Guide
The discounts nobody counts.
Comps and staff food rarely appear in any report, which is exactly why they drift.
In short
Comps, voids and staff discounts are real costs that usually sit outside standard reporting. Require a reason code on every one, review them weekly by staff member and by reason, and set a clear staff food policy. The aim is visibility rather than suspicion: most drift is habit, not theft.
Updated 28 August 2026
Why they drift
Because nobody looks. A comp given to smooth over a complaint is good practice. The same comp given routinely, by one person, on a busy night, becomes a habit that costs real money. Without a reason code and a weekly look, there is no mechanism by which anybody would notice.
Reason codes on everything
Every void and every comp gets a reason and a name attached. Not to catch anybody, but so the pattern is visible. A weekly review takes five minutes and typically reveals either one staff member well outside the norm or one dish being remade constantly, and both are worth knowing.
- Kitchen error
- Customer complaint
- Staff food
- Training or mistake at entry
- Marketing or goodwill
Write down the staff food policy
Most restaurants feed their staff and should. What causes problems is an unwritten policy, which drifts from a meal on shift to friends and family at the weekend. Write down what staff get, when, and at what price. Generous and clear costs less than vague and unlimited.
Look at the pattern, not the incident
One large comp is usually a legitimate response to a genuine problem. The same small comp forty times in a month is the thing worth addressing. Reviewing by pattern also keeps the conversation about process rather than about individuals, which is where it should be.
The honest limitation
Comps are a tool and removing them is a mistake. A well-judged comp saves a customer who would otherwise have left a bad review, which is far cheaper than the dish. The goal is a policy and visibility, not an approval process that stops staff resolving problems at the table.
Questions, answered straight.
Not covered here? Just ask us.
How much comping is normal?
There is no benchmark worth quoting. Set your own baseline, watch the trend, and investigate outliers by person and by reason.
Should managers approve every comp?
For larger amounts, yes. Requiring approval for a small goodwill gesture slows service and stops staff fixing problems while the customer is still in front of them.
Do comps count in food cost?
The food is consumed, so it appears in cost of goods sold, but there is no matching revenue. That is exactly why untracked comping shows up as an unexplained food cost rise.
What about voids at the till?
Track them separately from comps. A high void rate usually means order entry is difficult or staff are undertrained, which is a fixable system problem.
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