Startup Guide

Following the step by step procedures in order will ensure that no steps are overlooked when setting up Optimum Control.

 

Step by Step Procedures

The first time you use Optimum Control, a wizard will display to assist you in the initial setup. In order to use the program, the Company's information and mailing address must be completed. All other steps are optional and can be setup at a later time. If you need help at anytime during the wizard, click on the help button.

 

 

When you have completed the wizard, you are now ready to setup your store by followings these steps:

 

  1. Configure the Taxes and Adjustments to correspond with your state/province.
  2. Add your Suppliers

  3. Setup the Item/Product Groups 

  4. Setup the Inventory Items 

  5. Create the Prep/Batch Recipes 

  6. Create your Products (Menu Recipes) 

  7. Enter in an opening Inventory count.

  8. Create Orders (Optional).

  9. Enter in Invoices (Purchases).

  10. Enter in the Sales Mix. This can be imported from your POS system or entered manually from Till Tapes.

  11. Put in the Daily/Weekly Sales totals.

 It is important to enter your information in the order it happened, especially with Sales mix, Invoices and Inventory counts as they all affect inventory levels.

 

The most commonly used features are:

Daily Sales Summary 
Do this daily to achieve maximum accuracy. It is used for daily financial information, Gross Sales, Net Sales, discounts, deposits etc.  You can, if you like, just enter Gross Sales information to get numbers for the Usage Summary Report. Here you can also detail and category sales to get even more definition about your costs.

Sales Mix
You can enter this daily, weekly or by period. We recommend that you enter your sales mix weekly. This helps to keep your database smaller. If you exceed weekly input then you reports will not be as timely. The program will remind you if you are trying to save a Sales Mix more than 7 days from a previous sales mix.  This prevents you from entering a sales mix on the wrong date. You can always change the sales mix dates if you make a mistake.

Orders
Orders can be entered whenever you like and have no bearing on day-to-day reporting. You can import to the invoice window upon receiving stock to save time.  Exports may be available for your suppliers to automatically upload to a website, call our office for information on this feature.

Invoices
Invoices can be entered anytime but should be entered as close to the date received as possible and if possible in the order they were received. All invoices should be entered prior to updating inventory counts.

Inventory Counts
At the end of each week, period or month ... prior to running any inventory related reports you will need to count your inventory and enter a Closing (or ending) Inventory.  
Make sure, before you do this, that all Invoices, Daily Sales Information, Sales Mix information and Waste (if you are using this feature), are entered. 

Remember that Optimum Control adjusts your inventory each time you enter a Sales Mix, Invoice or Inventory count.  This not only affects your food cost but also gives you accurate ordering information.  So, to be on top of your costs, reports and enter your information on a timely basis.

 

Reports to Run

There are many reports in Optimum Control but only several that are recommended on a weekly basis.

Usage Summary - actual versus theoretical usage.  Run this report by count amounts to get maximum detail.  Double click on purchases to see purchase information.  Double click on ideal amounts to see what was removed from inventory and what recipes affected the stock.  Click on the column headers to resort the report how you want. THIS REPORT WLL GIVE YOU THE MOST DETAIL ON HOW YOUR OPERATION IN RUNNING!

Sales Mix by Product - details all sales and cost of sales for each menu item you sold. 

Purchase by Item Detail - shows what was purchased, from who, what invoice numbers and how much you paid.