Financial - Gross Profit
Updated Mon 26 Oct 2026
Running the report
Report options
Choose your opening stock take
The stock take that starts the period. The list shows your posted stock takes from the last 120 days, newest first, with the type in brackets: spot, monthly, yearly, opening or weekly. Spot stock takes cannot be used for this report: see Types of stock take. Your most recent stock take is not offered here, because there would be nothing after it to compare it with.
Choose your closing stock take
The stock take that ends the period. It must be later than your opening stock take. The list works the same way as the opening list.
Select your stock costing model
How your stock is valued. FIFO (First in First Out) values what you used at the oldest purchase prices first. WAC (Weighted Average Cost) uses the average of your purchase prices. LC (Last Cost) uses your most recent purchase price. The first choice is selected for you.
The brand's method is always offered. The store's method only appears when your store uses a different method from the brand. If no method has been set up, the list tells you so: ask your head office to choose one in the portal. Whichever you pick is shown on the first page as the Valuation method.
Expand all categories for a detailed view
Untick (the default) to see your stock list with every category closed, one line per category. Tick it to open every category and see all of its items straight away. You can always open or close a single category by clicking its + or -.
On the report options screen there is also an Explainer video, the same video as in Watch the video.
Types of stock take
When you save a stock take you choose its type. The type decides what you can do with it, and whether you can run this report on it. There are three types you will use day to day: spot, weekly and monthly. A yearly stock take works like a monthly one.
Spot stock take
A spot stock take is a quick count of just a few items in the store. You can do one as often as you like, even several times a day. Use it to keep an eye on the items you care about: it lets you run the Stock Variance report and keep your losses under control. You cannot run a Gross Profit report between spot stock takes.
Weekly stock take
A weekly stock take is a full count that does not lock the period. You can run your reports and look at the data, and if something is missing or you have made a mistake you can go back in time and add a goods received voucher (GRV), add a transfer, record a discard, or fix any other error. When you run the report again, the figures change to match. You can run the Gross Profit report between weekly stock takes.
Monthly and yearly stock takes
A monthly or yearly stock take is a full count that locks the period. Once a stock take is saved as one of these two types, you cannot create or edit any stock activity dated before the closing stock take. This makes sure the figures you are looking at cannot change. You will know a period is locked when the stamp at the top of the report changes from Draft (not finalised) to Finalised. You can run the Gross Profit report between monthly stock takes.
How much must you count?
To save a stock take as a weekly or monthly stock take, you must have counted at least 80% of the total number of items. Once you have counted that many, you can choose to save the stock take as either a weekly or a monthly stock take.
| Type | What it is for | Gross Profit report | Locks the period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spot | A quick count of a few items, as often as you like. Use it with the Stock Variance report. | No | No |
| Weekly | A full count (at least 80% of your items). You can still go back and fix mistakes. | Yes | No (Draft) |
| Monthly or yearly | A full count (at least 80% of your items) that closes the period. | Yes | Yes (Finalised) |
How this works in your store
A typical store does a full stock take once a week and saves each one as a weekly stock take. After each count they run the Gross Profit report, and if something looks wrong they go back and fix it. Until the month is closed, all of these reports are Draft, which simply means subject to change.
The report at a glance
The two dates are the exact times your opening and closing stock takes were counted, not trading days. Sales and stock are measured between those two moments, so they can differ slightly from a sales report that ends each day at midnight (or at your close of trade).
- The summary page: your two stock takes, your valuation method and the links to related reports.
- Sales breakdown: gross sales down to turnover.
- GP breakdown: actual gross profit against theoretical gross profit, and the losses between them.
- Stock losses: what the Losses column means and where losses come from.
- Scoring: your score and grade.
- Dig deeper: links to related reports and the CSV export.
- Your stock by category: every stock item, with its opening, purchases, closing, actual, theoretical and losses.
- Theoretical drill-down: how any theoretical figure was calculated.
- Items without losses: stock that is not in a recipe or was not counted twice.
- Invoice list: the sales behind the totals.
- Closing notes: how to read losses, and whether the period is final.
The summary page
The first page sums up the whole period before you get to the detail.
Your two stock takes
One card for the Opening stock take and one for the Closing stock take. Each shows its type, when it was counted and by whom, when it was posted and by whom, and any note that was left on it. If you left a note on the closing stock take it is shown here.
Valuation method and currency
Valuation method shows FIFO, WAC or LC, the model you chose. Currency shows your currency symbol and reminds you that cents have been rounded. Figures on the report are rounded to whole amounts to keep it readable. Hover over any figure to see the exact amount.
