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Excluding Items from Variance
Excluding Items from Variance

How to filter out specific items or item categories from being used in variance calculations

Nick Neale avatar
Written by Nick Neale
Updated over 2 years ago

Article Contents

Introduction

In some situations, you may have an item that you inventory, but don’t want to use it in any variance calculations. This is because including that item would impact the accuracy of your variance data.

A few examples include:

  1. Items you inventory but don’t sell. This could include flatware and dishes, empty kegs and more. If included in your variance, WISK uses their consumption in your variance calculations. This impacts your cost percentages when comparing consumption to sales.

  2. Items you can’t track consumption accurately. For example, if you sell a “Bottomless Mimosa” offering unlimited refills, you can’t map the POS Item with 100% accuracy. You'll always see a variance on the sparkling wine used. By excluding it from your variance you'll get a more accurate cost percentage for the rest of your items.

How to Exclude Items From Variance

You can exclude items from variance either at the category or item level.

By Category

To exclude an entire category from variance:

  1. On the left menu bar, click “Items” > “Families & Categories”

    The "Families & Categories" menu option is highlighted

  2. Place your cursor over a category and click the “Details” column

    An arrow points to the "Details" button beside a category.

  3. Click the “Excluded from Variance” checkbox

    The "Excluded from Variance" checkbox is highlighted.

  4. The category is now excluded from variance calculations, and your existing variance data recalculates

    The "Excluded from Variance" box is checked.

By Item

To exclude specific items from variance calculations:

  1. On the left menu bar, click “Items” > “Items”

    The "Items" button is highlighted on the side menu bar.

  2. Click the checkboxes beside any number of items

    An arrow points to the checkbox beside an item.

  3. Click the “Exclude from Variance” button

    An item has been checked and an arrow points to the "Exclude from Variance" button that appears on a side menu.

  4. The selected items are now excluded from variance calculations, and your existing variance data recalculates

Note: If you open up an item’s details, there is also an “Excluded from Variance” checkbox you can select

Viewing Excluded Items

You can see items you’ve excluded from variance the following ways:

  • Excluded from Variance Filter

  • Excluded From Variance Column

Note: This only applies to individual items that have been excluded from variance. If a whole category is excluded from variance, you’ll see this on the Families & Categories page.

Excluded from Variance Filter

  1. On the “Items” Page, click “Predefined filters”, scroll through the drop-down menu and click “Excluded from Variance”

    The "Predefined filters" dropdown menu is highlighted and an arrow points to "Excluded from Variance".

  2. The filter applies and all items excluded from variance display

    The filter is applied and all items that are excluded from variance display.

Excluded From Variance Column

  1. On the “Items” Page, click the gear icon on the top-left

    An arrow points to the "Gear" icon under "View"

  2. Click the “Excluded from Variance” checkbox

    The "Excluded from Variance" column on the list is highlighted.

  3. The “Excluded from Variance” column appears. Any items that have been excluded have a checkmark

    The "Excluded from Variance" column is highlighted for emphasis.

Note: You can click the checkbox in the column to exclude or include an item in variance.

Restoring / Including Items in Variance

To include an item in variance calculations again:

  1. Click the checkboxes beside any items that have been excluded from variance (use the predefined filter or check the “Excluded from Variance” column)

  2. Click the “Include in Variance” button

    Items have been selected and an arrow points to the "Include in Variance" button.

  3. The selected items are included in variance calculations again. Your variance data recalculates.

Note: If the “Exclude in Variance” column is visible, you can also click a checked item to include it in variance again.

Excluded from Variance Examples

When you exclude an item from variance, that item isn’t included in some calculations. You’ll see modified inventory and consumption values when viewing cost percentages and variance.

When you check the Inventory and Consumption pages / reports, you’ll see every item. In this example, the item “Mushrooms Sample” is excluded from variance.

On the Inventory page, there is $50 worth of mushrooms and $10 worth of avocados, for a total of $60.

The total inventory value displays as $60.

On the Consumption page, $50 worth of mushrooms and $10 worth of avocados were consumed during the period.

The total consumption for the period displays as $60, including all items.

However, when you check your cost percentages and variance data, you’ll see that the item “Mushrooms Sample” isn’t included in those calculations.

Cost of Sales

Since the “Mushrooms Sample” item is excluded from variance, only the inventory and consumption values for the “Avocado” item appears under "Cost of Sales" on the Home page.

It shows an ending inventory of $10, and a consumption of $10. The consumption is then divided by the sales amount to get the cost percentage (41.67%).

The modified inventory and consumption values don't include any items excluded from variance.

If the “Mushrooms Sample” item is included in the calculations, it goes towards the inventory and consumption values, which gives a cost percentage greater than 100%.

If an excluded item is included again, the inventory and consumption values update.

Variance Page

Like the Cost of Sales, the modified consumption value is used in the variance calculations. In the example below, they reflect only the “Avocado” item.

Variance data only showing the avocado.

However, if the “Mushrooms Sample” item is included, it shows a higher consumption, cost of sales, variance cost, and shrinkage percentage.

Variance data with both the avocados and mushrooms.

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