How to Use Price Comparisons

Modified on Fri, Mar 22 at 6:10 PM

Plate IQ's Price Comparisons is a custom report that uses your invoice data and purchasing habits to provide up-to-date intel on vendor pricing across locations. Knowing how Price Comparisons works will help you make better decisions about how to act on the information to proactively manage your costs.

What is Price Comparisons?

Price Comparisons monitors vendor pricing based on your invoice data and purchasing habits across locations. It shows price differences across locations that are purchasing the same item (Vendor, Name, SKU, Unit/Pack Size), and estimates Savings Potential if the purchase location were to buy goods at the cheaper location's price.

Where can I find Price Comparisons?

Price Comparisons appears under the insights section of Plate IQ. From the top left, navigate to the app selector and choose Insights.

Price Comparisons lists all the items who have different purchase prices across restaurant groups/locations. It will identify item’s costs that are moving unfavorably across locations.

(Click to enlarge)

Here, you see the item name, vendor, purchase location, purchase price, cheaper location, cheaper price and the savings potential. You may sort any column by clicking the column header. This savings potential is calculated based on if you purchased the item at the cheaper location's price.

On the Price Comparisons tab, you can use filters to view a specific location, date range, vendor, GL Account or Category:

How is Price Comparisons organized?

Price Comparisons defaults to showing your highest savings potential on top. That is the item that has the largest price difference between 2 or more locations. The savings potential is automatically calculated based off your invoices.

To change how the report is organized, click a column header. To switch from an ascending sort to a descending sort (or vice versa), click the header a second time.

Can I get more detailed Price Comparisons information?

Along with displaying location price changes, Group Savings gives you access to the data associated with those purchases. Price Comparisons becomes more granular as you move from the full list to the invoices associated with that item. By drilling down to the invoice level, you can get more information about your expenses. Click any blue highlighted price to access the associated invoice.

What can I learn from Price Comparisons?

Price Comparisons focuses on tracking vendor prices and bringing relevant price changes to your attention. Examples of questions you can answer using Price Comparisons include:

Are there item price differences at different locations?
Which location has a cheaper price for a product?
How much could I save if my prices across locations were constant?

How to Compare Location Level Item Prices