# Covers, checks and the cost of goods. One place to ask.

Written for the chef and the F&B director. The point of sale, the invoices and the member roll each hold part of dining. Smarter Club reads them together, so you ask in plain language and get the answer yourself, from the same records the office uses.

- Covers and average check, by outlet, meal, day and month
- Cost of goods by category, from the invoices and the ledger
- The dining rooms against banquets and member events
- Who is meeting the dining minimum, and what was billed
- Dining’s result as a share of dues
- What the course brings to the table
- What members said, beside the numbers

## Covers and checks

By outlet, by meal, by day and by month.

- **Covers.** Covers by outlet, by lunch and dinner, by day of the week and by month, set against the same period last year.
- **Average check.** By outlet and meal period, and by month, so a busier room and a bigger check are told apart.
- **Volume or price.** Whether dining revenue moved because more members came or because each visit cost more.

1. how many steak frites were sold in july
2. provide a menu item summary for both the grill and [the dining room], by item, from July 1st to today
3. please exclude drinks and employee items
4. I want to see the total rounds by [membership type] vs. the capture in Food and beverage at the club the same day they played

Typed into Smarter Club at member-owned clubs this year, in the order typed.

## Cost of goods, by category

What the club paid, from the invoices and the ledger.

Food and beverage cost by category, from your invoices and the general ledger, beside dining sales for the same period. What the club has paid for steak over the last two years is a question, not an afternoon with the invoices. The kitchen and the office read the same figures, so there are not two sets to reconcile, and it reads the ledger without writing anything back. It doesn’t read payroll, so labor isn’t here.

## À la carte against events

The dining rooms, the banquets and the member events, side by side.

- **The mix.** Covers and revenue for the dining rooms against banquets and member events, by month and by year, where your event bookings are connected.
- **Each event.** Covers per event and by year, with children on their own line where the booking records them.

## Minimums

Who is meeting the dining minimum, and who isn’t.

By month and by membership category, from your billing. An unmet minimum is billed to the member and posted to the ledger as revenue, for food that was never eaten. It shows both: who was billed and how much, beside what they spent, so the office and the house committee read one number. What to do about the minimum stays with you and the board.

## The amenity question

Dining’s result as a share of dues.

Many boards treat dining as part of what dues pay for. Where your ledger codes a department on each posting, dining’s result as a share of dues is a question the board can ask any month, rather than once a year. Where it doesn’t, the answer says so. It shows the figure. Whether dining should pay for itself is the board’s call.

## Dining and golf

What the course brings to the table.

How much dining the club captured on the days members played, by membership category, and what the top players spend in the dining room, where the tee sheet and the point of sale are both connected. The tee sheet holds one half and the point of sale the other.

## What members say

Survey answers beside the covers and checks for the same season.

Where your club connects its member surveys, what members said about the dining rooms, the menu and the service sits beside the covers and average checks for the same season. It reports what members said, next to what the records show.

## Bring the question you keep having to ask someone else.

Smarter Club runs today at several member-owned clubs, on different ERPs, and we’ll put you in touch with a general manager at one. We’ll also show it to you on Dunross Valley, a club we invented, so nothing of yours is involved.

[Ask to see it](mailto:hello@smarter-club.com?subject=Smarter%20Club%20demonstration) [What your board will want to know](https://smarter-club.com/for-the-board)