Electronic Reporting comes in many shapes and sizes. Depending on the Foodservice Distributors that you purchase from, the complexity and breadth of information that is reportable vary greatly. Large broadline distributors such as US Foods and Sysco, have the ability to provide foodservice operators with detailed information on purchases. Sysco many times refers to their usage reports as Satrak’s which simply stands for Sales Tracking. Other popular titles which for all intensive purposes mean the same are velocity reports, volume reports, usage reports, historical data reports, purchase volume reports and descending dollar (descending $) reports to name a few. These reports are easy to run and free of charge and hold a wealth of information.
What to ask for: when asking for velocity reports, it is extremely helpful to request reports in excel (.xls) or (.csv) formats. Reason being is that you can open the reports in an excel spreadsheet and manipulate the data using any and all excel functions. I find the Data-Sort function to be quite helpful in moving large sections of information around quickly and accurately. Besides format, there are also certain pieces of information to request within the report. Keep in mind that different distributors, whether broadline food distribution suppliers, vendors such as Edward Don or Dade Paper and manyother produce, meat and niche purveyors refer to the same information under different headings. For any report you will have to also ask for a specified time period. For Example: 01/01/09 to 06/15/2009
This list is what I request on reports from Vendors:
SUPC or Distributor’s Item Code #
Mfg ID – Manufacturer ID #
Vendor Name (This tells you which manufacturer is behind your Distributors Branded lines of products)
Vendor #
Brand
Item Description – Item Name
Pack Size
Case Qty – Case Quantity – Volume – Usage
Splits (Reports how many individual items you purchased from splitting open a case)
Catchweight (the amount of pounds you purchased of a product)
Total $ - Total Sales
Average Price – This is the average price you paid for each individual item over the reporting period
With this information comes the ability to uncover information within your foodservice establishment. First, from an owners perspective it is nice to view everything your staff orders from time to time. Also, having access to historical trend information with volumes and pricing information for the items in which you purchase, you are provided with accurate knowledge as to which vendors to contact in order to contract on your high use items. With this report, you simply sort into a descending $ format, take your highest use items which will inherently contain the most leverage, convert splits and catchweight items to realize the accurate Average Price Paid over a period time, and you know have the necessary information to contact vendors, brokers and or manufacturers with regards to contracting on food and non/food items.
Another nicety is being able to uncover the manufacturers behind branded labels such as Pocahontas or Sysco Imperial or Sysco Reliance products that is derived through the vendor information from the report. Pack sizes help you in converting purchases when costing out a menu or new recipes. Pack sizes used in conjunction with average prices can give you a platform when considering the Yield Value of comparable products. There are many instances where a more expensive product is less costly because of the usable portion. For instance, the “Book of Yields” CD-Rom version comes with a table of over 200 different yield amounts in Ounces for 6/#10 Cans. Splits have their own set of difficulties depending on your program with various distributors. Most distributors up charge products for splitting a case and selling it to you. However, if you have a distribution agreement specifying this does not take place than you should be okay if you have auditing capabilities. Utilizing this report will help you to figure out if you should have just purchased a case of olive oil last month or really ordered 6 individual Gallon bottles. Obviously cash flows may play a role in certain purchasing choices.
One last comparison that I personally like to watch is a price variance report at the end of each month. With the reported information from month 1, I compare the like items purchased in month 2 in a side by side comparison to see the price increase or decrease for every single like item purchased. Honestly, for those operators saying there is no time for this nonsense, with some basic excel knowledge this comparison takes under 5 minutes to generate each month. The price variance report in addition to $ increases and decreases helps to uncover trends. If your report shows that butter, eggs, milk, cream and sour cream all increased from one month to the next, then that is pretty good evidence of how the entire dairy market is reacting under certain market conditions. The information provides a good lead in to identifying market trends and increasing your foodservice education.
Electronic Usage Reports provide information which leads to knowledge. And as the old adage goes – Knowledge is Power!
Wilton Marburger


