Hotel cost control management, there are 16 key links, you will, you will not, how much you can do

Original: Li Sheng

For most existing catering companies

The era of small profits

It's hard to survive without low-cost exploitation. We can say that "price determines death"

Today's market competition is competition of power, competition of talent, competition of product and service quality, and competition of value

In a sense

Cost determines competitiveness of an enterprise. Business leaders should change traditional narrow concept of cost, combined with real situation in enterprise

Make full use of modern advanced cost control techniques to improve competitiveness of enterprises and meet challenges of all parties

In this regard, I will deeply analyze current procurement cost control skills according to current situation in food service industry and show them to everyone for inspiration

Session 1. Shopping

Purchasing is starting point and guarantee of restaurant operation

This is also first link in controlling food costs. To control costs well at procurement stage, this must be done

(1)

Develop procurement specification standards

In other words, purchased raw materials must be strictly regulated in terms of shape, color, grade, packaging requirements, etc.

Of course, it is not necessary to use specifications for every raw material, as a rule, only for those important raw materials that affect cost of dishes.

(2)

Restaurants should only buy ingredients that will soon be used

Purchasing staff should be familiar with menu and latest operating conditions of restaurant, so that there is only enough fresh ingredients for a day

(3)

Purchasing staff must have a good understanding of food ingredients and market dynamics

Purchase raw materials that meet needs of restaurant, on time, qualitatively and in quantity

(4)

At purchase

Look at prices and buy highest quality raw materials at most reasonable price

At same time, try to buy locally to save on shipping and other purchases

(5)

Regular ethics training for procurement staff

Let them tweak idea that everything is a restaurant and avoid substandard or private kickbacks

(6)

Developing procurement approval procedures

Departments that require raw materials must fill out a purchasing form, which is usually approved by chef and submitted to purchasing department. If purchase amount exceeds maximum limit, this should be reported to restaurant manager for approval< /p>

The procurement form is made in triplicate, first and second copies are sent to purchasing department, and third copy is kept by person responsible for purchasing department for future verification

Part 2: Acceptance

The restaurant must formulate working procedures for receiving raw materials, and acceptance is usually divided into three aspects: quality, quantity and price

(1)

Quality. The receiver must check whether purchased ingredients for dishes meet original specifications and requirements

(2)

Quantity: check quantity or double check weight of all ingredients of dish, and also check if delivery quantity matches quantity in application and quantity in invoice

(3)

Price: does price of purchased raw material match declared price

If there is a discrepancy in above three aspects

The restaurant must refuse to accept all or part of raw materials, and finance department must also refuse to pay and notify supplier of raw materials in a timely manner.

If all acceptance checks meet requirements, complete acceptance form and purchase a daily report

Section 3. Inventory

(1)

Inventory is an important part of cost control

Incorrect inventory will lead to spoilage or loss of raw materials, etc., which will increase cost of dishes and reduce profits

(2)

Storage and storage of raw materials should be handled by special personnel

The custodian is responsible for security of warehouse and no one can enter warehouse without permission

In addition, to prevent theft of raw materials, it is necessary to change locks regularly

(3)

After purchasing raw materials for dishes, they should be quickly placed in appropriate warehouse in accordance with their category and capacity

Keep at a suitable temperature

Restaurants have their own warehouses, such as dry goods warehouses, cold stores, ice storage, etc. Different warehouses have different requirements for raw materials

The main requirement is classification and storage in different rooms

(4)

All ingredients in stock must be marked with date of purchase

To handle inventory turnover well

In distribution of raw materials, principle of "first in, first out" should be observed, i.e. first stored raw material is used earlier, and last stored raw material is used later

(5)

In addition, custodian must always check operation of refrigeration and freezing equipment and temperature of each warehouse

Take good care of cleanliness in warehouse so that pests and rats do not damage or destroy raw materials for dishes in warehouse

(6)

At end of each month, keeper must take an inventory of raw materials in warehouse and fill out an inventory form

(7)

Inventory points must be weighted, but inventory cannot be scored

An accountant and a custodian should participate in inventory

The profit and loss situation must be strictly checked by restaurant manager

In principle, ratio of profit and loss of raw materials to amount of shipment this month should not exceed 1%

Part 4. Distribution of raw materials

Raw material release control has following two important aspects

(1)

Do not take materials from warehouse without approval.

