Logging waste

Stock doesn't only leave the shelf through sales. Things spoil, spill, expire, or get thrown away — and unless you record that, your expected stock drifts away from reality and you lose track of how much you're losing to waste.

Logging waste does two things in one step: it deducts the quantity from the store's stock and records the loss under the Waste category so you can see it.

It's normally the on-site staff who log waste, right where the stock is. Owners and managers can also log it from the Admin dashboard. The screenshots below show the staff portal; where the Admin dashboard looks different, the admin view is added underneath.

The register must be open (staff)

For staff using the portal, the Log Waste button only appears while the store's register is open — waste is recorded against the active session. Owner and manager accounts can log waste any time from the admin inventory.

1. Open the store inventory

In the staff portal, open Inventory — you land straight on your store's inventory, which lists every ingredient the store carries. While the register is open, each row carries a small orange minus-circle icon for Log Waste, next to View History and Verify.

The staff portal store inventory screen — Name, Unit, and Actions columns, with the orange Log Waste minus-circle icon highlighted on one of the item rows next to View History and Verify — The staff portal inventory list — the orange Log Waste icon sits on each item's row while the register is open.

Admin only: the same Log Waste icon, on the fuller admin list with Expected Stock and Last Report columns.

2. Open the Log Waste dialog and enter the details

Click the Log Waste icon on the row for the item you are discarding. The dialog opens with the item's name in its title and three fields to fill in:

Date — for staff this is fixed to today (shown as a read-only box); the entry is recorded against the open register session. Owners and managers get an editable date field on the Admin dashboard and can back-date an entry that was missed.
Waste Quantity — how much was lost, in the item's unit (e.g. 0.5 kg, 3 pcs). The cost is computed from this and the item's Cost per Unit set on the master inventory.
Reason / Notes — optional, but worth filling in: a brief reason (Expired, Spilled, Damaged in transit) makes the waste easier to interpret later.

The staff portal Log Waste dialog filled in for an item — the item name in the title, a read-only Date box pinned to today, a Waste Quantity in the item's unit, and a reason in the Reason / Notes field, with a destructive Log Waste button in the footer — The Log Waste dialog — one entry covers one item: a date, a quantity in the item's unit, and a short reason.

3. Submit and see the result

Click Log Waste in the footer. Three things happen at the same time:

The store's stock drops by the quantity you entered.
The drop is recorded in the store's inventory log as a waste entry.
A Waste entry is recorded automatically under the Waste category in Expenses, valued at quantity × Cost per Unit. This works because of the master-inventory ⇄ master-expense link set up in Set up your inventory — no extra bookkeeping on your side.

Staff see two of these straight away in the portal. First, the inventory log — the running history of every stock change, reached from Inventory → View Logs. The waste lands on top as a red Waste row that lowers the count.

The staff portal Inventory Logs page showing a Waste row for Beef Patty with a red Waste pill and a −3 change at the top, above an Initial Balance row of +50 — The waste appears in the inventory log as a red Waste row that lowers the count.

Second, the matching Waste (Inv) entry in the Expenses list — under the Waste category, valued at quantity × Cost per Unit.

The staff portal Expenses list with the newly auto-created Waste (Inv): Beef Patty entry — category Waste, amount calculated as quantity × Cost per Unit, description Expired — The matching Waste entry appears in the portal Expenses list automatically.

Waste isn't added to your expense total

The Waste entry is there so you can see how much you're losing — it is not added to your expense or profit totals. The cost of that stock was already counted as an expense when you bought it (under Material), so counting it again would double it. Every waste entry still lives in your expense history under the Waste category, and you can review it per item in the store comparison's Expense by Item view.

On the Admin dashboard: Expected Stock drops

Staff never see stock figures — they count what's physically on the shelf. On the Admin dashboard, owners and managers can watch the deduction land: the item's Expected Stock drops by the logged quantity as soon as you submit.

The admin store inventory list after submitting, with the just-discarded item's Expected Stock highlighted at its new lower value — Admin only: the Expected Stock drops by the logged quantity as soon as you submit.

The waste also feeds into the item's stocktake report as part of the period's deductions. The all-items inventory log collects these stock changes across every item the store carries.

