What are dispatches, what are they for and how do you manage them?

A dispatch in tspoonlab is a stock movement, a definitive outbound of goods from your stores. This feature is aimed especially at hotels with buffet services, catering companies and event kitchens. Dispatches are used when you need to write off products or recipes in bulk for internal departments, without having to go through sales.

Stock movements that dispatch record

The movements and impacts recorded when processing a dispatch in tspoonlab are applied directly to your stores' stock. The software makes the following automatic adjustments to guarantee the traceability of your raw materials and recipes:

Raw-material write-off: deducts from your stores the quantities of the products or the raw materials associated with the dispatched products or recipes.
Theoretical vs. actual adjustment: the system lets you record variations between the planned volume and the kitchen's real consumption at the end of the event or service.
Allocation by business line: classifies the financial impact by linking the expense to a specific account or destination, letting you filter more precise cost reports.

Step by step: create a dispatch in tspoonlab

To create and manage a dispatch, follow this step by step:

In the top-right corner of the screen, click the "Options" menu and find the "Dispatches" section.
Right next to the dispatch search bar, on the left of the screen, find the three-dot dropdown menu and select "New dispatch".
In the pop-up window, add:
- Dispatch name: choose a name related to the event the dispatch is attributed to.
- Date: select the event date.
- Number of Pax: enter the number of diners. The system performs two operations: before the event, it multiplies the base recipe's ingredients by the number of Pax to calculate the stock that must leave the kitchen; at the end of the service, it divides the total raw-material cost by the Pax to issue the report of the real spend per person.
The system generates the dispatch, which is initially set to "Pending"status (in this status the stock is not yet modified).
Within the created dispatch record, go to the "Products" section and click "Edit products".
Enter, one by one, the products or recipes and the quantities that will leave the store. You can separate them into groups such as "Products" and "Recipes".
Click "Ok". The expedition will remain pending to be started and finished on the day of the event.

How to start and finish a dispatch to apply the stock deduction

For the stock write-offs to actually apply in your tspoonlab stores, the dispatch document must be started and finished on the real date. Follow these steps within the dispatch record:

On the event day, once you have reviewed the product list in your pending dispatch, find the "Start" button.
At this point you can correct quantities. If different quantities were sent than planned, edit the lines by changing the theoretical-quantity field to the actual quantity.
You can mark equal quantities one by one with the "Copy" button next to the actual quantity, or do it in bulk by clicking the three-dot dropdown menu on the group and selecting "Set sent value equal to theoretical". You can also add batches to each product.
You can add comments in the "Comments" section to include extra information.
Click the "Finish" button once the products and recipes have been sent. Only when you take this action does the software post the movement and definitively deduct the products from your store's inventory.

How to generate a return within the same expedition

For cases where products are dispatched but not fully consumed (such as bottles of soft drinks or spirits at a catering bar), tspoonlab lets you make a reverse adjustment to return the surplus goods to the store of origin.

Go to "Options" and select "Dispatches".
Open the outbound dispatch that is already in "Finished" status.
In the dispatch record, towards the left, you will find the "Generate return" button. Click it to correct the products that were dispatched but later came back to the store of origin.
A pop-up window opens where you must add the date and time of the return. Click "Ok".
tspoonlab automatically creates an inbound dispatch linked to the original one. You must click "Start" to enable editing.
Manually enter the quantities of the items that came back to your store. If any of them returned but were not in good condition, you can record those units by clicking the "Waste" checkbox. When you do, the system will not return that damaged product to the stock in the store of origin, but it will keep its economic value allocated as the real cost of the service.
If you have comments about the returns, you can add them in the comments section.
Click "Finish". The system automatically adds these units back to the store of origin's stock and recalculates the exact real cost of the service.