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Creating a Hot List for Problem Items

Creation date: 7/22/2026 5:30 PM    Updated: 7/27/2026 8:47 AM   hot list inventory oc pro optimum control problem items variance watch list
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Optimum Control Guide
Creating a Hot List for Problem Items
Watch a handful of trouble items closely — without counting the whole venue.
ℹ
A hot list is a short, focused list of items you want to watch closely. It's the tool for the classic situation: one or two products keep coming up short, and you want to count just those, often, without doing a full inventory every time.
🔥  What a hot list does
A hot list lets you run an inventory on just the items on the list. Everything not on it has its count calculated automatically from sales and purchases — so you're not counting the whole venue to keep an eye on a handful of trouble items.
💡 Bonus use: a hot list also works as a filter on the Usage Summary report — so you can pull a variance report for just your watch items. That's often more useful than the hot-list count itself.
🔨  Creating a hot list
1
Click Count Inventory on the main toolbar.
2
Click Hot Lists on the inventory toolbar.
3
Click New (or pick an existing list to edit or delete).
4
Give it a List Description — a clear name, like "Liquor Watch" or "High-Theft Items".
5
Add items: search or filter on the left, then drag and drop onto your list on the right. Hold Shift to highlight a group, then click ≥ to move them all at once. Filtering by Group, or pulling from Key Items only, finds things faster.
6
Re-order if you like — click and hold an item, drag it up or down (a red line shows where it will land), and let go.
7
Click Save.
💡 The list is now available two ways: as a hot-list inventory count, and as a filter on the Usage Summary report.
💡  Good candidates for a hot list
  • High-value items — spirits, premium proteins, seafood.
  • Anything with a stubborn variance — the item that never seems to add up.
  • High-theft items — small, valuable, easy to walk off with.
  • A category under review — when leadership wants eyes on one area for a while.
🆘  If something goes wrong
Program problem — errors, crashes, failed saves, a report that won't run → TracRite support at Support@tracrite.net (they know their software best).
"How do I / why does my data look like this?" — missing items, vendors, recipes, or numbers that look off → your F&B manager or executive chef. These are operational questions, not software faults.
Hardware, network, a lost license, or OC missing from a workstation → that's the short list Argus IT handles.
See Optimum Control — Common Issues and How to Get Help (KB-210001) for the full "who to contact for what" breakdown before reaching out.
ArgusIT KB# 210018 · Tags: optimum control · oc pro · hot list · watch list · problem items · inventory · variance
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