Restaurant inventory count: a step-by-step stock take guide

Every restaurant owner knows the feeling. Sales were good, the kitchen never stopped, and yet there is less money at the end of the month than there should be. Very often the answer is in the storeroom. A restaurant inventory count is the only way to see what really happened to the meat, rice, butter and drinks you bought.

A stock take is not there to punish anyone or to keep the accountant happy. Done regularly, it becomes a routine rather than an emergency, and it answers three questions: what do we have, what should we have, and why is there a difference. When stock records are vague, food cost, margins and even menu prices become guesses too.

How often to count

Two rhythms work well together:

• Weekly: key items. The 10–20 items that are expensive or easy to lose: beef and lamb, chicken, butter, cheese, saffron, alcohol, coffee beans, packaged drinks. This count fits into a short slot before opening.
• Monthly: a full count. Everything in every zone, including semi-finished products and packaging. Do it on the same day each month, ideally after closing on the last day or on the morning of the first.
• Extra counts: when the storekeeper or head chef changes, after a big banquet or a holiday (Novruz, New Year), or when a weekly count shows a large difference.

The weekly count catches problems early and the monthly one gives you the full picture, so you need both.

Preparation: half the result is done the day before

1. Choose the time: after closing or before opening, when nothing is moving.
2. Enter every document: each supplier receipt, each write-off (spoilage, staff meals), each transfer between venues. An invoice that is still a piece of paper in the chef's pocket will show up as a "shortage".
3. Make sure the day's sales are in. In Dishment, paid orders are deducted from stock once the hub has synced with the cloud.
4. Stop deliveries and transfers until the count is finished.
5. Prepare count sheets by zone, in the order items sit on the shelves, using the same units as the system (kg, l, pcs).
6. Tidy up: same items together, opened packs at the front, empty boxes out.
7. Work in pairs: one person counts, the other writes. Whoever is responsible for a zone should not count it alone.

Tell the team in advance when and why you are counting. A stock take checks the process, not the people: it finds outdated tech cards and lost invoices far more often than thieves. When staff know the date and see the results, they help fix mistakes instead of hiding them.

Counting by zones

Go zone by zone, never "wherever is convenient":

• dry store: rice, flour, sugar, oil, canned goods;
• cold room and fridges: meat, dairy, vegetables, greens;
• freezers;
• bar: open bottles, sealed bottles, packaged drinks, tea and coffee;
• kitchen line and pastry station: whatever is already out on the line;
• packaging: takeaway boxes, cups, bags.

Rules inside each zone:

• left to right, top to bottom, shelf by shelf;
• weigh open packs; never write "half a bag";
• count sealed items by the piece and open bottles by weight;
• write what you see, not what "should be there";
• a counted zone is closed: nothing goes in or out until the count is over.

Semi-finished products

This is where counts most often go wrong. Broth, qutab dough, minced meat for lülə kabab, marinated chicken, sauces: they are already made from raw ingredients, but not yet sold.

There are two ways to handle them:

• As separate items. If you make a semi-finished product by its own tech card (a production document), count it as its own item in kg or l. The raw meat that went into the mince was already written off at production.
• Converted back to raw. If you do not record production, estimate how much raw product is in the batch and add it to the raw stock.

Pick one way and stick to it. Mix the two and the same meat gets counted twice, or not at all. Label every container with the date it was made: counting gets easier, and an expired batch does not hide at the back of the fridge.

Theoretical vs actual usage: how to read the gap

This is where a count starts to pay off. For each item you compare two numbers:

• Theoretical usage is what should have been used according to sales and tech cards. Say a café sold 120 portions of plov in a week and the tech card says 250 g of rice gross per portion: theoretical usage is 30 kg.
• Actual usage is what really left the stock: opening balance + receipts − recorded write-offs − closing balance from the count.

The difference between them is the variance. Here is a hypothetical week in a café:

How to read it:

• Money matters more than percent. A 25% gap on lemons may cost less than 8% on beef. Sort by value.
• A minus is a signal too. Using less than sales suggest means portions are smaller than the card, a document is wrong, or the count is wrong.
• Look for repeats. One bad week can be chance. The same item short every week is a pattern.
• Start with the biggest gaps. Do not chase everything at once: take the five largest differences in manat and leave the rest for the next count.
• Set your own tolerance. For example, you might decide that up to 2% on meat is acceptable and anything above needs an explanation. The number is yours; what matters is that everyone knows it.

What to do with the differences

1. Recount first. Before drawing any conclusion, have a different person recount the item.
2. Check the documents. A missing invoice, a write-off never entered, a transfer posted to the wrong venue.
3. Check the tech card. Does it match what the kitchen actually does? Is there a dish or modifier without a card?
4. Check the till. Voids of sent dishes, dishes served without a check, unrecorded staff meals.
5. Then talk to the team. Show the number and ask how it happened. Most differences have a boring explanation, and it shows you what to fix in the process.
6. Fix it and record it. Update the tech card, add the missing write-off reason, change who receives deliveries. Post the count so the system carries on from real balances.

Do not start with salary deductions. A deduction closes the question without removing the cause, and next month the same gap comes back.

How Dishment makes theoretical usage automatic

On paper, theoretical usage means multiplying every sale by every tech card. Nobody does that every week. In a system built on tech cards the number is simply there. In the Dishment Warehouse and recipes module:

• tech cards with gross weight, loss % and net weight, also for modifiers and combo parts;
• every paid dish writes off its ingredients by its tech card, so stock always shows what should be there;
• dishes without a tech card are listed separately, so you know where theoretical usage is incomplete;
• the inventory count document shows, for each ingredient, the balance the system expects, the quantity you counted and the difference, in units and in manat at average cost;
• write-offs with a reason, receipts with supplier and invoice, transfers between venues;
• a posted document never changes: a mistake is cancelled with a reversing document and the history stays;
• reports on ingredient usage, cost of goods sold and gross profit, CSV export, and low-stock alerts.

Want to compare the variance with what happened at the till? The reports show voids, refunds and staff activity for the same period. Module pricing is on the pricing page.