I think I discovered what causes my efficiency issues.

Using Beersmith 2 I have been getting varying efficiency. I think I have finally tracked this down.

I have made my equipment profile and it looks like sometimes I leave the batch size alone and on others I have changed it to the amount I wanted in the fermenter.

I figured batch size would be the final amount but looking closer I see that to get 5.25 gallons "in fermenter" the batch size is 5.75 gallons.

Now I have to wait til next week to confirm that this was my problem.

According to Beersmith, the "Batch Size" field is the volume "as measured into the fermenter" and that agrees with my experience.

Maybe I have worded things a little wrong. In the equipment profile I set the batch size to 5.75 gallons and that gives 5.25 gallons for bottling.

I then manually changed the batch size on the recipe page to 5.25 gallons. So I think I am diluting the recipe. As I am still collecting 7 gallons to get 5.25 in the fermenter.

Am I wrong?

The "batch volume" in the profile serves as a default for recipes when you choose the particular profile. If you then change it on the recipe page Beersmith will adjust the numbers on the recipe page (and elsewhere) to adjust to that new volume. So regardless of what you select as the "batch volume" in the equipment profile, if you enter 5.25 as the "Batch Size" on the recipe design page Beersmith will change the recipe numbers to suite that volume. So, yes, if you're collecting 7 gallons of wort and ending up with a batch size of 5.75 gallons but Beersmith has calculated your grain bill expecting a 5.25 batch then your OG will definitely be low.