Insights uses your data to drill down into to spend and purchasing patterns with the goal of reducing costs. This guide will walk you through the best way to use the many features of insights.
In this article:
How to sort and filter across Insights
Utilizing your data within Insights
How to sort and filter across Insights
To get started, lets talk about how to sort and filter within Insights.
Navigate to any section above within insights
Sort through your data by using the column headers to adjust.
All areas of insights can be filtered directly under the heading.
Click the Filters button to filter by location, date, vendor, GL, or category.
Utilizing your data within Insights
We recommend starting with Spend Analysis.
You will see your total spend by GL or Category. This is a great place to begin drilling down into your data by clicking on a piece of the pie chart.
Spend Analysis also breaks down your data by weekly spend. Hover over any bar for more information. Click to drill down.
Lastly, Spend Analysis will show the breakdown by item level. Clicking into the Unit Price will open up the invoice.
After you have identified a problem area, we recommend using Hot List.
Using the filter options, you should find the item or items identified in Spend Analysis and mark them as Starred.
Starred vs Recommended
Recommended items are sorted based on price changes and percentages. You can star items you want to watch by clicking the star next to the item. Drill into any line item by clicking on it
The Dashboard Hot List defaults to a 7-day view. You can use the drop-down menu at the top to change timeframe of the report. This at-a-glance view displays the item name, vendor, and color-coded percentage change.
Here, you see the item name, vendor, and color-coded percentage change along with the current and previous unit price, the total you've spent on that item during the previous month (the default timeframe), and the projected cost impact of the price change.
Now that you have identified and starred problem items, we recommend using Group Savings. (if you have multiple locations)
Group Savings 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.
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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.
This will allow you to reach out to your vendor and determine what is causing the price change.
Wrapping up Insights is Contract Pricing. Now that you have identified a problem from our previous sections - You should setup a Contract Price to define and create a contract price based on company, vendor, and item. If the contract price is broken, the invoice will be flagged in needs attention and an email alert sent.
Setup your item contract price by location, vendor, desired price and price change threshold.
Contract Pricing lists all the items who have broken your desired purchase price across restaurant groups/locations. Click into an item to see its price change over time.
Along with displaying contract price changes, Contract Pricing gives you access to the data associated with those purchases. Contract Pricing becomes more granular as you drilldown into the invoices associated with that price chnage. By drilling down to the invoice level, you can get more information about your expenses. Click any blue highlighted invoice number to access the associated invoice.
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Along with displaying contract price changes, Contract Pricing gives you access to the data associated with those purchases. Contract Pricing becomes more granular as you drilldown into the invoices associated with that price change. By drilling down to the invoice level, you can get more information about your expenses. Click any blue highlighted invoice number to access the associated invoice.
Related articles:
How to Use Spend Analysis within Insights
How to Use Hot List within Insights