Stock control for cafés and restaurants: recipes, counts, waste and cost
In many cafés stock is managed by eye: milk gets ordered when it runs low, coffee is noticed when it's nearly gone. That seems to work — until at month end you ask where the gap between sales and purchases went.
Stock control makes that gap visible. This post explains how to run automatic deduction from recipes, counts, waste and per-item cost.
Why stock should move with sales
When stock is kept by hand there are two separate records: sales at the till, ingredient usage in a notebook — or nowhere. Over time they drift apart. When stock moves with sales, every item sold takes its own ingredients off stock; your stock record is as current as your sales.
An ingredient's journey: store room to sale, sale to count.
1. Define recipes
Attach an ingredient list to each menu item: coffee, milk and syrup for a latte; bun, patty, cheese and sauce for a burger. In ari adisyon, when a bill is paid the recipe quantities come off stock automatically; nobody writes a stock-out slip. If the payment is refunded, the deduction is reversed too.
You don't have to define every item at once. Start with your best sellers and the items that use the most expensive ingredients; that's where most of the loss is.
2. Record goods received
Enter deliveries from suppliers into stock. With purchase prices on record, each ingredient's cost — and so each item's cost — can be worked out. If you have several branches, transfers between branches are recorded as their own movement.
3. Count regularly
How closely does the stock in the system match the stock on the shelf? A periodic count answers that. Enter the count and the system shows the difference; once the count is approved, stock is corrected. Set count frequency by value: weekly for expensive ingredients, monthly for the rest, for example.
A short list for count day.
4. Record waste
Spilled milk, burnt bread, out-of-date ingredients… Waste happens in every kitchen; the problem starts when it isn't recorded. Enter waste as a stock movement with its reason and the unexplained difference at count time shrinks. What's left is the real loss worth looking into.
Every stock movement — in, out, waste, count correction, transfer — sits in the movement log with its reason and time.
5. Use low-stock alerts
Set a threshold for critical ingredients. When stock falls below it you get an alert; you know before the kitchen says "we're out", and the order goes in on time.
6. See cost per item
COGS means cost of goods sold. With recipes and purchase prices on record, each item's cost and profitability are reported. Your best seller may be your lowest-margin item; setting menu prices without seeing that is guesswork. On the bookkeeping side, the food cost ratio report gives the period's overall picture.
When stock moves with sales, losses become visible.
Where to start
- Enter recipes for your 10 best-selling items.
- Do an opening count of those items' ingredients.
- Count again a week later and look at the difference.
- Make recording waste a team habit.
- Add the rest of the menu step by step.
Frequently asked questions
When does stock come off — at order or at payment?
In ari adisyon stock comes off when the bill is paid. A cancelled order doesn't affect stock.
Which plan includes stock control?
Stock control is in the Standard and Enterprise plans. See the pricing page for current plan contents.
Conclusion
Stock control isn't a big project; it's a few habits: recipes, goods received, counts and waste records. Done regularly, the answer to "where is the money going?" is in the report. See ari adisyon's stock features on the features page.