xtraCHEF: Introduction to Reporting and Analytics

In this Article:

• Reporting and Analytics Overview
• Reporting Introduction
  • When Do I Leverage Reports?
• Analytics Introduction
  • When Do I Leverage Analytics?
  • Budget
  • Recipe Reporting (xtraCHEF Pro)
  • Inventory Analytics (xtraCHEF Pro)
     Next Steps and Additional Insights

Reporting and Analytics Overview

So, you’ve uploaded several invoices and receipts and have taken care of items such as action-needed invoices and map invoice items that may be required to complete invoice reconciliation?

Not only will this enable invoices to be available for extract to your integrated accounting system (if applicable), but also unlock the building blocks and price tracking capabilities of xtraCHEF. 

This data will only become stronger and encapsulate the extent of your business spending as you continue to upload all invoices and receipts for your business. The result will be analytics and reports that shed light on all aspects of your business rather than just purchases related to your ingredients.
 

Pro tip: You can upload documents from:

• Food vendors
• Utility companies
• Equipment and material purchases
• Services

While there are two central webpages in xtraCHEF for Reporting and Analytics, other tools are scattered throughout your account. This article will introduce you to these insights and direct you to more specific articles and content as your read on.


 

Reports Introduction

Most reports can be found by selecting Reporting via your left-hand navigation rail. Here, you will see several report options organized into six categories. Each report has a description to help you find exactly what you need:

• Cost management
• Cost visualization
• Recipe
• Inventory
• Accounting
• Sales

When Do I Leverage Reporting?

There are a lot of insights available to you in xtraCHEF. So, when do you want to leverage your reporting page rather than others?

Reporting hosts a number of options that may help solve common business questions or answer requests for additional information from corporate (if applicable) or accounting. Reporting, compared to others, will present historical data to you in a table format and can be exported via. CSV to save locally or share with partners who do not have xtraCHEF access.
 

Refer to to find more information about each report.


 

Analytics Introduction

Select Analytics from your left-hand navigation rail to view these insights. Here, you will see several Analytics to choose from, such as Spending by GL (default selection), Spending by Vendor, etc.
 

When Do I Leverage Analytics?

Compared to reporting, analytics are easily digestible and include a visual component making them great quick-glance insights to use and monitor your business spending trends. Similar to reporting, the data tables can be downloaded in Microsoft Excel and shared with partners without xtraCHEF access. For a detailed description of each of the Analytics options at your disposal, visit .
 

Several of these Analytics also allows you to dive in deeper into the reporting hierarchy, viewing by GL Code, Category, Invoice Item, and the uploaded Invoices.

Next Steps and Additional Insights

Insight into your business's spending, sales, etc., doesn’t stop just there. There are several additional tools located in your xtraCHEF account. A few notable ones that are available to you early on in your xtraCHEF journey are briefly described in the subsections below.

Budget

This tool enables you to set up forecasted sales and establish a budget to check in and weigh your monthly progress against. As your sales and purchase progress over the course of the month, you will be able to compare your actual COGS to your theoretical (estimated COGS) and make decisions to stay under or close to budget.
 

Learn more about Budget via our article .

Recipe Reporting (xtraCHEF Pro)

For xtraCHEF Pro users with access to Recipe, reports such as Variance Analysis and Product Mix Report will enable you to review and decipher how trends in spending and changes to prime costs are affecting your overall menu health and profit margins. 
 

Learn more about Recipe reporting via our article .

Inventory Analytics (xtraCHEF Pro)

For xtraCHEF Pro users with access to Inventory, inventory-specific reports, and advanced analytics such as Actual vs. Theoretical Analysis and Depleting Inventory enable you to review your inventory values, flag variances between counts, and compare your actual product consumption/usage to your expected consumption/usage, flagging waste, theft, and more before it can harm your margins.
 

Learn more about Inventory reporting and analytics via our article .