What is the Waste dashboard?
The Waste dashboard shows you where ingredient value is being lost — both recorded waste (what was thrown out) and stock at risk of expiring before it's used. It gives you a weekly and monthly view of the patterns driving that loss, so you can fix the ordering, prep, or storage behaviours behind them.
Why it matters
Waste is one of the few costs a restaurant has almost full control over. A typical F&B operation loses 2–5% of revenue to waste — on ฿1,000,000 in monthly revenue that's ฿20,000–50,000 disappearing into the bin every month. Small reductions compound into real margin.
The four key metrics
Stat | What it means |
Waste Value | Total value of everything logged as waste in the selected period, priced at the latest unit price for each product. |
Waste % of GR Value | Waste value divided by the total value of goods received in the same period. Answers "for every baht of ingredients coming in, how much went to the bin?" |
Waste % of Revenue | Waste value divided by total revenue. The most intuitive framing — the share of your takings being lost. Industry average is 2–5%; above 7% signals a problem. |
Revenue and GR Value | The two denominators used in the percentages above, shown separately so you always know the scale. |
The Expiry Risk panel
This is the preventive half of the dashboard — it shows ingredients that are likely to expire before being used, based on current stock, average daily usage (rolling 4 weeks), and shelf life.
Status indicators:
🔴 Expiring — days of stock on hand exceed the shelf life. Action now (use it, share it, or plan a special).
🟡 At risk — getting close to shelf-life limit.
🟢 Healthy — stock will be used well before expiry.
Sorted by value at risk, highest first, so the biggest financial threats are at the top.
How waste is broken down
Waste by Reason
Bar chart grouped by the reason logged at the time of entry. Each reason points to a different root cause:
Expired — you're ordering too much or par levels are too high.
Spoiled / spillage — storage or handling problem.
Over-production — prep batches are too large.
Quality / presentation — supplier quality or portioning issue.
Unknown / unlogged — a process gap. If this bar is tall, your team isn't logging reasons consistently.
Waste by Product
Top 20 products by waste value, with a cumulative percentage line. The line shows how concentrated your waste is — typically a handful of products drive 80% of the total. Focus effort there.
Waste by Product by Type
Same top-20 list, but each bar is stacked by waste type. Reveals why each specific product is being wasted — expired vs. over-produced vs. spilled — which changes how you fix it.
Waste by Day / Waste by Week
Daily and weekly time-series to spot trends and spikes. A one-off spike usually has a one-off cause (a cancelled event, a freezer failure). A consistent pattern points to a recurring ordering or prep habit.
Waste by Week by Type
Weekly trend split by waste reason. Smooths out day-to-day noise and reveals whether a specific type of waste is growing.
Waste Flow (Sankey)
A visual flow showing waste value moving from product categories (left) into waste types (right). The wider the band, the more value is flowing. Lets you see at a glance which categories contribute most to each kind of waste.
How it's calculated
💡 Waste Value = Absolute quantity discarded × Latest unit price
Every waste entry is priced at the most recent unit price for that ingredient. Percentages are calculated with waste as the numerator and either revenue or goods received value as the denominator, over the same date range.
Worked example
In the last 30 days you logged:
3 kg of salmon wasted at ฿800/kg = ฿2,400
5 kg of tomatoes wasted at ฿80/kg = ฿400
2 kg of bread wasted at ฿100/kg = ฿200
Total Waste Value: ฿3,000. If revenue was ฿150,000 in that period, Waste % of Revenue = 3,000 ÷ 150,000 = 2.0%.
Action steps
Start with the top 3 products in Waste by Product. They usually account for most of the value. Check each one's waste reason in the stacked chart.
If the top reason is "Expired": lower the par level, shorten order cycles, or split deliveries across more frequent smaller orders.
If the top reason is "Over-production": prep in smaller batches, or move items to a made-to-order flow during slow periods.
If "Unknown" dominates: retrain the team on logging reasons — without them, you can't diagnose anything.
Watch the Expiry Risk panel daily. Acting on a 🔴 product today prevents waste tomorrow. This is the cheapest waste reduction available.
Review Waste % of Revenue weekly. If it's drifting up, something changed — a new menu item, a supplier switch, a staff change. Investigate before the trend compounds.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my Waste Value zero when I know we threw things out?
Waste only appears if it's logged as a waste movement in the system. If your team is discarding without logging, the dashboard cannot see it. Set a simple rule: every bin empty logs a reason.
Why does Waste % of GR Value differ from Waste % of Revenue?
They use different denominators. GR Value is what you spent on incoming stock; Revenue is what customers paid. A high Waste % of GR Value means a lot of what you bought was wasted; a high Waste % of Revenue means a big share of your takings is being lost to waste.
Why is an item in the Expiry Risk panel if we use it every day?
The panel compares current stock against average daily usage over the last 4 weeks. If you recently received a large delivery or demand has slowed, the "days of stock" calculation will exceed shelf life. Either use the stock faster or lower par level to avoid this next time.
Does the dashboard include food that was spilled but not served?
Only if someone logs it. "Spillage" is a valid waste reason — encourage the team to log even small amounts. Unlogged spillage shows up later as yield variance instead.
What's a good Waste % target?
Full-service restaurants typically run 3–5% of revenue. Fast casual and QSR aim for 2–3%. Above 7% is a red flag; below 1% sometimes means waste isn't being logged.