Inventory is just about the most important part of your business. Whether you’re running a small coffee shop or a multi-location quick-service business, inventory is at the core of everything you do. The type of inventory you order and how often you order it will directly impact the quality of what you serve.
All it takes is a random miscount or unreported spoilage and suddenly you’re running low on essential ingredients mid-service. Waste can also be a silent killer for any business. The more you control your inventory, the lower your costs and waste will be.
Enter automation.
Automation can help you avoid some of the major pitfalls that come with managing inventory.
And we should know, since our tools let restaurants around the world save time and money by streamlining their inventory management.
With automated inventory management tools, restaurants can reduce waste and optimise their inventory without having to manually deal with stock counts, ultimately reducing the room for human error.
Keep margins under control
Do you know how much it costs to make your menu items? To be able to price your products correctly, you need to know your cost of goods sold (COGS).
Recipes don’t only need to taste great, they need to make sense financially. Knowing how much each ingredient costs lets you see if an item needs to be changed so that it fits your budget.
Having insights on costs also lets restaurant owners know which menu items are the most profitable. Your most popular items might not be your most profitable.
Reduce waste
Ingredients cost money, whether they make it to the customer or not. When you lose an ingredient to spoilage, you’re essentially throwing money down the drain.
Accumulated waste can easily add up to a sizable amount of money, hurting your bottom line. For example, you bought ingredients for a specific menu item that doesn’t end up selling or maybe you bought large quantities of an ingredient and weren’t able to use it all up. All of this affects your COGS, just as much as the price.
With automated inventory management you can reduce the impact that waste has on your COGS. Automation lets you track ingredient quantities, see real-time updates and access in-depth reports.
Being able to control this automatically gives restaurant owners a clearer perspective on which items are prone to waste and what they can do to reduce it.
Save time and money with inventory automation
Time is always in short supply for restaurant staff and margins are becoming smaller every day. Automation is a great way to win back a bit of both, lowering your COGS and empowering your staff with tools that ultimately improve the quality of your menu.
When you automate your inventory, you’re able to better prioritise your staff’s time, letting them spend it where it matters most: on the customers.
More on how to improve your stock management:
