# Inventory and food cost detail when trying to keep a seasonal menu.



## jellly (Jan 3, 2005)

Somehow I have managed to work in many restaurants that didn't track inventory. Now I do work with inventory, but I don't have much to compare it to and I have questions.

The software we use to build out our recipes, calculate food costs and do inventory allows for a lot of precision. This is fairly easy to manage with menu items that only change quarterly. However, it is a beast to manage specials we want to change week to week or food prepared for special events. I would love to know how a restaurant with frequent menu changes manages to accomplish this. When I met with the software reps, they kept referencing how well it works in chain restaurants, which just doesn't apply to us.

Does anyone else have experience with this?


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## sgsvirgil (Mar 1, 2017)

It would seem to me that the best people to ask are your software reps. They should be well equipped to answer this fairly straight forward question. If they can't, then, you should probably move the matter up the chain to the people at the next level. 

However, one school of thought would be to use the software for the non-special, steady menu items that don't change week to week and manually track the information for the specials and the items that change frequently. 

Good luck.


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## Seoul Food (Sep 17, 2018)

jellly said:


> Somehow I have managed to work in many restaurants that didn't track inventory. Now I do work with inventory, but I don't have much to compare it to and I have questions.
> 
> The software we use to build out our recipes, calculate food costs and do inventory allows for a lot of precision. This is fairly easy to manage with menu items that only change quarterly. However, it is a beast to manage specials we want to change week to week or food prepared for special events. I would love to know how a restaurant with frequent menu changes manages to accomplish this. When I met with the software reps, they kept referencing how well it works in chain restaurants, which just doesn't apply to us.
> 
> Does anyone else have experience with this?


I would be interested in knowing a couple more details. For one, how often are you tracking inventory, is it daily, weekly, monthly? I have worked at places that did a daily inventory every night for par sheets and some places that do it at the end of the month. I think the difficulty in tracking will be determined in some respect to how often you have to aggregate data. If you are only doing once a month say, it may be easier to blend in specials into a total kitchen inventory over a long period.

Another item I would be interested in knowing is if the specials you propose share any common items you already cost out like starches, vegetables, sauces, ect. If you are using software I would assume you could input standard costing and tracking for these types of items.

If you are changing your menu more than seasonally, and I mean a majority of the menu not just a "let's use this item up" change, than I would take a hard look at the software capability and judge if it really fits your business. These programs work for chains because they all use the same standard items that have already been costed out tested. It will always be easier to just use data like ordering thousands of pounds of beef for a slew of chains at a locked in price than for the small business owner who will buy local items with fluctuating prices. Hope this helps.


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## jellly (Jan 3, 2005)

Thank you both for your replies. I have discussed this multiple times with the software reps. I believe they are reluctant to say anything that would make their software appear unable to handle a restaurant's needs. However, the more time I spend with it, the more I suspect it is better suited for chains.
Currently we do weekly inventory at three of our restaurants. Our food costing is very detailed and we spend a good amount of time on this. However, every new recipe requires yield testing, conversions of units from those we use to inventory to those used in recipes and numerous reports and troubleshooting. 
Since I haven't seen this side of the restaurant business set up efficiently before, I am testing out my own solutions. But to keep that level of accuracy every time we run a special is very tedious.
I would love to hear how similar restaurants successfully track inventory.


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## brian1brian (Apr 15, 2019)

Keep track (of test kitchen usage) on a waste sheet, analyze your inventory with and without the waste added back in.

Talk to your vendors about dry goods buy-backs.

Look into tagging inventory items... “old menu” could be a designation that allows you to isolate and withdraw certain cells from the equation.

Fundamentally any inventory is capital held and should not count against food cost. Obviously you don’t want to invest too much profit into inventory, or what’s the point? But the difference between beginning of month and end of month should be applied to spending before spending is applied to revenue.


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## brian1brian (Apr 15, 2019)

As far as simply what-to-do with inventory from the previous menu, I don’t think it’s out of line to run those exact dishes as your specials for a little bit. It gives you a chance to trouble shoot the new dishes without burdening yourself with excessive creativity demands, obviously moves the inventory, and might also provide something familiar to your regular guests during the transition.


