Where do I see this for menu items rather than products?

Menu items are analysed separately, against recipe cost. Use Menu Engineering, which classifies dishes by popularity and profitability together.

Business Intelligence & Performance Analytics

Cross-operation analytics: performance and trends across sales, outlets and periods, in one place rather than one report at a time.

Business Intelligence classifies your products by how they actually perform. Rather than a list of sales figures, it sorts stock into categories like Cash Cow, Growing sales, Stable and Question, and flags purchasing opportunities and stock risks — so you can see which lines carry the business and which are quietly tying up money.

Last updated 24 August 2026

What it classifies

Products are grouped by the combination of how much they sell and how that is trending:

Cash Cow — sells consistently and reliably. These fund everything else, and are the ones you must never be out of.
Growing sales — increasing demand. Worth stocking deeper before the trend outruns your ordering.
Stable — steady, predictable, uninteresting in the best sense.
Question — unclear performance, needing a decision rather than more data.

Alongside this it analyses stock levels and purchasing opportunities. When nothing is stagnant it reads No dead weight; when everything needed is in stock, All stocked.

Common Tasks

How to Find Which Products Carry the Business (best sellers, cash cows, top products, what makes us money)

Identify the lines you cannot afford to be out of.

Required permission: Business intelligence read

Go to Business Intelligence in the left sidebar
Wait while stock levels and purchase opportunities are analysed
Review the products classified as Cash Cow
Use Show 10, Show 25, Show 50 or Show 100 to widen the list

Result: You have the list of products the business genuinely depends on.

Note: Cross-check these against days of cover in Replenish. Running out of a cash cow costs more than running out of anything else.

How to Spot Products That Are Growing (trending products, growing sales, increasing demand)

Catch rising demand before it turns into stockouts.

Go to Business Intelligence
Review products under Growing sales
Check their current stock and reorder position
Increase order quantities where the trend justifies it

Result: Ordering is adjusted to demand that is rising rather than to last season's pattern.

Note: Reorder points set months ago do not know about a trend. This is where you notice the gap.

How to Find Stock That Is Not Earning (dead stock, slow movers, dead weight, overstock)

Find money tied up in things that are not selling.

Go to Business Intelligence
Review products flagged as stagnant or classified as Question
Check how long the stock has been held and what it is worth
Decide: discount it, stop reordering it, or delist it

Result: You can act on stock that is consuming cash and shelf space without earning.

Note: No dead weight means nothing is currently flagged. That is a good result rather than an empty report.

How to Review Purchasing Opportunities (what should I buy, purchase opportunities, buying suggestions)

See where the analysis suggests buying differently.

Go to Business Intelligence
Let the purchase opportunity analysis complete
Review the suggestions against your own knowledge of the season and the market
Act on them in Replenish

Result: Purchasing decisions are informed by performance data rather than by habit.

Classification follows your data

A product that sells well but is recorded inconsistently — under two catalogue entries, or sold through quick sale lines with no product — will be classified on partial evidence. If a classification surprises you, check the product's sales history before acting on it.

Menu Engineering — the equivalent for menu items, combining cost with popularity
Replenish — where the buying decision is actually made
Qvi — ask these questions in plain language instead

Troubleshooting

A product I know sells well is classified as a Question

Cause: Its sales are split across duplicate catalogue entries, or recorded without a product.

Fix: Check for duplicate products and merge them. Sales rung up as quick sale lines carry no product, so they never reach the analysis.

The analysis is empty or still loading

Cause: There is not enough sales history yet.

Fix: Classification needs a run of trading to work from. A newly configured business unit will have little to say until it has traded for a while.

It says All stocked but I know we are short of things

Cause: The analysis reads recorded stock, which may not match the shelf.

Fix: Run a stock recount for the affected area. The analysis is only as good as the stock figures underneath it.