Spoilage is the most-skipped category in nouz, and skipping it is exactly why owners often can't figure out where their margin is going. Untracked spoilage doesn't disappear; it shows up as mysterious gap between your computed margin and your bank balance. Logging it makes the gap visible.
01 Why bother tracking it
Untracked spoilage shows up as "missing margin" — your COGS-per-unit numbers look great but your bank account doesn't line up. Tracking spoilage separately lets you see it for what it is (a real cost, not a bug in your math) and lets Statistics flag it when it's creeping up.
02 How to log it
- 1Open Expenses
Click + Add expense.
- 2Amount
Sum of the COGS of what you threw away — not menu prices.
- 3Category
Spoilage.
- 4Save
Done.
03 What the pattern tells you
Most owners log spoilage weekly — Sunday-evening sweep. After a few weeks, Statistics shows spoilage as a percentage of revenue. If that percentage climbs from 2% to 5%, something's wrong (over-ordering, demand drop, freshness failure). The category exists so the signal is visible.
A typical café's spoilage runs 1-3% of revenue when things are healthy. Below 1% might mean you're running too lean (selling out early, missing late-day demand). Above 5% means systematic over-supply. The exact range varies by shop type — bakeries naturally run higher than salons.
04 Spoilage isn't just food
Anything that became unsellable counts as spoilage:
- Pastries tossed at close-out.
- Milk that turned in the fridge.
- Bottled drinks past expiration.
- Damaged packaging (boxes crushed in transit, bags torn).
- Open packs of supplies that went stale before use.
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