Who is this for?
Store owners, managers, and employees who need to log product wastage across their stores.
Overview
BackOffice now includes a complete wastage management solution. You can log wasted products, track the financial impact, and view analytics that show where and why waste is happening, all from one place.
The feature has 2 main parts:
Wastage Record: Log what was wasted, how much, and why. Inventory is automatically adjusted.
Wastage Insights: A dashboard that shows your wastage trends, top reasons, top wasted products, and cost over time, so you can see where waste is happening and act on it.
Before You Begin
Your store owner or manager must enable the 'Wastage Record' and 'Wastage Insights' permissions for your employee account.
Products should have 'Track Stock Level' turned on in product settings if you want inventory to auto-deduct when wastage is recorded.
Serialized item types are not currently supported. You cannot record wastage for serialized products at this time.
You need access to at least one store.
Step-by-Step Guide
Setting Up Employee Access
1. Go to the 'Employees' page in BackOffice.
2. Click on the employee you want to give access to.
3. Under 'Access Control', find 'Limit Back-office Access'.
4. Scroll down to the 'Stock Management' section. You will see 2 checkboxes:
Wastage Record: Allows the employee to create and view wastage records.
Wastage Insights: Allows the employee to open and view the Wastage Insights dashboard. Tick this if you want the employee to see wastage cost trends and analytics.
5. Click 'Save'.
Note: If an employee already has 'Limit Back-office Access' turned on, they will NOT automatically get access to these features when released. You must manually tick the checkboxes.
Navigating to Wastage Features
1. In your BackOffice, look under the 'Stock Management' section.
2. You will see two new menu items:
Wastage Record: Opens the listing of all logged wastage records.
Wastage Insights: Opens the analytics dashboard with your wastage cost trends, top reasons, and top wasted products.
Note: The previous 'Wastage Report' (which shows stock take discrepancies) has been renamed to 'Stock Loss Report' to avoid confusion. It remains in the same location under 'Stock Management'.
Recording Wastage
Creating a New Wastage Record
1. On the 'Wastage Record' listing page, click the '+ Record Wastage' button in the top-right corner.
2. A modal will appear titled "New Wastage Record". Select the 'Target Store' from the dropdown. If you only have access to one store, it will be pre-selected.
3. Click 'Create New Record'. You will be taken to the product selection page.
4. Add products to the record. You can find products in two ways:
a. Type a product name into the search bar.
b. Use a barcode scanner to scan the product's barcode directly.
5. For each product, enter:
'Quantity' wasted
'Reason' for the wastage (e.g. Expired, Spoiled, Damaged)
6. Add optional notes if needed.
7. Click 'Submit Record' to save.
Notes:
Serialized item types are not supported yet. If you search for a serialized product, it will not appear in the results.
If there is a system error during submission that prevents inventory deduction, you will see a popup. When it happens, click 'Okay' and wait for a few minutes before trying again.
Viewing the Wastage Record Listing Page
1. Click 'Wastage Record' on the sidebar. You will see a table with the following columns:
Column | Description |
Date & Time | When the record was created (format: DD MMM YYYY HH:MM). |
Record ID | A clickable link (e.g. WR0006) that opens the record details. |
Cost | Total cost of the wasted items (in your local currency). |
Reason | The reason for wastage. If multiple reasons were selected, it shows "Multiple Reasons". |
Store | Which store the wastage was logged for. |
Created By | The employee who created the record. |
Filtering Wastage Records
1. Use the 'Date Picker' at the top to filter by time period:
'Month to Date' (default)
'Past Month'
'Past 4 Months'
'Past 6 Months'
'Custom Dates'
2. Use the 'Store Name' filter to select one or more stores. By default, all stores are shown.
Viewing a Wastage Record's Details
1. From the listing page, click on any 'Record ID' link (e.g. WR0006).
2. You will see the full detail page with:
Record Details: Date & Time, Created By, Store.
Financial Impact: Total Cost, Estimated Revenue Loss, Quantity Wasted.
Items Wasted: Each wasted product, its category, supplier, quantity, reason, unit cost, and total cost.
How the Financial Impact numbers are calculated:
Metric | How It Is Calculated |
Total Cost | The sum of (Unit Cost x Quantity) for each wasted item. |
Estimated Revenue Loss | The sum of (Tax-exclusive Selling Price x Quantity Wasted) - Total Cost. This tells you how much profit you lost from wasted items. |
Quantity Wasted | The total quantity across all items in the record. |
Note: For composite products (products made up of multiple ingredients), the system uses the parent product's cost and price. If the parent product has no cost value, it calculates cost from the individual component items instead.
3. To download the record, click the 'Download' button at the top right. A csv file will be downloaded to your device.
Note: If you have filters applied (date range, store), the CSV will only include filtered records.
How Inventory Is Affected
When you submit a wastage record, the system automatically deducts the wasted quantity from your inventory for products that have 'Track Stock Level' enabled.
For composite products (products made up of ingredients), the system deducts the quantities of each simple ingredient, not the composite product itself.
Products without 'Track Stock Level' enabled will not have their stock adjusted.
You can verify inventory changes on the 'Audit Trail' page, where wastage entries appear with the action "Wastage". Clicking the timestamp takes you back to the wastage record detail page.
Wastage Insights
The Wastage Insights page is a dashboard that turns your wastage records into easy to read charts. Use it to see how much waste costs you, which reasons and products cause the most waste, and how your waste is trending over time.
To open it, go to the 'Stock Management' section in BackOffice, then click 'Wastage Insights'.
Reading the Summary Cards
At the top of the page you will see five summary cards:
'Waste as % of Sales': Your total waste cost as a share of your total sales.
'Total Wastage Cost': the total cost of everything you wasted in the selected period.