(2)

Get only ingredients you need for your meal

For this

The restaurant needs to improve its sourcing system, most common being use of a sourcing list

Four copies of application list, one for kitchen

One copy for warehouse clerk, one copy for accountant, and one copy for finance department. Generally speaking

The kitchen should inform warehouse in advance of requirements for collection of materials, so that warehouse owner can prepare in advance

Part 5. Roughing

The work of cost control in roughing process is mainly scientific and accurate measurement of net cost of various raw materials

In order to improve net material rate of raw materials, this must be done

(1)

When roughing, process in strict accordance with prescribed work procedures and requirements to achieve and maintain proper material net rate

(2)

For high value raw materials, experienced chefs should experiment first to suggest best processing method

(3)

Parts removed during rough processing (meat, bones, etc.) should be recycled as much as possible to improve their utilization rate and use them as efficiently as possible to reduce costs

Part 6. Mapping

Matching is an important link in determining cost of main ingredients and ingredients

When cutting and matching, actual position of raw material should be used according to actual position of raw material

Use big ingredients, use small ingredients, and make most of leftovers to keep cost down

Restaurants usually use a quota system for consumption of raw materials for dishes

Strict arrangement of dishes in accordance with specifications and quality requirements of menu items

After consumption of raw materials is determined, it is necessary to draw up a table for calculating quotas for consumption of raw materials for dishes and carefully follow it

Under or overdosing or poor use is strictly prohibited. The main ingredients must be weighed, and we must not rely on experience to grab them by chance, but strive to ensure characteristics and quality of dishes

Section 7. Cooking

Cooking catering products affects quality of dishes on one hand

On other hand, it is also closely related to cost control. The influence of cooking on cost of meals is mainly manifested in following two aspects

(1)

Amount of spices

From point of view of cooking, fewer seasonings are used, which account for lessA lower share of cost, but in terms of total number of catering products

The seasonings used and their cost are also significant, especially oil, monosodium glutamate and sugar

Therefore, in cooking process, it is necessary to strictly observe cost specification of seasonings, which will not only make quality of dishes more stable, but also make cost more accurate

(2)

The quality of dishes and percentage of their refusal

In cooking process, one pan, one dish should be preferred, special dishes should be prepared, work procedures should be strictly observed, and cooking times and temperatures should be respected.

If a guest comes to a restaurant for a bite to eat, has an opinion about dishes and asks to change them, this will affect quality of service and cost of dishes

Therefore

Every chef should work hard to improve their culinary skills and innovate, serve ingredients intelligently, and aim for no or less waste in order to effectively control cost of dishes in the cooking process

Section 8. Sales

On one hand, managing a selling link allows you to effectively stimulate sales

On other hand, this is necessary to ensure that all products sold are recycled

The goal of control at this stage is to deal with low-selling and slow-selling dishes in a timely manner through sales analysis

For this

First of all, you need to analyze list of dish sales. Thanks to analysis, we can not only identify effective needs of guests, but also promote catering sales

Managers must use results of this analysis effectively

For those "star dishes" with high profits and high popularity

Packaging and marketing should be actively developed, such as "Chef Recommended Meals"; for dishes with high profits but low popularity, find out reasons

To plan how to sell low-margin but highly popular dishes, learn how to increase profits

For marginal and less popular varieties, adjustments and substitutions should be made to increase sales efficiency and profit margins

Session 9. Service

Inadequate service during service process will also increase cost of dishes, mainly in following aspects

(1)

When waiter filled out menu, he did not re-check dishes ordered by guests, so when serving dishes, guests said that they did not order dishes

(2)

The service staff stole dishes and applied an insufficient amount, which caused complaints from guests

(3)

Serving staff overturned plates and soup pots when transferring or serving dishes

(4)

An error occurred during delivery. For example, waiter shifted dish ordered by guest at table 1 to table 2, but guest at table 2 did not explain

The above phenomena

Restaurant should strengthen professional ethics training and regular business-technical training for service personnel so that they can correct their attitude towards service

Establish a good attitude towards service, improve service skills, serve guests strictly according to rules, strive to avoid mistakes or make them less, minimize food costs

Session 10. Collection

A restaurant should not only do its job well from procurement of raw materials to preparation of dishes

Control costs in service process, but also pay attention to collection control to ensure profitability

