Protect Profits Initiative: Audit Server-Controlled Items
Recipe: 20-30 Minutes Monthly + Essentials or Professional Subscription
Let us walk you through it step by step: Protect Profits: Server-Controlled Items
Log into Avero in another tab, then click the link to launch a step-by-step guide to auditing your Server-Controlled Items.
This guide will help you protect your business from incurring costs for items provided to guests without the corresponding revenue that the item should generate.
What ARE Server-Controlled Items?
Server-controlled items are items that don't have a verification to be made, basically without a ticket. This might be soft drinks, coffee, pastries, breakfast sides - anything that can be served without having been rung in.
Why watch these items?
Severs and bartenders get busy or may ask another team member to help them out and miss ringing in the item when settling the check, and some may give items they control away hoping for higher tips. Whatever the reason, we'll show you how to spot these items and turn to training and accountability to make sure all the items going to the guest are making it to your revenue!
Run Your Report - Then Identify the Server-Controlled Items
Run the Item Sales Report making sure to include the categories and items you're looking to track, then check the boxes for each item or category and select Sales by Employee to generate a Contest Report for those items.
View Sales by Employee
Once you've selected all of the setver controlled items you want to track- Click on Sales by Employee in the header of the data table to run a contest report.
Note: The number in red is how many items you've selected!
If desired, you can now add filters to limit the contest report to certain job codes or exclude outlier employees:
Scroll to the bottom to see the TOTAL and AVERAGE values across all the included employees. This will be your comparison point.
Who's below average?
Take a look at the employees who are below the team average for server-controlled items. This is where you can focus on improvement. Often, retraining is the most effective.
Some Tactics:
- Too Busy? Busy employees may be getting items to the guest quickly and forgetting to ring them in after the fact - retrain them to ensure items are rung in before they make it to the table.
- Intimidated? If the employee doesn't feel comfortable with the espresso machine, they may avoid selling these items or asking other team members to make the drinks.
- Fraud? Some servers may give things away that they can get easily, hoping for a bigger tip. If they know you track these items, they're less likely to give them away.
This report can now be pinned to your dashboard, set to send automatically, or saved to Shared Reports for the entire team's use. Track these items regularly to ensure you are recording all due revenue!