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Management Figures Dashboard
The Management Figures dashboard brings your inventory movements, count variance and sales performance together in one place, for the exact period you want to report on. Head office teams and outlet managers use it to close a period, explain the gap between theoretical and actual food cost, and compare outlets side by side.
Table of Contents
- Before you start
- Opening the dashboard
- Choosing your reporting period
3.1. The Full Counts Only filter
3.2. Actual and theoretical opening and closing values - Gross Profit Report
4.1. Inventory movement
4.2. Variance
4.3. Sales and gross profit - Inventory Movement - All Outlets
- Sales & Performance - All Outlets
- Who sees which outlets
- Frequently asked questions
1. Before you start
The figures on this dashboard are only as complete as the data behind them. To get a reliable report, make sure that for the period you want to analyse:
- Your inventory counts are closed. Full counts are what turn a theoretical opening or closing stock value into an actual one.
- Your goods receipts are registered, including credit notes and corrections.
- Your sales are imported and your sold items are linked to recipes. A sold item that is not linked to a recipe generates revenue but no cost, so your cost columns stay empty and your gross profit looks better than it is. If none of your POS products are linked, the cost and GP columns will be close to zero across the board.
- Your waste is registered in Apicbase rather than simply counted away during a stock count. Waste that is only absorbed by a count shows up as negative variance instead of waste.
- Your transfers between outlets are completed on both sides.
2. Opening the dashboard
- Open the Insights Hub module in the left navigation menu.
- Go to Dashboards.
- Select Management Figures.
The dashboard opens with three tables underneath each other:
- the Gross Profit Report (the top table), with inventory movement, variance and sales for one outlet, or for all your outlets combined,
- Inventory Movement - All Outlets, with one line per outlet,
- Sales & Performance - All Outlets, with one line per outlet.
Each table has its own filters, so you can look at a single outlet in detail in the first table while keeping a different period in the comparison tables.
3. Choosing your reporting period
Click the calendar filter at the top of a table to set your period. You can:
- Pick one of the suggested periods: Last 7 Days, which is selected by default, but you can also choose Last 30 Days or even a custom range.
- Or click a start date and then a second click on an end date to select a custom period.
You pick the start and end days. The calendar highlights the days on which a full count was closed, but it does not restrict your choice — you can select any range. If a full count was closed on a day you picked, that count becomes the period boundary. If not, the whole day is used.
Stock figures use the exact moment your count was closed, so anything that happened earlier that day sits in the previous period and anything after it in this one. Revenue is counted in whole days, and there the dashboard does assume the count came after service — a count closed at 10:00 still moves that whole day’s revenue to the previous period.
If the first day of your period has a closed full count, that day’s revenue belongs to the previous period and is left out. If it has no full count, that day’s revenue is included. The last day’s revenue is always included.
A quick worked example. Say you count on Monday after service, count again on Thursday after service, and take €33,000 in net sales across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday:
- Monday, after service — opening count
- Tue–Thu — net sales €33,000
- Thursday, after service — closing count
- Sold (Theoretical Cost) = €10,000 — the value of the stock those sales consumed
- Wasted = €400
- Net Variance = −€600 — you counted less than expected
- Actual Cost = 10,000 + 400 − (−600) = €11,000
- Theoretical food cost 30.3%, actual food cost 33.3%
Monday's own sales are not in the €33,000, because the Monday count is treated as the end of that day. And notice that subtracting a negative variance increases your actual cost: being short at the count adds €600 to what your stock really cost you.
3.1. Actual and theoretical opening and closing values
Next to every Opening Value and Closing Value you will see one of two symbols:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ✅ Actual value | A full inventory count was performed on this date, so the value is the counted stock value. |
| ⚠️ Theoretical value | No full inventory count on this date, so the value is the stock value Apicbase calculated from your movements. |
On a day with no full count, the value is calculated at the start of the day for an opening value, or the end of the day for a closing value, and is marked theoretical.
Hover over the symbol to see the same explanation as a tooltip. A period with two ✅ boundaries is the one to use for financial reporting. A period with a ⚠️ boundary is still useful for spotting trends, but the variance and actual cost figures in it are estimates.
4. Gross Profit Report
Use the outlet selector to choose the outlet you want to report on. Leave the outlet selector empty to see the totals for every outlet you have access to. Pick an outlet to see that one on its own, and use the ✕ to clear your choice and go back to the combined totals.
Use the column visibility filter to hide any figure you do not need, so the table only shows what you report on.
