Effective Restaurant Inventory Management

Supplies & Inventory Management

Your restaurant inventory is like a balancing act—you don’t want too much or too little. Keeping it in check requires smart strategies, a good system, and attention to detail. With the right approach, like efficient ordering and strong oversight, you’ll have everything running smoothly.

Establish Clear Inventory Protocols

Your inventory system will need a “backbone,” in other words, procedures that govern every decision regarding inventory management. 

A good starting point is an inventory table. This document will feature columns for the following: 

• Items 
• Units of measurement
• Current count
• Unit price
• Total cost
• Par levels (minimum stock levels)

Visualized, it may look like this: 

This provides the foundation for keeping a record of your items. 

Next, group your inventory categories logically. For example, you’ll create group items like the following: meats, produce, dry goods, beverages, spices, etc. This keeps your inventory records organized. 

This template allows you to efficiently track both counts and costs—a task you’ll need to perform regularly. It involves checking the quantity of each item within its respective category, using appropriate units (e.g., pounds, packages), and calculating the total cost by multiplying the quantity by the current unit price. 

Establish a Reliable System for Inventory Management

In addition to documentation, you’ll need to create a systematic way to track these items manually. For accuracy, this should happen regularly, such as weekly or monthly, and at consistent times, such as before or after closing. 

You can also use cycle counting. This method involves tracking perishable items more frequently (daily or every few days) and non-perishable foods less frequently (weekly or monthly). Cycle counting helps identify discrepancies quickly, reduces waste and losses, and improves inventory control and accuracy. 

Assigning the same staff to handle these tasks can make a big difference! It helps keep things accurate and efficient, as the team gets familiar with the stock items and inventory processes.  

Use Effective Inventory Frameworks 

Managing restaurant inventory is an art, and some of the greatest minds in the business have placed inventory practices into frameworks that maximize efficiency:

• First Expiring, First Out (FEFO)—This framework uses soon-to-expire items to reduce waste.  
• Par Inventory Sheets—This technique helps you maintain minimum stock levels (par levels) to know when to reorder.
• Monitor Sell-Through Rate—This framework tracks item sales to adjust your ordering.  

Use Automation to Better Manage Inventory 

Of course, the “there’s an app for that” mindset lalso applies to restaurant inventory management. Gone are the days of scribbling figures into hand-drawn columns in a notebook with a Sharpie. You have a whole suite of apps and software to help simplify your inventory tasks. 

For example, integrated software solutions such as Toast, Restaurant365, and Apicbase can help automate tracking, recipe costing, forecasting demand, and generating purchase orders.

Also, consider integrating your inventory with your point-of-sale (POS) systems. This will provide real-time updates on your stock as sales occur. 

Reduce Food Waste and Cut Costs

Waste is inevitable,, but also controllable. Unfortunately, restaurants continue to waste tons of food, and we mean that literally—restaurants waste around 4.5 million tons annually. Not only is that expensive, but it also strains the environment and perpetuates food insecurity.There are steps you can take to minimize food waste. 

The first step to reducing food waste is tracking it. Maintain detailed food waste logs to monitor spoiled or discarded items, helping identify patterns and develop strategies to minimize loss.

Next, consider menu engineering. This involves analyzing the cost and popularity of your recipes to pinpoint the most profitable dishes. By promoting these items and efficiently cross-utilizing ingredients across multiple menu options, you can maximize value and reduce waste.

Finally, embrace surplus use. Get creative with excess ingredients by featuring them in daily specials or limited-time offers, ensuring nothing goes to waste while delighting your customers with fresh, unique options.

Standardize Processes Across Locations

If you’re running a chain or opening new locations, it’s essential to standardize procedures across all locations. That includes receiving goods, proper item storage, portion control, and inventory reporting. And, of course, recipes and portion sizes should remain consistent across locations. 

Employee Training and Accountability

It's important to train your team on proper inventory handling, waste reduction, and theft prevention. You can also assign someone to check incoming orders to make sure everything is accurate and up to standard—it’s a great way to keep things running smoothly!

Protect Against Theft and Misplacement

Lastly, safeguards should be put in place to mitigate theft and human error losses. Assign two of your employees to cross-check each other’s inventory counts occasionally to catch mistakes or intentional recording errors. Conduct periodic surprise audits to compare actual inventory versus hypothetical counts. This helps detect inaccuracies or theft sooner rather than later.