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Reading the Usage Summary Report (Variance)

Creation date: 7/22/2026 5:15 PM    Updated: 7/27/2026 8:47 AM   food cost ideal usage oc pro optimum control reports usage summary variance
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Optimum Control Guide
Reading the Usage Summary Report
What you should have used vs what you actually used — and what to do about the gap.
ℹ
This is the report the whole system exists to produce. The Usage Summary compares what you should have used against what you actually used, item by item — the gap between them is your variance.
⚠
You need a start and an end count
The report works between two finalized inventories — an opening and a closing count. Without both, there's nothing to compare.
🧮  The basic idea
Actual usage
What you started with, plus what you bought, minus what you counted at the end. (What genuinely left your shelves.)
Ideal usage
What your recipes say you should have used, based on what you sold, plus any waste you recorded.
Variance
The difference between the two.
💡 A big variance means the story doesn't add up: more (or less) product left the building than your sales and recipes can explain.
🔎  Drilling into a number
Almost every figure on the report can be double-clicked to see what's behind it:
Item name
Every transaction for that item over the period.
Opening / Closing Inventory
The counts and values behind those figures.
Purchases
All the invoices and transfers that make up the purchase total.
Ideal Usage
The menu items sold that used this item, and how much each pulled from stock.
Waste
The detail of what was wasted.
💡 Click any column header to re-sort — sorting by variance is the fastest way to find your worst offenders.
🕵️  Chasing down a variance
When an item shows a big variance, it's almost always one of these. Check them roughly in this order:
1
Miscount — the count was wrong (most common by far). Recount if you can.
2
Wrong recipe — the product recipe uses the wrong quantity, so ideal usage is off. Drill into Ideal Usage to check.
3
Missing invoice — a delivery wasn't entered, so purchases are understated.
4
Unentered waste — real waste that never got recorded shows up as a shortage.
5
Duplicate or missing sales — check the sales mix for that period.
6
Theft or portioning — only after the above are ruled out. Over-pouring and heavy-handed portions are variance too.
⚠
A variance is a question, not an accusation
Nine times out of ten it's a count or a data-entry gap, not someone stealing. Work through the boring explanations first.
🎯  Focus on what matters
Don't try to chase every item to zero — you never will. Concentrate on:
  • High-dollar items — a small variance on beef tenderloin matters more than a big one on table salt.
  • Key items — the things your venue watches closely.
  • Anything wildly off — a variance that's clearly impossible usually points to a data problem worth fixing.
🆘  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# 210012 · Tags: optimum control · oc pro · usage summary · variance · reports · food cost · ideal usage
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