4.1. Inventory movement
This section shows you where your stock value went during the period. It starts from your opening stock and ends at your closing stock, with a column for every kind of movement in between.
Two things to know if you check the maths yourself. Movements that take stock out — Sold, Created Out, Transfers Out, Shipped Out and Wasted — are shown as negative amounts, so you add every column rather than subtracting the outgoing ones. And the count variance from the next section is part of the picture too:
Closing Value = Opening Value + all movement columns + Net Variance
Your closing stock value is measured directly from your stock records at the end of the period rather than calculated from the columns, so treat the columns as the explanation of the change rather than the source of the closing figure. Direct deliveries to external customers, and stock item merges, are not broken out into their own column.
| Figure | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Opening Value | Your stock value at the start of the period. If a full count was closed on that day, this is the counted value, taken at the moment the count was closed, and the count's own corrections are already included in it. If there was no full count, it is the calculated stock value at the start of the day. |
| Goods Received | The value of all goods receipts registered during the period. |
| Created In | The value of all recipes produced into stock during the period. |
| Transfers In | The value of all items transferred into this outlet during the period. |
| Sold | The cost of the stock your sales consumed during the period, from both POS sales and manually registered sales. |
| Created Out | The value of all products taken out of stock to produce recipes during the period. |
| Transfers Out | The value of all items transferred from this outlet to another outlet during the period. |
| Shipped Out | The value of all items picked and shipped from this outlet to other outlets, when this outlet acts as an internal supplier. |
| Wasted | The value of all items registered as waste during the period. |
| Closing Value | Your stock value at the end of the period, measured the same way: the counted value if a full count was closed that day, otherwise the calculated value at the end of the day. |
4.2. Variance
Variance is the difference between what your stock should have been and what your counts actually found.
| Figure | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Positive Variance | The total of all positive count differences in the period: you counted more than expected. |
| Negative Variance | The total of all negative count differences in the period, shown as a positive number: you counted less than expected. |
| Net Variance | Positive Variance − Negative Variance. This figure can be negative. |
Two points on which counts are included:
- The closing count of your period is included, because its result belongs to the period you are reporting on.
- The opening count of your period is not included, because that count closed the previous period.
This applies when a full count was closed on your start and end days. Without one, the period simply runs from the start to the end of the days you picked.
4.3. Sales and gross profit
This section is where the dashboard earns its name: it puts your theoretical cost next to your actual cost and shows you the gap.
Net Sales is your total revenue excluding taxes for the period.
Theoretical is the cost your recipes say you should have used:
| Figure | Calculation |
|---|---|
| Cost | The same figure as the Sold line in the inventory movement section: the sum of all stock-based costs of goods sold during the period. |
| Cost % | Theoretical Cost ÷ Net Sales × 100 |
| GP % | 100 − Theoretical Cost % |
Actual is the cost you really incurred, which adds waste and corrects for what your counts found:
| Figure | Calculation |
|---|---|
| Cost | Theoretical Cost + Wasted − Net Variance |
| Cost % | Actual Cost ÷ Net Sales × 100 |
| GP % | 100 − Actual Cost % |
Difference is the gap between the two:
| Figure | Calculation |
|---|---|
| Cost | Actual Cost − Theoretical Cost |
| Cost % | Actual Cost % − Theoretical Cost % |
| GP % | Actual GP % − Theoretical GP % |
If there are no net sales in the period, every percentage shows a dash instead of 0%. A percentage of sales can't be worked out without a sales figure. The cost difference in currency is still shown.
A negative difference in GP % means you earned less than your recipes predicted. The three ingredients of that gap are visible in the same table: waste you registered, stock your counts could not find, which shows as negative variance, and portioning or recipe accuracy. Hover over Net Variance and Actual Cost to see their formula, and over Theoretical Cost for a short definition.
5. Inventory Movement - All Outlets
This table shows the same inventory movement and variance figures as the outlet report, but with one line per outlet, so you can see at a glance which site is losing stock.
To focus the table:
- Use the calendar to set the period.
- Use the search field to find an outlet by name.
- Open Filters to narrow the list:
- Under Inventory Count Status you'll find two dropdowns, Opening Value Status and Closing Value Status. Set either to Actual only or Theoretical only to narrow the list, and leave one on All Outlets to not filter on it. Set both to find the outlets that completed neither count. This is the quickest way to find the sites that did not complete their count.
