Waste report

The Waste tab shows what you threw away in a period, why, and what it cost. It reads your waste logs. The direct link is /reports?type=waste.

The period is Last 7 Days by default. A waste log counts on its waste date, in your restaurant's timezone. A backdated log counts on the date you gave it.

What the report shows

From top to bottom:

1. The tiles show Products Wasted and Total Waste Value.
2. Waste by Reason shows the cost for each reason: Expired, Spoiled, Damaged, Overprep, Dropped, Contaminated and Other. The biggest reason is at the top.
3. Daily Waste Cost is a bar chart of waste cost per day.
4. Insights lists the patterns Rinvy found in the period. It shows only when there is something to say.
5. Products Wasted is a table with one row per product. Each row shows the quantity, the average cost and the total. Under the product name, the row names the reason that accounts for most of that product's waste.

Record-only waste logs are in the report. They do not change stock, but the food was still lost.

Use Waste by Reason to pick what to fix first. Overprep points at prep pars, while Expired and Spoiled point at ordering and storage. ReFED, a food waste research nonprofit, names difficulty in forecasting, bulk purchasing and improper storage as causes of waste in food service. The EPA's Wasted Food Scale calls preventing wasted food the most environmentally beneficial option, and it puts landfilling among the least preferred.

Insights

Rinvy can show four kinds of insight:

• Top wasted product is the product that cost you the most, and its main reason.
• The #1 waste reason is the reason with the highest cost, and its share of the total.
• Waste up or down compares this period with the period of the same length before it. It shows only when the change is more than 10%.
• Waste spike names a product whose waste cost is more than twice its average over the three periods before.

Each comparison uses periods of the same length as the one you picked. With Last 7 Days, a spike compares this week with the three weeks before it. Say romaine cost $6, $0 and $9 in those weeks. The average is $5. This week romaine cost $14, which is 2.8 times the average, so it shows as a spike. A product with no waste in the three earlier periods never shows a spike, and the up or down trend needs some waste in the period before.

Select an insight about a product to open its Product report.

How a waste line is priced

Rinvy saves the cost of the product at the moment you log the waste. The report uses that saved cost and never reprices it.

Saving the cost keeps old waste stable. A price rise next month does not change what last month's waste cost. It also means that the Waste report, the weekly review email and the Group report all give the same number for the same waste.

For example, a cook logs 4 lb of chicken thighs as Spoiled on Monday. Rinvy's cost for chicken thighs that day is $2.50 per lb, so the line costs $10.00. On Friday a delivery at a higher price raises Rinvy's cost for chicken thighs to $3.00 per lb. Monday's line still costs $10.00, and a new log from Friday on is priced at the new cost.

If Rinvy had no price for the product when you logged the waste, the line costs $0. This happens when the product had no receipt, no case cost and no recipe cost yet. The quantity still counts. To avoid it, receive the product or set its case cost before you log waste for it.

Can Staff open the Waste report?

Yes. Staff and Viewers can open the Waste tab, and it is the only report they see. Staff log the waste, so they can see what it adds up to. The Waste report still needs the Standard plan or higher. See roles and permissions.

An Owner or Manager can hide costs from Staff and Viewers in Kitchen Settings → Team & roles, under Costs. With costs hidden, Staff and Viewers see only the Products Wasted tile. Waste by Reason shows how many times waste was logged for each reason instead of dollars. The Products Wasted table shows quantities with no cost columns. Daily Waste Cost and Insights are about money, so they do not show.

Export

On Standard and Pro, Export CSV saves the Products Wasted table. The columns are Product, Storage Area, Unit, Quantity Wasted, Avg Cost and Total Value. The file has no reason column. When costs are hidden from the person who exports, the two cost columns are empty.