Steps 1–3 discard a raw ingredient straight from the inventory list. Sometimes, though, you throw away a finished, made product — a burger dropped on the floor, a dish made for the wrong order. You record that from Expenses, not the inventory list: BuddyStall knows the item's recipe, so it deducts every ingredient the recipe uses and books the loss at the recipe's cost — in one step.

This needs a recipe

The ingredient deduction only works when the menu item has a recipe set up — that's what tells BuddyStall which ingredients (and how much of each) to remove. Without one, there's nothing to deduct.

1. Start a Waste entry and pick the item

In the portal, open Expenses → Add Expense, and set Category to Waste. Choose the Menu Category and Menu Item (plus a size or add-ons if the item has them). The Total Amount fills in automatically from the recipe and can't be edited — it's the combined cost of everything the recipe uses.

The staff portal Add New Expense dialog with Category set to Waste, a Menu Category of Burgers and Menu Item of Cheeseburger selected, and a read-only Total Amount of 43.00 derived from the recipe — Pick the finished item — the amount is the recipe's cost (here a Cheeseburger at ₱43), and it's read-only.

2. Submit — the Waste expense is posted

Click Add Expense. A Waste entry named after the item (here Waste: Cheeseburger) lands in the Expenses list under the Waste category, valued at the recipe cost. Like ingredient waste, it's recorded for tracking only and stays out of your expense and profit totals.

The staff portal Expenses list with a Waste: Cheeseburger entry under the Waste category, valued at ₱43.00 (₱43.00 × 1) — The finished-item waste posts as a single Waste entry, named after the item, at the recipe's cost.

3. The recipe's ingredients leave stock

Behind that single entry, every ingredient in the recipe is deducted from inventory — one waste line each in the inventory log. Here one Cheeseburger removed one Beef Patty, one Burger Bun, and one Cheese Slice.

The staff portal Inventory Logs page with three Waste rows — Beef Patty −1, Burger Bun −1, Cheese Slice −1 — from a single Cheeseburger waste, above the opening Initial Balance rows — One finished-item waste, three deductions — every ingredient the recipe uses leaves stock.

Logging waste

Logging waste does two things in one step: it deducts the quantity from the store's stock and records the loss under the Waste category so you can see it.

The register must be open (staff)

1. Open the store inventory

Admin only: the same Log Waste icon, on the fuller admin list with Expected Stock and Last Report columns.

2. Open the Log Waste dialog and enter the details

Click the Log Waste icon on the row for the item you are discarding. The dialog opens with the item's name in its title and three fields to fill in:

Date — for staff this is fixed to today (shown as a read-only box); the entry is recorded against the open register session. Owners and managers get an editable date field on the Admin dashboard and can back-date an entry that was missed.
Waste Quantity — how much was lost, in the item's unit (e.g. 0.5 kg, 3 pcs). The cost is computed from this and the item's Cost per Unit set on the master inventory.
Reason / Notes — optional, but worth filling in: a brief reason (Expired, Spilled, Damaged in transit) makes the waste easier to interpret later.

3. Submit and see the result

Click Log Waste in the footer. Three things happen at the same time:

The store's stock drops by the quantity you entered.
The drop is recorded in the store's inventory log as a waste entry.
A Waste entry is recorded automatically under the Waste category in Expenses, valued at quantity × Cost per Unit. This works because of the master-inventory ⇄ master-expense link set up in Set up your inventory — no extra bookkeeping on your side.

Second, the matching Waste (Inv) entry in the Expenses list — under the Waste category, valued at quantity × Cost per Unit.

Waste isn't added to your expense total

On the Admin dashboard: Expected Stock drops

The waste also feeds into the item's stocktake report as part of the period's deductions. The all-items inventory log collects these stock changes across every item the store carries.

This needs a recipe

The ingredient deduction only works when the menu item has a recipe set up — that's what tells BuddyStall which ingredients (and how much of each) to remove. Without one, there's nothing to deduct.

Logging waste

1. Open the store inventory

2. Open the Log Waste dialog and enter the details

3. Submit and see the result

On the Admin dashboard: Expected Stock drops