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:
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.
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:
On the left menu bar, click “Items” > “Families & Categories”
Place your cursor over a category and click the “Details” column
Click the “Excluded from Variance” checkbox
The category is now excluded from variance calculations, and your existing variance data recalculates
By Item
To exclude specific items from variance calculations:
On the left menu bar, click “Items” > “Items”
Click the checkboxes beside any number of items
Click the “Exclude from Variance” button
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
On the “Items” Page, click “Predefined filters”, scroll through the drop-down menu and click “Excluded from Variance”
The filter applies and all items excluded from variance display
Excluded From Variance Column
On the “Items” Page, click the gear icon on the top-left
Click the “Excluded from Variance” checkbox
The “Excluded from Variance” column appears. Any items that have been excluded have a checkmark
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:
Click the checkboxes beside any items that have been excluded from variance (use the predefined filter or check the “Excluded from Variance” column)
Click the “Include in Variance” button
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 will still see the item when viewing the:
Inventory Page / Report
Consumption Page / Report
However, the item won't appear when looking at values on the:
Summary Dashboards
Variance Page
Inventory & Consumption Page
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.
On the Consumption page, $50 worth of mushrooms and $10 worth of avocados were consumed during the period.
However, when you check your cost percentages and variance data, you’ll see that the item “Mushrooms Sample” isn’t included in those calculations.
Summary Dashboards
Since the “Mushrooms Sample” item is excluded from variance, only the inventory and consumption values for the “Avocado” item appears on the dashboard tabs.
This means any time a value displays for Inventory or Cost of Goods Sold ($), it only includes items marked as "Included in variance".
Overview Tab
In the example inventory, the total dollar value was $60. However, since the Mushrooms (worth $50) are excluded, the Inventory value shows as only $10 and that is used for all other calculations.
If the Mushrooms were included in the variance again, the total inventory value would go back to $60 and that number would be used in the calculations.
Variance Tab
On the Variance tab, the excluded items aren't factored into calculating the Cost of Goods Sold. During the inventory period, $50 worth of mushrooms were sold/consumed. These do not appear since they are excluded from variance.
If the Mushrooms were included in the variance again, the Cost of Goods Sold would include the $50 from the mushrooms. This puts the total COGS at $60 and that number would be used in the calculations.
Inventory Tab
On the Inventory tab, you'll see both the modified inventory and COGS values. With the mushrooms being excluded from inventory, it only shows the values for the avocados.
If the “Mushrooms Sample” item is included in variance again, the numbers update to reflect this:
Variance Page
Like on the dashboards, the modified consumption value is used in the variance calculations. In the example below, they reflect only the “Avocado” item.
However, if the “Mushrooms Sample” item is included, it shows a higher consumption, cost of sales, variance cost, and shrinkage percentage.
