The Easiest Way To Track Your App For Restaurant Inventory

How The App For Restaurant Inventory Works

The easiest way is to link the app with your point sale system . These keep track of daily usage of the items and update its status. It enables restaurant owners , inventory managers to know what items are needed and they can place purchase order accordingly.

The Features Of An App For Restaurant Inventory

1. Food cost limit- It should have a feature that allows you to set a maximum food cost for each recipe. In case, the total cost exceeds the budget, the app should be able to alert you. The inventory manager can look for another vendor or change the price of menu items accordingly. Or even can ask the chef to rework the recipe.

2. Delegation of work- From head chefs to their assistants, kitchen staff, and inventory manager, a restaurant requires a lot of people to handle different tasks. Even if it is a small business, quite a number of people are involved. So it is necessary to allow some amount of access at each level. For instance, if some item says cheese is about to run out, the chef or the assistants can create an alert in the mobile app. And supervisors can place orders accordingly. Or say, the kitchen staff can opt for physical inventory counts to check if the number of a particular item on the software matches with that in the store on a weekly basis or even per month.

3. Managing purchase orders- In the restaurant industry, fresh ingredients are required on a daily basis. Handling purchase orders may seem like a task here. Before investing in the inventory app, look for the feature that allows the smooth management of purchase orders. See if it can send you purchase orders directly to the email address of the sales representative of the restaurant, and cc restaurant owners and inventory managers. At the same time, it should allow you to place payments with suppliers directly via the dashboard.

4. Recipe book- This feature becomes a significant one in the case of chain restaurants across multiple locations. It allows you to enter recipes, food portions, ingredients with photographs, in the application. This way any recipe can be accessed via smartphone and laptops from any branch of the state. The recipe book feature helps to ensure consistent taste across restaurants.

5. Visual interface- In today's age where social media platforms like Instagram are full of food stories and reels of colorful cafes, owning a restaurant may sound quite fun. However, it's behind the scenes that are almost overwhelming. It's beyond the tasty food... yes food cost! And that means a lot of numbers! In such a case, a visual interface that can convert the reports into easy-to-read charts can keep your attention for a longer time, reducing the chances to misread the metrics.

Likewise, it should use separate colors for different type of notification like for orders placed and orders received. This will keep you informed about the status in real-time. Moreover, it will make the app more user-friendly.

Keeping track of inventory is a pain.

You’re either using pen and paper or multiple apps to keep track of your inventory.

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Make sure mobile app supports integration

Integration- This is a must-to-have feature. Your restaurant management software should support integration. Integrations double the efficacy of any management system. For example, when your inventory software is integrated with POS systems, it gives you reports on the highest and lowest selling menu items, food costs. It can even auto-update the inventory after every sale, given the fields you have entered in the dashboard.

Similarly, when it is integrated with the accounting software, it feeds the actual inventory used, food cost, and total sales, allowing accurate reporting. At the time of filing taxes and auditing, this integration makes the exercise less time-consuming. Integrations double the efficacy of any management system . For example, when your inventory software is integrated with pos software , it gives you reports on highest and lowest selling menu items , food cost. It can even auto-update the inventory after every sale, given the fields you have entered in the dashboard.

Similarly, when it is integrated with the accounting software , it feeds the actual inventory used, food cost and total sales, allowing accurate reporting . At the time of filing taxes and auditing, this integration makes the exercise less time consuming.

The Benefits of An App For Restaurant Inventory

Make what sells-
Food space is seeing a lot of traffic and online ordering and tie-ups with the third party for delivery have paced up the competition a notch further. In such a heated space, menu pricing can be a game-changer. For correct pricing. The restaurant inventory management tracks the inventory, food cost, and carrying expenses like transportation charges. When linked to pos systems, gives the restaurant owners insights about what dishes or items are in demand and what are the least sold ones. The manager can now place the purchase orders accordingly. In line with all costs and customer demand, the restaurant owner can price their menu.



Avoid food waste- It's a well-known fact that the USA does not have a clean record when it comes to food wastage. As much as 80lbs of food is thrown away here every year. As per US Environmental Protection Agency, restaurants, supermarkets, quick-service restaurants account for nearly 25% of the wasted food. This, because the restaurant industry mainly deals with perishable items. In such a case, inventory tracking becomes essential. You can customize the settings of your inventory app in line with the FIFO method (First in first out). Real item inventory tracking, will alert the kitchen staff to use the items that were first bought. This will not only minimize food waste but also help you cut down on unnecessary costs and keep food inventory in check.

Customize data- Every cafe or restaurants bars operate in a different way. Each may has its own targets and metrics to measure. You can customize the dashboard of your restaurant inventory software in why that it caters to your business' needs, facilitating easy use .

What Are The Drawbacks Of An App For Restaurant Inventory?

1. Integration-
When it comes to apps, integration poses a major problem. A restaurant inventory system needs to be integrated with several systems like accounting software , etc. While the cloud based solutions allow syncing with third party systems efficiently, the process becomes highly complicated with a mobile app.

2. Limited features- This can be a hurdle in your restaurant's growth. Yes, we agree mobile app is more user-friendly and can help to track inventory from anywhere in the world . However, not all the features of the restaurant inventory management system might support mobile devices .

3. Limited value of money- These apps may prove to be slightly more expensive in proportion to the advantages, when it allows you only limited features and not-so smooth integrations.

Keeping accurate records of inventory is complicated.

You have to manually enter information into multiple spreadsheets and you don’t have a way to track the location of your products.

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Reasons Why You Need An App For Restaurant Inventory?

Optimize ordering- The Restaurant Inventory app linked with restaurant POS, provides your business with a lot of data like sales , number of orders. The app keeps a track of day-to-day expenses , purchase orders and more. Having all this information just a click away, gives you more control over food cost. Consequently, helping you take decision that can improve your business' cash flow.


Better Customer service - The inventory management software and point sale system ,together help you know top sold food beverage items . You can now place purchase orders in line with this data to ensure you don't run out on any of these top menu items . It leads to better customer service . And it's the how you cater to your customers, makes you the best restaurant on town.

What are some other inventory management apps?

There are several Restaurant Inventory management apps available out there. Some of them even offer free trial. You can try TopShelf Mobile inventory app , Stock Controller , Instant Inventory to mange inventory at your restaurant.