Stock losses percentage indicator
A small scale marked Over and Under, running from -100% to 100%. Positive percentages mean you are under (you lost stock) and negative percentages mean you are over.
Links to related reports
Three links sit on this page. They are described in Dig deeper below.
Sales breakdown
The sales made between your two stock takes, shown excluding tax and including tax. Voided sales are left out.
| Sales breakdown | Excl | Incl |
|---|---|---|
| Gross sales | 108 000 | 124 200 |
| - Discounts 1 | 8 000 | 9 200 |
| = Net sales 2 | 100 000 | 115 000 |
| + Delivery charges 3 | 6 000 | 6 900 |
| = Turnover 4 | 106 000 | 121 900 |
| Discount % 1 | 7% |
1 Discounts
Gross sales is what your menu items sold for before discounts. Discounts is everything you gave away. Discount % is discounts as a share of gross sales.
2 Net sales
Gross sales less discounts. Net sales (excl) is the figure your gross profit is built on, so your profit is always worked out before tax.
3 Delivery charges
Delivery charges are added back after net sales. They are not part of net sales, because they are not stock you sold.
4 Turnover
Net sales plus delivery charges. The turnover figures are underlined: click one to open the invoice list behind the totals.
GP breakdown
This is the heart of the report. Actual is what happened, Theor (theoretical) is what should have happened if every portion had been made exactly to its recipe and nothing had been lost, and Losses is the gap between the two.
| GP breakdown | Actual | -Theor | =Losses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net sales (excl) | 100 000 | 100 000 | |
| - Cost of sales (COS) 1 | 32 400 | 30 000 | 2 400 |
| = Gross profit subtotal 2 | 67 600 | 70 000 | -2 400 |
| - COS (items with no recipes or counts) 3 | 1 050 | n/a | n/a |
| = Gross profit 4 | 66 550 | 70 000 | n/a |
| Net sales FC % 5 | 33.45% | 30.00% | 3.45% |
| Net sales GP % 5 | 66.55% | 70.00% | -3.45% |
| Gross sales FC % 6 | 30.97% | 27.78% | 3.19% |
| Absolute stock losses 7 | 3 900 | ||
| Absolute stock losses percentage 7 | 13% |
1 Cost of sales (COS)
The cost of the stock behind the items you sold, for every item that is used in a recipe and was counted at both stock takes. Actual comes from your stock: what you had, plus what came in, less what is left. Theor comes from your sales and your recipes. The Losses figure is actual less theoretical, so a positive loss (shown in red) means you used more stock than you should have, and a negative loss (shown in green) means you used less.
2 Gross profit subtotal
Net sales less the cost of sales above. Its Losses figure shows how much lower (negative) or higher (positive) your gross profit is than it should have been, purely because of stock losses.
3 Items with no recipes or counts
Stock that is not used in any recipe, or that was not counted at both stock takes, cannot be measured against a theoretical figure, so no loss is calculated for it. Its actual cost still reduces your gross profit, so it is taken off here. See Items without losses.
4 Gross profit
Your actual gross profit after every cost of sales, against the theoretical gross profit you should have made.
5 Net sales FC % and GP %
Food cost (FC) is the cost of sales as a percentage of net sales, and GP % is the gross profit as a percentage of net sales. Both move when you change your discounts, so a change is not always a stock problem.
6 Gross sales FC %
The same food cost, but measured against gross sales before discounts. It is not affected by discounts, so any change in it comes from how you handle food rather than from the discounts you give.
7 Absolute stock losses
The total deviation in your stock with nothing cancelling out. See Stock losses for what absolute means and why it matters. Hover over the small icon next to it for a short explanation.
Stock losses
The Losses column shows all of your stock losses, whether or not you know what caused them. If you used the older version of AuraPOS, note the change: its Variances column only showed unknown variances. The Losses column replaces it and shows every loss.
Where losses come from
Every loss comes from one of three places:
- Discards
- Stock you threw away and recorded as wastage.
- Voids
- Orders that were made and then wasted, which you told the till by voiding the sale.
- Unknown losses
- Stock that went missing without any record: theft, over-portioning, miscounts and the like.
Discards plus voids plus unknown losses give your total stock losses. Because discards to wastage are now part of the losses, they are no longer shown in the Net transfers column.
To see how your total is made up, click the underlined Stock losses heading in the stock list or the link Click here to run the Stock Loss Breakdown report on the first page. That report names the three sources as spoilage (discards to wastage), operational wastage (voids with wastage) and unaccounted shrinkage (unknown losses).
Reading positive and negative losses
A positive loss means you used more stock than theoretical, so you are under: that is a loss. A negative loss means you used less stock than theoretical, so you are over, which is favourable on paper but is still a sign something is off. A loss of exactly zero shows as Balanced.
