How do I enter Hot Item Inventory & what does that mean?

This article provides store-level managers directions on entering daily hot item inventory counts using Decision Logic’s platform.

Overview

Inventory is a complete list of all the items or raw materials required to prepare dishes, including food, spices, paper items, cleaning supplies, linens, merchandise, liquor, beverages, etc. Counting inventory helps track the ingredients coming in and out of your restaurant.

Hot item inventory is a daily count that can occur multiple times a day, up to three, depending on how your site is configured. Hot-item inventory enables stores to track high-variance, high-cost ingredients in greater detail.

Ingredients are flagged as Hot Item within the Inventory Guide Setup, or by an admin for Inventory Sets.

Examples of hot item variances:

Over portioning.
Incorrect POS ring-ups.
Incorrectly held temperatures (waste).
Theft.

Stores must have at least two inventories entered into Decision Logic’s platform for the Hot Item Variance report to be accurate.

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A best practice is for Decision Logic Administrators to create a Hot Item Inventory Set and assign it to all stores. Then, stores can add additional hot items through their Inventory Guide Setup. However, stores cannot remove items from the Hot Item Inventory Set that above-store level managers have defined.

A store can be assigned to more than one Hot Item Inventory Set. However, when stores take Hot Item Inventory, all items from the Hot Item Inventory Sets they are assigned to will be included.

Decision Logic provides two avenues when entering inventory counts and posting:

Web browser.
Digital Manager mobile application.

Enter Hot Item Inventories

Hot items cannot be counted in multiple locations on the guide. Instead, users will enter a single quantity for each item. Follow the steps below to enter and post a hot item inventory.

Users can count and post hot item inventories up to three times a day: Open, Afternoon, and Close. Submit a ticket if your brand would like multiple hot item inventory time slots.

Navigate to:

Operations > Inventory > Inventory Home

Select a Company, Region, Area, or Store.
Define the Date Range.
Click Apply.
1. The results show:
  1. Type of inventory, such as Scheduled or Hot Item Inventory.
    1. Scheduled: represents counting all inventoried items based on your Inventory Cycle.
    2. Flame Icon: represents Hot Item Inventory and will appear on the Hot Item Inventory guide, including the Time Slot selected.
  2. Date inventory should be taken and posted.
  3. Status of an inventory, such as Scheduled, In-Process Review, or Posted.
  4. Start date of an inventory in process or posted.
  5. Who started the inventory.
  6. When the inventory was Posted.
  7. Who posted inventory.
  8. Any Change Requests submitted.
  9. Action item options.
Click New Inventory.
Select Hot Inventory as the Inventory Type:
1. Scheduled Inventory: The standard option that counts all items.
2. Hot Inventory: Count your high cost, high variance items multiple times a day.
Click Next.
Select the Inventory Date. There is a legend notating the status of post inventory dates for the month selected.
1. Green: Has at least one posted inventory for that day.
2. Blue: The date that is selected.
Click Next.
1. If there are pending orders to be received in Decision Logic, users will see a yellow banner with the option to click View.
2. Click Back to navigate back. Clicking Close will stop the inventory process from moving forward and bring you back to the Inventroy Home landing page.
Select the Time and Time Slot.
Click Done.
Enter the Inventory Quantities.
Click Post Inventory.

Table of Contents

1 Overview
2 Enter Hot Item Inventories
3 Affected Reports
4 Add or Remove Hot Items
5 Calculations

For additional questions or assistance, please submit a support ticket by visiting the Decision Logic Service Center.

Unable to access this feature in the Decision Logic platform?

Contact your Decision Logic Administrator to make Scope and Security adjustments to your user profile or add new features.
Some pages are client-specific.

Affected Reports

The Hot Item Variance Report will provide data for your hot item entries.

Add or Remove Hot Items

Users can add or remove individual items to the Hot Item Inventory list.

Navigate to:

Operations > Inventory > Inventory Home

Select a Company, Region, Area, or Store.
Define the Date Range.
Click Apply.
Click Guide Setup.
Highlight an individual item and click the Pencil Icon.
Check Hot Item or add an item to the guide. Uncheck Hot Item to remove an item from the hot item inventory guide.
1. Check Inactive to deactivate an item. This function removes the item from the regular inventory guide. If ' hot item ' is unchecked, it will also be removed from the Hot Item inventory.
Click X to remove an item from a specific Location.
Click Save.

Calculations

Metric	Formula
Actual Usage	Beginning Inventory + Purchases - Ending Inventory
Variance	Actual Usage - Ideal Usage

Ideal usage, the quantity that was used, is calculated directly from Product Mix Reporting that is pulled from the POS system.