'Total Est. Revenue Loss': the profit you lost from wasted items.
'Top Wastage Reason': the reason that caused the most waste by cost (with its share of total waste cost).
'Top Wasted Product': the single product with the highest waste cost in the period.
Notes:
The first 2 cards show a small coloured badge that compares this period to the period right before it (the same number of days).
A green badge means your waste went down compared with the period before that is good news.
A red badge means your waste went up.
If there is no data for the period before, the badge will not show a percentage.
Viewing the Wastage Timeline
1. Scroll down below the summary cards to the 'Wastage Timeline Analysis' chart. Each bar shows your total wastage cost for that time period.
2. Use the dropdown on the right to switch the view between 'Daily' (the default), 'Weekly', and 'Monthly'.
3. Hover over any bar to see the exact date and total wastage cost for that bar.
Viewing the Breakdown Charts
Below the timeline you will see three bar charts side by side. They help you find where your waste comes from:
'Wastage by Reason': for example, Expired, Spoiled, Damaged, Over-Prepared.
'Wastage by Category': for example, Ingredients, Seafood, Produce.
'Wastage by Product': your individual products, such as Parmesan Cheese.
Each chart shows the top items first, sorted from the highest cost to the lowest. If there are more items, click 'Show All' at the bottom of the chart to see the rest, then 'Show Less' to collapse it again. Hover over any bar to see its full name and cost.
Filtering the Wastage Insights Dashboard
1. Use the 'Date Picker' at the top to choose the time period. By default the page shows 'Month to Date' for all stores. You can also pick 'Today', 'Week to Date', 'Previous Week', 'Previous Month', or 'Custom Dates'.
2. Use the 'Store Name' filter to choose one store or several stores. By default, all stores are included.
3. Click 'Apply'. All cards and charts on the page refresh to match your filters.
Checking Wastage by Stock Loss
1. Scroll to the bottom of the Wastage Insights page to the 'Wastage by Stock Loss' section.
This shows inventory discrepancies found during a stock take, stock that is missing without a logged reason.
2. You will see three numbers: 'Total Quantity Loss', 'Total Loss Cost', and 'Total Est. Revenue Loss'. If there is no stock loss in the selected period, each shows a dash ("-").
3. To see the full detail, click 'View Stock Loss Report' in the top right of this section.
Note: 'Stock Loss Report' is the new name for what used to be called 'Wastage Report'. It shows stock take discrepancies, not the waste you log yourself. The data is unchanged, only the name changed.
Troubleshooting
Issue | Solution |
I don't see 'Wastage Record' in the sidebar | Ask your store owner or manager to enable the relevant permissions under your employee access control settings. |
Submission failed with a system error | If submission fails, wait a few minutes and try once more. Contact support if the problem persists. |
Inventory was not deducted after recording wastage | Check that 'Track Stock Level' is enabled for the product in product settings. Products without stock tracking will not have inventory adjusted. |
CSV download is empty | Make sure you have records within the selected date range and store filter. Try resetting filters to see all records. |
I can't find a serialized product when creating a wastage record | Serialized item types are not currently supported. You will not be able to search for or add serialized products to a wastage record. |
I don't see 'Wastage Insights' in the sidebar | First, Wastage Insights is being rolled out gradually, so it may not be turned on for your account yet. Contact StoreHub Support to check. If it is available, ask your store owner or manager to tick the 'Wastage Insights' checkbox under your employee access control settings. Employees with limited back-office access are not given this automatically. |
My Wastage Insights cards and charts are empty | There may be no wastage logged for the selected period or stores. Widen the date range or choose 'All stores', then click 'Apply'. |
A summary card shows no comparison badge | The badge only appears when there is data for the period before. If the previous period had no wastage, no percentage is shown. |
I'm not sure what the green or red badge means | On these cards, less waste is better. A green badge means your waste went down compared with the period before (good). A red badge means it went up. |
FAQs
1. Can I record wastage for multiple products at once?
Yes. When creating a new wastage record, you can add as many products as you need before submitting.
2. Will recording wastage deduct my inventory?
Yes, for products with 'Track Stock Level' enabled. The wasted quantity is automatically deducted from your inventory. Items can even go to negative stock.
3. Can employees from one store record wastage for another store?
No. Employees can only record wastage for stores they have access to.
4. What happens if I select a composite product?
The inventory deduction applies to the individual simple ingredients of the composite product, not the composite product itself.
5. Where can I see inventory changes from wastage?
Go to the 'Audit Trail' page. Wastage entries are logged with the action "Wastage" and show the quantity deducted.
6. Can I record wastage for serialized products?
Not at this time. Serialized item types are not yet supported in Wastage Record. This may be added in a future update.
7. What is the difference between Wastage Record and Wastage Insights?
Wastage Record is where you log waste, item by item. Wastage Insights is a dashboard that adds up those records and shows you charts and trends, so you can see where waste is costing you the most.
8. What is the difference between Wastage Insights and the Stock Loss Report?
Wastage Insights covers waste you log on purpose (expired, spoiled, damaged). The Stock Loss Report covers inventory that goes missing without a logged reason, found during a stock take. The 'Wastage by Stock Loss' section at the bottom of the Insights page links you straight to it.
9. On the summary cards, what does the green or red badge mean?
The badge compares this period to the one before it. Less waste is better, so a green badge means your waste went down and a red badge means it went up.
10. Can I export the data from Wastage Insights?
To export individual records, open the 'Wastage Record' page and use the 'Download' button there. For stock take losses, open the 'Stock Loss Report' from the 'Wastage by Stock Loss' section.
Need Help?
Contact StoreHub Support via live chat in your StoreHub app or email [email protected].
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