Grocery store inventory management software
- Dollars lost to waste, at cost
- $90
- Units unaccounted for: received less sold less waste
- 20
- Waste as a share of units received, percent
- 12
- Sell-through, percent of units received
- 84
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Rollupvo publishes no tax rule, no accounting standard, no margin and no par: the lead times, the safety weeks, the margins and the ownership shares are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.
The figures above start from a worked example ($90). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Grocery store inventory management software worked example (CSV)
This is a grocery shrink and waste sheet, the arithmetic grocery store inventory management software runs on every perishable line at the end of the week. Units received less units sold less units written off is what is unaccounted for; waste over received is the waste share; waste times cost is the dollars it cost; sold over received is the sell-through; sold times retail is the revenue; and revenue less the cost of everything received is the margin the line actually made after waste. Every figure is yours; the sheet publishes no target. Free, on the page, no account; the paid plan keeps every week's figures against the store.
Waste and the units nobody can account for
500 received, 420 sold and 60 written off leaves 20 units unaccounted for on the worked example: not sold, not on the waste sheet, gone. The sheet separates the waste the store recorded from the units it did not, because the two have different fixes.
The waste share and what it cost
60 of 500 units is 12% waste, and at $1.50 a unit it cost $90 for the week on one line. The share is what to compare across stores and weeks; the dollars are what to compare against the margin the line makes. The sheet returns both and publishes no threshold.
Margin after waste
420 units at $2.50 is $1,050 of revenue against $750 for the 500 received, $300 of margin once the waste and the unaccounted units are paid for. Working margin on units sold alone would flatter the line; the sheet charges it for everything that came in.
Grocery store inventory management software: common questions
How do I calculate shrink on perishable grocery lines?
Units received less units sold less units recorded as waste is the unaccounted shrink; waste over received is the waste share; and waste times unit cost is what it cost. The free sheet on this site works all three, plus sell-through, revenue and margin after waste, from five figures with no account.
What waste percentage is acceptable?
The sheet does not say, on purpose: bakery, produce and dairy run different figures and a target that fits one line is wrong for another. The worked example uses 12% to show the arithmetic. Compare a line against its own past weeks and against the same line in your other stores.
Does this work across several stores?
One line, one store, one week per sheet, free. Rollupvo Pro keeps every week's figures against the store and the line, so the line that wastes 12% at one store and 4% at another is a comparison on one screen rather than two sheets side by side.