Cost of sales — the stock ledger in the books
What the kitchen used is the cost of the day; what sits on the shelf is an asset. From the day you switch it on, the night audit reads the stores.
What changed
Until now a vendor's bill was the cost: "Cost of food" went up the day the bill was approved, whatever was still on the shelf. From the day the stock ledger is started at a hotel (Cost & revenue → Stock → *Start the stock ledger*), the books follow the stores instead:
- A receipt (GRN) puts the goods into Inventory at the landed cost — rate plus the freight and other charges on the GRN, spread by value. The bill, when it comes, debits the class's cost account; the receipt credits the same account, so bought and received net to nothing and the shelf is the asset.
- An issue to the kitchen, the floors or the minibars is the cost of that day: Cost of food / beverage / minibar, Housekeeping supplies, Outlet supplies, Repairs — by the item's class.
- Wastage and spoilage have their own account, with the reason on the line. A count that moves the belief is a *stock count variance*, short or over.
- A transfer between two stores of the same hotel moves between inventory accounts; to a sister hotel it goes through the inter-unit account on both sides, at cost.
How an issue is costed
Each item has a valuation method: moving average (the default — every receipt moves the average), standard (a set cost; the receipt's difference is *purchase price variance*), or FIFO (the oldest layers still on the shelf). The cost is fixed on the movement the moment it is written; nothing is revalued later.
The count
A month-end count is a document: opened by one login, counted line by line, approved by a different login, and only then posted as adjustments carrying the count number. A line that differs by ₹100 or more needs a reason before approval.
Theoretical against actual
The recipes say what the dishes sold should have drawn; the issues say what left. The *Food cost* report puts sales, theoretical cost, actual cost (issues plus wastage) and the gap side by side, per outlet.
Slow-moving stock
Items with no issue in 90 days are listed at cost; the provision posts the chosen percentage of that value, topping up or releasing to the required figure — the same rule as the debtors provision.
The control
*Stock control* compares Inventory per the ledger with the shelf at cost, per class, as at a date. It agrees once the day is audited.