Absolute stock losses
If one item has a loss of -100 and another has a loss of +100, your total losses show zero and your stock looks balanced. In truth you are out by 200 across the two items. Absolute is a mathematical term for turning every negative into a positive before adding up, so overs and unders both count. Absolute stock losses is therefore the total deviation, or the total mismanagement of stock across the board, without one item cancelling out another.
Scoring
Your score is 100 less your absolute stock losses percentage. Absolute stock losses percentage is your absolute stock losses as a percentage of your theoretical cost of sales. In the example above that is R3 900 against R30 000, which is 13%, so the score is 100% - 13% = 87%, a grade of B+.
| Scoring | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 97% to 100% | C+ | 70% to 75% | E+ | 40% to 45% |
| A | 94% to 97% | C | 65% to 70% | E | 35% to 40% |
| A- | 90% to 94% | C- | 60% to 65% | E- | 30% to 35% |
| B+ | 85% to 90% | D+ | 55% to 60% | F+ | 25% to 30% |
| B | 80% to 85% | D | 50% to 55% | F | 0% to 25% |
| B- | 75% to 80% | D- | 45% to 50% | F- | less than 0% |
The grade that applies to your score is shown next to the scale, with your score printed beside it, for example Score: 87%.
Dig deeper
These links on the first page open related reports for the same stock takes and valuation method:
- Click here to run the Stock Loss Breakdown report: explains your losses by source, as described in Stock losses.
- Click here to run the Stock Variance report: shows your variances in units instead of money.
- Click here to run the Model Gross Profit report: shows how your gross profit would look if all of your stock purchases had been made at the brand's negotiated pricing.
- Export data as CSV: opens the stock list in a clean format for exporting to a spreadsheet. It shows each item's category, name, PLU, opening, purchases, manufacture, transfers, closing, actual, theoretical and losses.
Your stock by category
After the summary, every stock item you counted and used in a recipe is listed under its category. Only items with the stock type Food cost are included. Click a category's + or - to open or close it.
| Category Item name (PLU) | Opening SOH | +Purchases & returns | +Net manu- facturing | +Net transfers | -Closing SOH | =Actual Cost of sales | -Theor WAC cost of sales | =Stock losses | Losses as % of theoretical |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| + Bakery | 700 | 6 700 | 0 | 0 | 800 | 6 600 | 6 000 | 600 | 10.0% |
| + Dairy | 1 200 | 3 400 | 0 | 0 | 1 000 | 3 600 | 3 100 | 500 | 16.1% |
| − Meat | 5 500 | 15 800 | 0 | -200 | 4 900 | 16 200 | 15 500 | 700 | 4.5% |
| Beef patty 150g (1001) | 3 200 | 9 000 | 0 | 0 | 2 800 | 9 400 | 8 700 | 700 | 8.0% |
| Streaky bacon (1002) | 800 | 2 600 | 0 | -200 | 700 | 2 500 | 2 300 | 200 | 8.7% |
| Chicken fillet (1003) | 1 500 | 4 200 | 0 | 0 | 1 400 | 4 300 | 4 500 | -200 | -4.4% |
| + Produce | 900 | 5 600 | 300 | 0 | 800 | 6 000 | 5 400 | 600 | 11.1% |
| Subtotals: | 8 300 | 31 500 | 300 | -200 | 7 500 | 32 400 | 30 000 | 2 400 | 8.0% |
How the columns work
Your Actual cost of sales is worked out as: opening stock, plus purchases and returns, plus net manufacturing, plus net transfers, less closing stock. Theor is what your sales and recipes say you should have used. Stock losses is actual less theoretical, and the last column shows that loss as a percentage of theoretical. A category with no theoretical figure shows n/a instead of a percentage.
The theoretical figures are always valued at average cost, which is why that heading says WAC, whichever costing model you chose for the other columns.
What the headings do
- Opening SOH, Closing SOH
- Stock on hand at each stock take. Click the heading to open that stock take report, with its calculations and sub-counts.
- Purchases & returns
- What you bought, less what you sent back. Click the heading to open the purchases report for the period.
- Net manufacturing
- Stock made in-house from other stock, net of what was used to make it. Click the heading to open the manufactured stock report.
- Net transfers
- Stock moved in from other stores less stock moved out. Click the heading to open the transfers report. Discards to wastage are not in this column: they are counted as losses.
- Item name
- Click an item to open its stock item audit, which lists every movement of that item.
Hover over any figure to see the units and the exact value behind it.
