periods.

To manually input your monthly budget, select the Budget tab. Above that tab, select the Location you wish to establish a budget for and the Fiscal Year. Then select + Create New Budget.

You will then be prompted to select either Copy Previous Month Budget (if applicable) or create new values via Empty Budget.
 

If you select Empty Budget, you will be prompted to Enter Sales Estimate for COGS. This is your total spend for the period (as determined by your accounting period setup). You can also divvy your total sales estimate out by COGS Group, applying Sales Forecast values by percentage (%) or dollars ($). Doing so will allow you to monitor budgets at the individual COGS level later on.

Note: Your COGS groups are pulled automatically from your existing data and can't be edited here - if you need to add or update your COGS, you will have to do so separately. 

Next, indicate what your Target COGS (%) is per period. To do this, you'll first need to determine how much of your total monthly revenue you plan to spend on each COGS group. Keep in mind that these percentages don't necessarily correlate to your projected revenue.

Once you've added your budget numbers, select Save. A confirmation message will then appear, notifying you that your new budget has been added successfully.

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Import Existing Budget(s)

Does your organization already have budget information? Rather than adding information for each period manually, you're able to import this data in a spreadsheet format. To begin, select the Import tab.
 

Your imported data will need to be in our spreadsheet template in order to successfully import. To download this, select Download Budget Template. This will download a file titled "BudgetTemplate.xlsx".
 

To fill out this template, open the file from your computer. Once loaded, you land on a tab titled Notes that includes general guidelines for filling in and importing the template spreadsheet. Proceed by selecting Budget (highlighted below).

Your Budget tab will show the spreadsheet fields.

Continue by attributing a Sales Forecast amount and Target COGS percentage to your Accounting Periods. When your spreadsheet is ready, save it to your computer and return to xtraCHEF.

In xtraCHEF, select Import Budget. This will prompt you to select the file from your computer. Select the file and complete your budget import.

Note: For multi-unit operations, make sure you're uploading your spreadsheet to the correct location.

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How to Use Your Budget Tool

Once you've entered your information using either the Budget or Import tabs, you're ready to put that data to use.

Budget Dashboard

To get insights into your spending and overall budget health, navigate to the Dashboard tab within your Budget page. 

The Dashboard's default display is the current accounting period and your most recently viewed location. To ensure you're looking at the correct data, be sure to choose your Location and the Fiscal Year you wish to view from the drop-down menus at the top of the page. 

Here, you are able to view the dashboard by Declining View (default) or Estimated View using the slide in the top right corner of your screen (pictured below).

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Insight Breakdown

Your first row of insight on the dashboard includes Target COGS, Actual COGS, and Remaining Budget.

Let's dive into each of these insights and their definitions in the chart below. 
 

The second row of tools includes your Cost breakdown and line/bar charts (which displays the same information in different fashions).

Let's dive into each of these insights and their definitions in the chart below.
 

Additional charts on your Budget Dashboard include Sales by COGS, Purchase by COGS, and your Year to Date Budget & Sales.

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