Actual food cost for a period

The Food Cost tab in Reports answers the question your bookkeeper asks: what did food actually cost this period, as a percentage of sales? It's the number you put on a P&L, and it's computed a different way from the food-cost percentage you see elsewhere in Rinvy. (It's the first tab in Reports, and it's where the old Period and Usage tabs now live together.)

Actual vs. theoretical

Rinvy already shows a theoretical food cost — recipe cost × units sold, divided by sales (the weekly KPI on your dashboard, and the number the food-cost targets compare against). It answers "if every plate went out exactly to recipe, what would food cost?"

Actual food cost is what really left the building. It's measured between two physical counts:

COGS  = beginning inventory + purchases − ending inventory
actual % = COGS ÷ net sales

The Food Cost tab shows both side by side. The gap between them — labelled Unexplained — is the food that left without a sale behind it: over-portioning, spoilage, prep loss, unlogged waste, or theft. A small gap is normal; a widening one is worth chasing.

What you need

1. Actual food cost is bracketed by two completed inventory counts. Pick a date range that contains both, and Rinvy measures between the earliest and latest completed counts inside it — or pick the two counts directly with the Between counts selectors. Either way it labels the period with the two count dates it used (for example, "2026-08-20 → 2026-09-01").

2. Net sales come from your POS feed when you upload sales or sync automatically. No feed? Type your period net sales into the box on the report and the actual % is calculated on the spot — nothing is saved.

How to read it

• Beginning / Ending inventory are each count's stock valued at its current cost per case — the same valuation the Inventory Value report uses.
• Purchases is every receipt dated between the two counts. Record-only receipts count too — they're still money spent on food for the period.
• COGS by category breaks the same math down per storage category, so you can see whether the gap lives in proteins, produce, or somewhere else.
• By product lists what each product cost you over the same two counts (quantity used × cost) — the drill-down beneath the category table. Sort it by dollars or quantity to find the biggest movers.