The Path to Precision: How Souvla Uses Real-Time Data to Control Food Costs
- COGS-Well Team
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
For Souvla, a group of fast-fine restaurants with locations throughout the Bay Area, "good enough" was never the goal. With six locations to manage, they knew that scaling successfully required a level of structural control that manual tools simply couldn't provide.
Maria Berdougo, VP of Finance at Souvla, explained that the decision to partner with COGS-Well came down to a specific philosophy:
"We had manual processes in our back office and in the restaurants and wanted to move away from spreadsheets. We were also looking for best-in-class over somebody who tries to be everything to everybody. That's why COGS-Well was really appealing. It did inventory really well, and we built from there.”
Increased Control Over Food Costs
Awareness and accountability improved significantly when Souvla shifted from period-based counting to weekly inventory counts, a change that proved meaningful during COVID. While there was initial hesitation about whether "the juice was worth the squeeze," the results spoke for themselves: increased control over every dollar spent.
"Every manager at Souvla now knows what their food costs are every single week. Not their purchases, but their actual food cost... Our team is really dialed into this practice now. If we took it away, sure, it'd be easier, but we wouldn't know what our food cost is,” Maria shared.
By not waiting until the end of a period to figure out cost or usage variances and having the timely information needed to lead their teams effectively, managers are also held to a higher standard. To maintain this accountability, managers are sent Theoretical vs. Actual Cost Variance Reports from COGS-Well every week.
"I'll say, here's your actual food cost, here's your theoretical food cost, and here's the difference. Because our recipes are strong, and our managers take weekly inventory counts, we ask them to stay within 1% of our target." Beverage items are held to an even tighter variance target.
Maria also noted that this increased awareness has helped lower their food and beverage costs across the brand.
"Every manager at Souvla now knows what their food costs are every single week."
Deeper Insights: Collaborating Across Locations
Moving from manual tracking to a centralized reporting system allowed Souvla to unlock new insights and build on a culture of collaboration.
As Souvla grew, they found it important to group the P&L meetings with multiple locations so managers could learn from each other. Managers can use the reports in COGS-Well to prepare for these meetings, and then they review their P&Ls side by side, including individual location costs.
"Managers can see each other's food costs," Maria explained. "If one location is way above everybody else, and they're all buying the same items, and it's the same menu, we talk about what the causes could be.”
As a result of this collaboration, the General Managers and Kitchen Managers can develop individual goals and action items.
Recipe Management and Menu Optimization
Because Souvla maintains a fairly set menu, building every recipe directly into the system was a priority. This extra layer of cost control allows them to track Actual vs. Theoretical variances for costs and usage, a practice their team is strongly committed to.
They can also evaluate the plate cost for new and existing menu items to optimize profitability. For example, when Souvla transitioned their rotisserie chicken from an off-menu offering to a standard menu item, they used COGS-Well to determine the exact cost to produce it. This enabled them to stay competitive while staying aligned with their own financial goals.
"We could play with the price inside of COGS-Well without having to do the math each time until we figured out what made the most sense for our food costs. We looked at what if we increased it by a few dollars, or what the price would be if we added a dipping sauce,” Maria explained.
Maria has even taken the data from COGS-Well a step further by exporting Souvla's recipe and menu item sales information to AI to assist with week-over-week inventory analysis, see inventory trends, and pinpoint any potential discrepancies or outliers.
Store-to-Store Transfers
The ability to streamline transfers was a major factor in Souvla's decision to partner with COGS-Well as they frequently transfer inventory and recipe items between stores.
The system has simplified what was once a complex logistical task. Managers can go directly into COGS-Well and select the specific items they need, like chicken or kale, then send a transfer request to another store. The other store then receives an alert that they have a request to fulfill.
Once the other store fulfills the transfer, Souvla leverages DoorDash to transport the items between stores. Inventory quantities and costs for both stores are updated automatically in COGS-Well without any additional work for the managers, and the cost adjustments are ready to export to accounting.
Streamlining the Ordering Process
Souvla also uses COGS-Well to place and manage orders from multiple vendors. This eliminates the need to call, text, or email vendors individually and provides greater visibility for the whole team.
“Our Operations Team who oversee the restaurants set up order guides in COGS-Well that managers can pick from when they're ordering,” Maria explained.
Multiple managers have access to see exactly what was ordered, the expected delivery date, and if a delivery doesn't show up or happen as expected.
"The assistant kitchen manager and one of our culinary managers can go look in COGS-Well at the same time. It's one shared communication system.”
Automated Exports to Accounting
COGS-Well has delivered substantial time savings for Souvla by automating the flow of POS financial data into Sales Journals that can be reviewed, balanced, and posted to their accounting system, Intacct. What used to be a manual headache is now an integral and seamless part of their daily workflow.
"Something that I really appreciated at the beginning was the flexibility of adding the Sales Journals. I was trying to find a solution without adding another system. And from there, I realized that we would have a really great partnership because COGS-Well was willing to make that change."
In addition to the Sales Journal, Souvla also exports transfer and inventory valuation adjustments to Intacct. These adjustments are balanced credit and debit entries. For Maria, it was about ease and efficiency:
"We very much appreciate the ability to automatically export ending inventory, transfers, and sales to our accounting system. We don't have to export and then import like some other companies out there; it's just the click of a button, and the process is automated."
A Partnership Built to Last
Beyond the software, Maria attributes Souvla’s long-term success with COGS-Well to the relationship itself. Whether it was adding Sales Journals to accommodate their growth or providing technical support, ongoing collaboration has been a cornerstone of their operations.
"I appreciate always feeling like I have a partner on the other side," Maria shared. "I feel really supported in that way.”