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## brian1brian (Apr 15, 2019)

Maybe I misunderstood the question... trying to plate-cost specials, there’s really no shortcut I can think of. Keep good notes on recipes into quantity, track quantity to the plate, input prices where necessary. I’m sure everyone does things a little bit differently, but I try to focus on the more pricey ingredients and then throw .5- $1 on for incidentals/lowball insurance.


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## jammyegg (Sep 10, 2019)

I have been hunting for software just as you are and am having no luck! I currently use some pretty basic home meal prep sites (cookkeepbook.com) and am fairly happy with the speed at which I can cost a recipe...but it would be amazing to have something more professional and with more ability (inventory management including alerts when staples are low, costing, invoice reading/ supplier price list integration , expire notifications and multiple source tracking). Currently I do daily inventory and run about 3 specials throughout the month. There has to be something better be out there between chain management software and the freezer meal costing software.


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## STEPHEN WOODARD (Aug 13, 2019)

I don't think there are any shortcuts. If something is purchased it should go into the inventory. Some programs I've seen, many which end up dormant, are linked to vendors and automatically updated as they are ordered. Sadly, I've not found a program that will keep up. I always have to spend the time and update inventories manually. Meat company, seafood company, produce company, specialty company, etc. Always updating, usually start the last week of the month. Doesn't matter if it was a one week special or regular items. Its a living inventory.


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## STEPHEN WOODARD (Aug 13, 2019)

I don't think there are any shortcuts. If something is purchased it should go into the inventory. Some programs I've seen, many which end up dormant, are linked to vendors and automatically updated as they are ordered. Sadly, I've not found a program that will keep up. I always have to spend the time and update inventories manually. Meat company, seafood company, produce company, specialty company, etc. Always updating, usually start the last week of the month. Doesn't matter if it was a one week special or regular items. Its a living inventory.


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## jellly (Jan 3, 2005)

I appreciate the input and do agree that there aren't any real shortcuts. The software we use now does have a lot of bells and whistles. We place our orders through the software and then match these purchase orders to the invoices to track incoming inventory. But no matter how automated we try to make it, there is still a lot of time needed. All it takes is for our produce vendor to send buttercrunch lettuce in place of butter crisp and the program can't match it automatically.
Then add on a private dinner that requires an off menu item and we are spending time building out every ingredient and quantity in the software. It just seems to take hours and hours of upkeep and we still haven't reached the level of accuracy we were hoping for. 
It sounds like many restaurants with flexible menus just accept that it is not practical to expect to track every inventory item at a detailed level?


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

Does the software allow for the creation of a "special inventory" that will track those off items? If it were possible to create one, you would have a basis from which to refer to in the future. As with all things, this won't be easy, but once it's in place it would make life easier.


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## jellly (Jan 3, 2005)

chefross said:


> Does the software allow for the creation of a "special inventory" that will track those off items? If it were possible to create one, you would have a basis from which to refer to in the future. As with all things, this won't be easy, but once it's in place it would make life easier.


Hmm. it might have that. There are a lot of features and I haven't explored them all. Thank you! I will check into this with my software rep and see. But we have discussed these concerns with them before and I don't recall that ever being offered as an option. Still, it can't hurt for me to ask. I appreciate it..


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## brian1brian (Apr 15, 2019)

How about taking an 80/20 style approach? Just cost out your high-ticket ingredients and give the ancillary ingredients a catch-all sum. Step back a little and try to catch significant shifts in your peripheral. Set up price checks with your vendors periodically, at a rate you can handle to process.


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## matt (Oct 22, 2007)

jellly said:


> Somehow I have managed to work in many restaurants that didn't track inventory. Now I do work with inventory, but I don't have much to compare it to and I have questions.
> 
> The software we use to build out our recipes, calculate food costs and do inventory allows for a lot of precision. This is fairly easy to manage with menu items that only change quarterly. However, it is a beast to manage specials we want to change week to week or food prepared for special events. I would love to know how a restaurant with frequent menu changes manages to accomplish this. When I met with the software reps, they kept referencing how well it works in chain restaurants, which just doesn't apply to us.
> 
> Does anyone else have experience with this?


I've worked with several metrics but not in a corporate restaurant. The easy way is take purchases for that item and divide by plates created. Should be simple if it's just things for that plate; if it's not, you should already have it costed (not the whole plate but components).


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