How to carry out the inventory of your restaurant successfully?
For the restaurant logistics, one of the key aspects for everything to work efficiently, is to know How to carry out an inventory.
Because food makes up the majority of a restaurant's inventory, which is why the way you manage your restaurant's inventory is vital to the success of your business.
Inventory management in restaurants is a procedure for monitoring the ingredients and supplies you have to meet the demand for orders from diners. It also helps you order more affordable food, beverages and supplies, helping you save costs to maximize restaurant profitability.
Knowing how to manage and control inventories in your restaurant is essential for the proper management of your daily operations and the fulfillment of your short, medium and long term objectives.
What is an inventory and what is it for in your restaurant?
Knowing what inventory is and what it's for is vital for any business. And a restaurant is no exception. Inventory is a detailed list of all the assets, properties, and assets associated with your business.
Although it's recommended to keep track of everything, generally, restaurants often focus on food and perishable products because inventory constantly fluctuates depending on the consumption rate.
In other words, a restaurant's inventory consists of all the supplies that enter the restaurant and that are used to prepare food or drinks for your customers.
Restaurant inventory control is important for the following reasons:
- It allows you to optimize orders: with good control of your inventory, you can obtain the data to optimize the ordering process and control food costs.
- You can increase profit margins: Proper inventory management can help you make the right amount of profits from every dish you serve.
- Reduce food and beverage waste: Using strategic and effective inventory management processes, you can identify the areas that could have the greatest losses and losses and act accordingly.
- Improvements in customer satisfaction: With inventory management, you can maintain adequate stock levels to fulfill orders and keep customers happy.
4 Steps to do an inventory in your restaurant
Follow these 4 steps to take inventory and maintain quality in the service to your customers:
1. Define a schedule and assign responsible personnel
Keep an inventory schedule by choosing a specific time. Depending on the nature of your business, you can do it weekly, bimonthly or monthly.
Assign a staff to do this. If the same employees keep track of inventory each time, they will be more efficient and will be able to learn to detect trends or inconsistencies.
2. Determine the type of inventory you are going to use
In a restaurant, you can carry out inventory control in two ways. With the permanent inventory or with the physical inventory. These types of inventory allow you to keep better control of it.
Permanent inventory
Through the permanent inventory system, you keep a daily record of the stock you have in your restaurant. To do this, you need to digitize your restaurant with the inventory program that adapts to your needs.
Physical Inventory
This consists of the physical taking of the inventory. That is, the manual counting of the stock you have in the restaurant. The frequency of physically taking your inventory depends on the movement you have in your restaurant. A monthly frequency is usually set for physical inventory.
3. Make the inventory file and the necessary tables
Efficient control of a restaurant's inventory requires the preparation of cards and tables, both for the dishes and for the ingredients used to prepare them. Among the inventory sheets you should keep are:
Escandallos
This sheet allows you to know exactly the cost of the ingredients for each of the dishes you have in your restaurant. It also includes all the associated costs for its preparation, such as labor, supplies, and others. From this sheet you can determine the selling price of your plates.
Technical data sheets
For each dish you must have its technical data sheet, in which you include how it is made, the ingredients and quantities needed to make it. Include a photo of what your presentation should look like.
Order forms
Through these tabs, you set the order frequency and you can determine the supplier that gives you the best prices. This way you control your purchases and get the best profit margin.
4. Calculate existing inventory and its respective value
Once you take inventory, either permanently or physically, determine the value you have in your requirements. This is in order to keep your profit margins up to date.
5 Recommendations for inventorying a restaurant
Text Knowing how to do a good inventory allows you to keep better control of your inputs and have control of your profit margins. Follow these recommendations and apply them to your restaurant:
1. Keep the restaurant's warehouse clean and organized: In this way, it is easier to maintain control, and to quickly detect possible losses, either due to theft or due to the expiration of food.
2. Define a consistent schedule for doing the inventory: An essential inventory rule is to make sure you do it at the same time every day. It's good practice to do an inventory after the doors are closed or before they are opened.
Whatever you decide, make sure you're consistent to avoid fluctuations in reports.
3. Train staff and constantly track inventory: To ensure the accuracy of your inventory, be sure to thoroughly train your staff in the process.
In addition, consider offering bonuses to employees as a result of inventory savings and explain to them how proper inventory tracking affects their results.
4. Establishes clear hygiene and safety protocols: It is vital that every product in the inventory is Store properly to maintain their quality. With an established efficient protocol, losses are prevented and the safety of both customers and your restaurant employees is guaranteed.
5. Use technology to optimize control and prevent losses: the best, most comprehensive and efficient method for making an inventory of a restaurant is through an automated inventory management system.
This system is linked to the point of sale system to automate the entire process. Through this connection, your restaurant can easily track what items and materials have been used in connection with orders entered in the point of sale system and compare them with the recipes entered in the inventory software.
How can Picker help you improve home delivery for your restaurant?
People want maximum convenience in their dining experiences, and often that means ordering food without leaving home. To satisfy this desire, your restaurant must have excellent logistics in delivery operations.
With Picker you can connect with the best applications and fleets of delivery partners. This helps you expand your coverage, reduce waiting times for your customers and lower your logistics costs.
With the approach and prioritization of online deliveries and the support of Picker, it will be much easier for your restaurant to delight customers in their homes.
Conclusions
Keep in mind that the How to carry out an inventory In your restaurant is not an independent process and has an effect on the entire operation of your business. Hence the importance of inventory in a restaurant.
With excellent inventory management, you can understand specific ways to reduce the cost of goods sold.