Theoretical drill-down
If you ever wonder how a figure in the Theor column was calculated, click it (every item's theoretical figure is underlined). The drill-down shows exactly where the number came from: which menu items you sold, how many of each, and the recipe that made up that amount of stock. For example, you sold 10 of one burger and 12 of another, and each burger has a set amount of bacon on it, so the report adds those amounts up.
- Sit down and take away can have different recipes, and you will see each one.
- If a recipe changed in the middle of the period, the first recipe is used for the first part of the period and the second recipe for the second part. This is what makes your stock control dead accurate.
Items without losses
Some stock items sit in their own section, on a page of their own after the main list, headed Items not used in any recipes and items not counted. The page explains: The following items are either not used in any recipes or were not counted, so no losses can be calculated.
There are two reasons an item lands here, and in both cases we do not assume a loss:
- It was not counted at both stock takes. Without an opening and a closing count, your losses cannot be calculated accurately, and a missing count is not proof that stock went missing.
- It is not used in any recipe. A theoretical figure of zero does not prove a loss, so the item is kept out of the loss calculation.
| Category Item name (PLU) | Opening SOH | +Purchases & returns | +Net manu- facturing | +Net transfers | -Closing SOH | =Actual Cost of sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| + Pantry | ||||||
| Truffle oil (2001) | 400 | 900 | 0 | 0 | 500 | 800 |
| Vanilla essence (2003) | 100 | 300 | 0 | 0 | 150 | 250 |
| Subtotals: | 500 | 1 200 | 0 | 0 | 650 | 1 050 |
| Grand Total: | 8 800 | 32 700 | 300 | -200 | 8 150 | 33 450 |
The Grand Total adds this section to the main list. Their cost still counts towards your actual cost of sales and your gross profit (see GP breakdown).
Invoice list
Click a Turnover figure on the first page to open the list of sales behind it. It lists every sale (not voided) between your opening and closing stock take times, with an invoice on each row and the five sales stages from Sales breakdown in three columns each: excl, tax and incl. Click an invoice number to see all the details of that invoice.
| Invoice number | Gross sales | -Discounts | =Net sales | +Delivery charges | =Turnover | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| excl | tax | incl | excl | tax | incl | excl | tax | incl | excl | tax | incl | excl | tax | incl | |
| 20431 | 300.00 | 45.00 | 345.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 300.00 | 45.00 | 345.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 300.00 | 45.00 | 345.00 |
| 20432 | 400.00 | 60.00 | 460.00 | 40.00 | 6.00 | 46.00 | 360.00 | 54.00 | 414.00 | 60.00 | 9.00 | 69.00 | 420.00 | 63.00 | 483.00 |
| 20433 | 200.00 | 30.00 | 230.00 | 20.00 | 3.00 | 23.00 | 180.00 | 27.00 | 207.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 180.00 | 27.00 | 207.00 |
| Total: | 900 | 135 | 1 035 | 60 | 9 | 69 | 840 | 126 | 966 | 60 | 9 | 69 | 900 | 135 | 1 035 |
Totals are rounded to whole amounts to save space. Hover over a total to see the exact amount.
Closing notes
The last page carries a few notes:
- The exact times of your two stock takes, and a reminder that the sales on the report may differ from your daily sales reports.
- How to read losses: a positive loss means you used more stock than theoretical, so you are under; a negative loss means you used less, so you are over.
- A reminder that clicking the + or - next to a category reveals or hides its stock items.
- Whether the period is Draft or Finalised. A period is finalised once a period-locking stock take (a Month-End Close or Year-End Close) covers it. Until then it is a draft: stock activities in the period can still be created or edited, so the numbers can still shift if you run the report again.
Watch the video
A short walkthrough of the Gross Profit report: how to pick your stock takes, how to read the summary and the score, and how to dig into your losses.
Can't see the video? Watch it on YouTube.
Frequently asked questions
How is the Losses column different from the old Variances column?
In the older version of AuraPOS, the Variances column only showed unknown variances. The Losses column shows every stock loss, whether you know the cause or not: discards to wastage, voided sales that were wasted, and unknown losses. Click the Stock losses heading to see how your total is made up.
Why is my score low when my total losses are close to zero?
Your score is built on absolute stock losses, which treat overs and unders alike. If you are 100 over on one item and 100 under on another, your total losses are zero but your absolute losses are 200, and that is what the score uses.
Why is one of my items not in the main list?
It is either not used in any recipe or was not counted at both stock takes. Without recipes or two counts, no loss can be worked out, and we never assume a loss. Look for the item in the section Items not used in any recipes and items not counted. Only items with the stock type Food cost appear in this report at all.
How do I see how a theoretical figure was calculated?
