Control your margin

A daily challenge

Controlling the margin on the products sold has today become a fundamental issue for local shops. A few rupees earned here and there can lead the business on the path to growth! Or the other way around … ☹

Today, it is no longer possible to navigate by sight in determining its selling prices. Many merchants could afford to sell a little less to gain footfall and average basket (some go so far as to opt for impactful promotions, such as the very popular “2 = 3”). They are also not uncommon those who could lower their production costs to generate more profits and thus sustain their business.

Too many charges, too many fluctuations in import charges, too much competition, too many new standards and costly rules … it’s ultimately too many businesses that put themselves in danger when they fail to find the right cursor on the price.

If there was only one question to ask before going any further, it might be this: when you sell a product, how much do you actually earn?

To find out, some people trust their accountant. While he can accompany you, of course, and provide you with advice on certain efforts to make, he will only make a post-facto report of a situation that is already badly underway. It is therefore imperative that YOU find and implement the simple and effective analysis systems that are right for you.
Discover our latest innovative « catering trades » features

XL-ent has developed the concept of automatic « theoretical » margin for Mauritian businesses. Directly at the checkout, you assign each of your products / references a selling price and a theoretical cost. This cost is calculated by you for each referral. Thus, in addition to the turnover, you will have a daily indicator « theoretical margin » in value and in percentage for your point of sale.

Other more in-depth approaches can be adapted, in particular for processing trades (catering, for example, or bakeries). All the costs relating to the manufacture and sale of a product must be calculated, whether they are directly proportional to production volumes (e.g. raw materials, payroll, packaging, energy related to the process, etc.) or not ( eg: equipment, maintenance, energy related to operation, rent, taxes, etc.).

To avoid long days on a spreadsheet, XL-ent has integrated a supplier management module which will automatically be interfaced with your cooking recipes and therefore the dishes for sale. The margins are then calculated automatically, including the « waste » raw materials.

The right tools

Promotional offers or formulas should be integrated into your analysis as products in their own right, with their own cost price and margin. The discount is a marketing argument that should not impact your margin!

Choose a simple and efficient software like CashMag, which directly integrates the « theoretical » margin by reference.

If you want to manage the recipes of your preparations, the ingredients by weight, the losses in preparation and manage your suppliers, the Clyo solution allows you to calculate the recommended selling price for each pre-recorded recipe according to the material cost and the desired gross margin. .
« By providing the correct figures with the support of XL-ent experts, the restaurateur will thus know the real impact of each reference sold on the gross operating income and will therefore know exactly what he earns when he sells a product ”explains Philippe Méliet, founder of XL-ent Maurice.

The right sales report

To better monitor your sales, a modern touch-screen checkout (POS) is needed. You will quickly know which are the most attractive references and what is the best tempo to keep in terms of taste, price, originality … You will quickly identify the products which are reaching the end of their life (declining sales) and will be able to anticipate in order to to limit unsold items. XL-ent integrates multiple analysis tables with its software solutions at no additional cost. The histories are stored online (cloud) for several years. You will be able to compare the evolutions days / weeks / months / years and manage your activity serenely, from your home.

In photo, CashMag back-office statistics management screen in cloud (exclusive to XL-ent).