Blog · Data quality and reconciliation · Foodservice distributors
How a foodservice distributor measures how closely each kitchen's orders follow the order guide it was set up with, from the order guide file and the delivery ledger: guide items ordered, guide items never ordered, off-guide items ordered instead, the substitution pairs that recur, the kitchens whose guide is stale, and why a low compliance figure is usually a guide problem before it is a customer problem.
A kitchen was set up two years ago with an order guide of a hundred and forty items. Its menu has changed twice since. It now orders half its lines off the guide, at list price, missing rebates, for items the rep never knew it wanted. The guide file against the delivery ledger shows it, and the substitution pairs say what the guide should now contain. This guide sets out compliance, the pairs, and the stale-guide list.
Per kitchen, per period:
Compliance = order lines on guide items ÷ order lines Guide items never ordered in the period, as a share of the guide Off-guide lines, and their value at list against the guide price where an equivalent exists
Per pair of items, across kitchens:
Substitution pair = a guide item that stopped being ordered and an off-guide item in the same category that started, at the same kitchens
Account identifiers only.
order lines = on-guide + off-guide, per kitchen
Every line in one class. An item on the guide that is not in the item master is a guide error, listed.
| Kitchen | Guide items | Compliance | Guide items never ordered | Off-guide lines | Off-guide value at list premium | Guide last updated | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2207 | 140 | 48% | 61 (44%) | 380 | $4,100/qtr | 23 months ago | Stale guide |
| 4471 | 90 | 91% | 8 | 30 | $200/qtr | 2 months ago | Fine |
| 9034 | 110 | 62% | 22 | 190 | $1,900/qtr | 1 month ago | Not stale; menu change? |
Kitchen 2207 has a guide nobody has touched in two years, half its lines off it, and four thousand dollars a quarter of list-price premium the kitchen is paying for items that should be on an agreement. That is a rep visit with a proposed guide in hand.
| Guide item stopped | Off-guide item started | Kitchens | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| I-2207 | I-2288 | 41 | Same category; pack size change. Update guides |
| I-4471 | I-4490 | 19 | Brand switch. Update guides; check rebate |
Two pairs explain a third of the off-guide lines in the base. Forty-one guides updated in one task.
Compliance read as customer behaviour. The guide is stale; the kitchen is fine.
Off-guide priced silently at list. The kitchen pays a premium and finds out from a competitor.
Guide items never ordered left on. The guide is a hundred and forty items and the kitchen uses eighty. Trim it.
Pairs not aggregated. Each rep updates one guide; the base has forty with the same substitution.
Mapped once, the order guide file, the delivery ledger and the item master produce compliance per kitchen, the stale-guide list and the substitution pairs every quarter. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The foodservice page describes the setup, and the menu-driven demand guide covers what the updated guide should contain.
It carries the agreed prices, the rebate-eligible items and the items the distributor stocks for that kitchen. Off-guide purchases are priced at list, miss rebates, and are sometimes items the branch does not stock, which turns into a lost line. Compliance is where the pricing agreement meets the actual orders.
Usually not. A kitchen ordering off-guide is ordering what it needs; the guide has not kept up with the menu. The substitution pairs say which guide items should be replaced by which off-guide items, and updating the guide is a rep's task with a list.
By the guide's last update date against the share of the kitchen's lines that are off-guide. A guide untouched for a year with a third of lines off it is stale; one updated last month with a third off is a different problem. Both are on the report with the date.