- Outlet Grouping lets you filter by your outlet grouping fields — by default Region, Site, Brand / Concept and Business Unit / Segment. A grouping only appears once values have been set up for it, and any custom outlet fields you've added appear here too.
- Use column visibility to hide any columns you do not need.
The ✅ and ⚠️ symbols appear in the Opening Value and Closing Value columns here too, and follow exactly the same logic as in the Gross Profit Report.
6. Sales & Performance - All Outlets
This table shows the sales and gross profit figures with one line per outlet: Outlet, Net Sales, Theoretical Cost, Actual Cost, Theoretical Cost %, Actual Cost %, Theoretical Gross Profit %, Actual Gross Profit %, Gross Profit Difference. Unlike the Gross Profit Report, the difference is shown as a single Gross Profit Difference column, in percentage points.
The filters are the calendar, the outlet name search, the Outlet Grouping filters, and column visibility.
The Gross Profit Difference column is the one to scan first: the outlets furthest from zero are the ones where reality and recipe are drifting apart.
7. Who sees which outlets
- Library users see every outlet in your library, both in the outlet selector and in the two all outlets tables.
- Outlet users see only the outlets they have been given access to.
- If you have access to a single outlet, that outlet is the only one in the dropdown. Whether you select it or not, the figures you see are its own. The tables headed "All Outlets" will show one line.
8. Frequently asked questions
Why is my actual cost higher than my theoretical cost?
Because something left your stock that was not sold. The usual causes are waste, spoilage, over-portioning, staff meals or free items that are not registered, and stock losses that only surface at the count. Your actual cost is your theoretical cost, plus the waste you registered, minus your net count variance. To see how much of the gap each one explains, compare the Wasted figure in the inventory movement section with the Net Variance figure in the variance section — both sit in the Gross Profit Report, in the tables above the sales figures.
Note it's the net variance that matters: if you counted more of some items than expected, that offsets the items you were short on and shrinks the gap.
Why is my actual cost lower than my theoretical cost?
A consistently negative gap usually points to a data issue rather than a windfall: goods receipts that were not registered, recipes with yields or portion sizes that are set too high, or counts that recorded more stock than is physically there. It is worth checking your recipe costings before treating the figure as a saving.
Why are some days highlighted in the calendar?
Those are the days on which a full inventory count was closed. Picking them as your start and end gives you actual, counted opening and closing values. They are a hint rather than a restriction — you can still select any range. The only days you cannot pick are days in the future.
Should my opening and closing stock values match the Stock Over Period report?
They use the same valuation, so over the same period they should line up closely — but they are not guaranteed to be identical at any given moment. The dashboard is built from data that is refreshed periodically rather than live, while the reports read your data as it is right now, so a period that includes recent activity can differ between the two until the dashboard's data catches up.
To compare them properly, use Insights Hub > Reports > Stock Report Between Two Counts and pick the same two counts that bound your dashboard period. That report uses the exact moments your counts were closed as its boundaries, just as the dashboard does, so it is the closest like-for-like comparison.
If you use Stock Over Period instead, set its end date to the day after your closing count — its closing figure is taken at the start of the end date you enter, not the end of it — and compare against the Summary sheet rather than the detailed one, which rounds per line.
If a difference remains after that, contact support with the outlet and the period and we will look at it with you.
Why is Net Sales lower than the revenue in my POS?
Net Sales is revenue excluding taxes, and only covers sales that were imported into Apicbase for the selected period and for the selected outlets. Sales that failed to import, or sold items that are not linked to a recipe, will make the dashboard and your POS diverge. One other thing can make Net Sales look low: if your period starts on a day you closed a full count, that first day's sales are left out, because the count is taken at the end of the day.
Can I split the figures by product category, for example food and beverage?
Not on this dashboard. The sales data behind it is consolidated per outlet and per day, so the category is no longer available at this level. If you need revenue split by POS category, go to Insights Hub > Reports > Sales, select a single outlet, use Filter PoS categories and export the result.
Can I export these tables?
Not yet. An export option has been requested and is on the product roadmap. In the meantime, use the Stock Over Period report and the sales reports in the Insights Hub for figures you need in a spreadsheet.
I only need profit per site, not this level of detail. Is there something simpler?
Yes. Insights Hub > Dashboards > Sales shows Profit and Average Profit Margin % per outlet for the period you select, which is enough for most monthly reporting.
Do I need to have counted to use the dashboard?
No, but you do need full counts for the actual cost and variance figures to be meaningful. Without a closing full count, the closing stock value is theoretical, and the actual cost is calculated on an estimated stock position.