Click the underlined figure in the Theor column. You will see the items you sold, how many, and the recipe quantities behind the stock used. If a recipe changed during the period, each recipe applies to its own part of the period.
Why don't the sales here match my sales report?
This report measures sales between the exact times of your two stock takes, not whole trading days. Voided sales are left out, and delivery charges are shown separately from net sales. Your daily sales reports end each day at midnight or at your close of trade, so the two can differ slightly.
What does Balanced or n/a mean next to a loss?
Balanced means the loss is exactly zero. n/a means a figure could not be calculated, for example a percentage for an item with no theoretical usage, or a category with nothing counted.
Why does a discard no longer show under Net transfers?
Discards to wastage are now counted as stock losses, so they appear in the Losses column instead. Net transfers only shows stock moved between stores.
What does Draft mean, and can the numbers still change?
Draft means no Month-End Close or Year-End Close stock take has been done after your closing stock take. Stock activities in the period can still be created or edited, so if you run the report again later the numbers may shift. Once a period-locking stock take is done the report is finalised.
What is the difference between a spot, weekly and monthly stock take?
A spot stock take is a quick count of a few items that you can do as often as you like, and it is used with the Stock Variance report. A weekly stock take is a full count that does not lock the period, so you can still go back and fix mistakes. A monthly (or yearly) stock take is a full count that locks the period, so its figures can no longer change. See Types of stock take.
Can I run the Gross Profit report between spot stock takes?
No. Run it between weekly stock takes or between monthly stock takes. A spot stock take only counts a few items, so there is not enough to work out your gross profit.
How many items must I count to save a weekly or monthly stock take?
At least 80% of the total number of items. Once you have counted that many, you can save the stock take as a weekly or a monthly stock take.
Why does my report say Draft, and how do I make it Finalised?
The period is still open: you can still add or fix stock activities before the closing stock take, so the figures can change. When you are happy that every report for the month is correct, change the last stock take of the month from weekly to monthly (or yearly). That locks the periods and the reports then say Finalised.
Glossary
- Absolute stock losses
- Your losses with every negative turned into a positive before adding up, so overs and unders both count and nothing cancels out. It drives your score.
- Actual cost of sales
- What your stock really cost you between the two stock takes: opening stock plus purchases, manufacturing and transfers, less closing stock.
- Closing SOH
- Stock on hand at your closing stock take, valued at your chosen costing model.
- Cost of sales (COS)
- The cost of the stock behind the items you sold. Also called food cost.
- Discards
- Stock you threw away and recorded as wastage. A source of stock losses.
- Discount %
- Discounts as a percentage of gross sales.
- Draft and Finalised
- A period is finalised when a Month-End Close or Year-End Close stock take covers it. Until then it is a draft and its numbers can still change.
- Drill-down
- An underlined figure, heading or name that you can click to dig deeper.
- FC %
- Food cost percentage: cost of sales as a percentage of sales.
- FIFO
- First in First Out: stock is valued as if the oldest purchases were used first.
- Gross profit (GP)
- Net sales less cost of sales.
- Gross sales
- What your menu items sold for before discounts.
- LC (Last Cost)
- Stock is valued at your most recent purchase price.
- Losses
- Actual cost of sales less theoretical cost of sales: all stock losses, whether or not you know the cause. Positive means under, negative means over.
- Monthly stock take
- A full count of at least 80% of your items that locks the period. Stock activities dated before it can no longer be created or edited.
- Net sales
- Gross sales less discounts.
- Net transfers
- Stock transferred in from other stores less stock transferred out. Discards to wastage are not included.
- Opening SOH
- Stock on hand at your opening stock take, valued at your chosen costing model.
- Period locking
- A monthly or yearly stock take locks every period before it, so the figures can no longer change and the report says Finalised.
- Score
- 100 less your absolute stock losses percentage, shown with a grade from A+ to F-.
- Spot stock take
- A quick count of a few items, as often as you like. Used with the Stock Variance report. You cannot run a Gross Profit report between spot stock takes.
- Stock take
- A count of the stock you have on hand at a point in time.
- Theoretical cost of sales
- What your stock should have cost, worked out from what you sold and your recipes, always valued at average cost.
- Turnover
- Net sales plus delivery charges.
- Unknown losses
- Stock that went missing without any record, such as theft or over-portioning.
- Voids
- Orders that were made and wasted, which you recorded by voiding the sale. A source of stock losses.
- WAC (Weighted Average Cost)
- Stock is valued at the average of your purchase prices.
- Weekly stock take
- A full count of at least 80% of your items that does not lock the period, so you can still go back and fix mistakes.