Any errors during data collection

Due to loopholes, cost of meals will increase. Therefore, restaurant managers should control following aspects

(1)

Prevent missing or underpricing and underpricing

(2)

Indicate exact cost of each dish on invoice

(3)

Accounting is correct at checkout

(4)

Prevent missing andwhether to bypass accounts

(5)

Strict prevention of corruption and fraud by cashiers or other personnel

Session 11. Overview

Every day after business closes

A restaurant worker must prepare a "restaurant day report" based on invoices and menus. The working day report is compiled in three copies, one copy is kept independently

One copy is handed over to General Services along with invoice signed and paid by guest, and one copy is collected along with all invoices and menus

Reservations for banquets, etc., as well as cash in form of daily operating income, are transferred to finance department for review

The finance department should conduct a thorough check in accordance with "restaurant business day report" and related original documents to ensure interests of restaurant

Session 12. Focusing on innovative dishes and cost reduction

Controlling enterprise costs in addition to preventing them from rising

It may be more likely that cost will decrease to some extent each year, but there is always a limit to decrease in value

After reaching a certain limit, if it is not an innovative technology, process, equipment increase or improvement, etc., it will be difficult to reduce cost, and management may recover or increase if management is a little loose.

After a certain price reduction

Catering companies can only cut costs through innovation, reduce amount of raw materials or find new ones through technological innovation

Replacing old and expensive raw materials with cheaper raw materials; increase utilization rate of raw materials, reduce waste of raw materials, and increase number of finished products or first-class products in terms of technological innovation

Innovative workflows and management techniques to increase productivity and use equipment to reduce labor and fixed unit costs; increase sales through innovative marketing methods

Reduce marketing costs per unit of product. Only continuous innovation and effective incentives to stimulate innovation are main and key way for catering to continuously reduce costs

Session 13. Focus on key points to cut costs

All aspects of costing

The role of each item in cost can be different, and some links play a key role in formation of cost

Some relationships have little effect on formation of costs. Enterprise cost management must start at key points and cover key cost points, often achieving double value for half effort

For example, in catering industry, it is difficult to find new ingredients for dishes, and prices for common ingredients are relatively open and transparent

Nowadays, innovative cooking methods and changing combination of raw materials are becoming key to increasing profits and reducing costs

Lesson 14. Control and cut costs

Catering companies can also divide cost of dishes into controllable and non-controllable costs. Of course, so-called uncontrollable costs are relative

There are no absolute uncontrollable costs. Uncontrollable cost usually refers to value generated as a result of decision making by enterprise, including salaries of management personnel.

Depreciation expenses and some business management expenses, as these expenses were formed after establishment of enterprise or implementation of solution, on general terms

It changes less and it doesn't make much sense for you to put a lot of effort into controlling these relatively fixed costs

Only those that can be artificially regulated during production and operation, such as consumption of raw materials, consumption of dishes, purchase price of raw materials

Office expenses, travel expenses, transportation expenses, capital use fees and other controllable expenses, it makes sense for us to make an effort to control them

Lesson 15. Master system and cut costs

Cost control requires involvement of all cost-related personnel

How to fully realize role of each stakeholder in cost control is one of problems that enterprise cost control should solve

The cost control of an enterprise cannot be based on conscious wishes of everyone, it is necessary to create a cost control system and an appropriate incentive and deterrence mechanism

Rely on system, use incentives and restrictions to mobilize subjective initiative of employees to control costs, link cost savings to direct interests of controllers, and use rewards and punishments to transform enterprise's passive cost control into active cost control. for all employees

Lesson 16: Eliminate Hidden Costs and Reduce Costs

Traditional cost control methods of most catering companies are often ineffective, and space forthere is too little cost reduction that these cost control methods can provide

And excessive control over costs is often achieved by reducing quality of food and weakening quality of service, for example, by reducing cost of purchases

Due to lower raw material prices, this weakens company's competitiveness in long term

Actually

The reason for this phenomenon is that these enterprises only see all kinds of "explicit costs" in enterprise, but turn a blind eye to various "hidden costs" in enterprise. Controlling these "hidden costs"

In addition to traditional methods of cost control, cost reduction should be viewed from the perspective of corporate strategy, linking cost control to enhancing corporate competitive advantage

Cost control is an important tool for increasing revenue and reducing costs in hotels.