By Thursday morning, most restaurant owners realize their inventory numbers don't match reality. You've got steaks on paper but the walk-in tells a different story. Three straightforward steps can fix this mismatch and save your profit margins.
Focus on your 5 highest-impact products
Tracking everything at once creates chaos and guarantees failure. Pick the 5 ingredients that drain your budget fastest and appear on your menu daily.
- Meat (beef, pork, chicken)
- Fish (salmon, sea bass, tuna)
- Expensive vegetables (asparagus, truffles)
- Special ingredients (cheeses, olive oil)
- Beverages (wines, specialty beers)
💡 Example:
A bistro serving 80 covers daily tracks:
- Entrecote (€28/kg, 15 portions/day)
- Salmon (€24/kg, 12 portions/day)
- Burrata (€18/kg, 8 portions/day)
- Truffles (€800/kg, seasonal product)
- Champagne (€45/bottle, 3 bottles/week)
These 5 products represent 60% of the purchase value.
Count every morning before service
Before your first customer walks through the door, physically count what's left of your priority items. No estimating. No rough calculations.
Document these numbers somewhere permanent:
- Exact pieces or kilos remaining
- Today's projected sales
- Reorder requirements
💡 Example daily count:
Monday 8:00 - inventory check:
- Entrecote: 3.2 kg (covers 16 portions)
- Salmon: 1.8 kg (covers 9 portions)
- Burrata: 4 pieces
- Champagne: 2 bottles
Today's forecast: 12 entrecotes, 8 salmon. Need more salmon!
Match sales against actual usage
After service ends, compare what you sold versus what disappeared from storage. From analyzing actual purchasing data across different restaurant types, this step reveals where money leaks out of your operation.
Common culprits include:
- Kitchen staff cutting oversized portions
- Spoiled product not properly recorded
- Morning count errors
- Unauthorized staff consumption
⚠️ Note:
Expect 5-10% variance from trimming and portion inconsistencies. Anything above 15% signals a systematic problem.
Track weekly trends
Seven days of data reveals purchasing patterns you can't spot daily. Which nights do you consistently over-order? What products spoil predictably?
💡 Example weekly pattern:
Bistro De Eenvoud - week 1 analysis:
- Monday: excess fish orders (slower day)
- Friday: meat shortages, 86'd dishes 3 times
- Sunday: burrata waste (fewer Italian dishes ordered)
- Champagne: steady 3 bottles weekly
Adjustments: cut Monday fish, boost Friday meat, skip Sunday burrata.
Paper versus digital tracking
Notebooks work fine, but digital systems offer advantages:
- Automatic reorder calculations
- Multi-week pattern recognition
- Historical data access
- Team member collaboration
Tools like KitchenNmbrs streamline inventory tracking and generate reorder alerts automatically. But daily counting and comparison remains the foundation - regardless of your recording method.
Set up inventory control (step by step)
Choose your 5 top products
Make a list of the 5 ingredients you use most often and that cost the most money. These are usually meat, fish, and special ingredients. Start small, not with your entire inventory.
Count every morning before service
Go to your cooler and count exactly how much you have of each top product. Write this down in a notebook or app. Don't estimate, but actually count. This takes you 5 minutes a day.
Compare at the end of the day
Check how much you sold according to your register and how much is gone from your inventory. Big discrepancies? Find out where the difference comes from. This becomes your insight into leaks.
✨ Pro tip
Focus your first 2 weeks exclusively on proteins - beef, pork, chicken, and fish. These expensive, perishable items show the fastest return on inventory control efforts and teach you the system before expanding to other categories.
Calculate this yourself?
In the KitchenNmbrs app you can do this in just a few clicks. 7 days free, no credit card.
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Frequently asked questions
How much time does daily inventory control take?
Counting your 5 priority items takes 5 minutes each morning. Evening comparison adds another 5 minutes. That's 10 minutes daily for dramatically improved purchasing control.
What if my inventory differs every day?
Normal variance runs 5-10% due to trimming waste and portion inconsistencies. Sustained differences above 15% indicate oversized portions, unrecorded spoilage, or other systematic losses requiring investigation.
Should I track my entire inventory immediately?
Start with your 5 costliest or most-used ingredients only. Attempting full inventory tracking from day one creates overwhelming complexity and guarantees abandonment.
How do I identify which products to prioritize?
Review last month's purchase invoices and identify the 5 ingredients with highest dollar impact. Alternatively, choose items used in multiple dishes daily. These become your tracking priorities.
What if my chef cuts inconsistent portion sizes?
Establish exact portion weights for proteins and expensive ingredients. Spot-check during service with a scale. Inconsistent portioning ranks among the top causes of inventory discrepancies.
How long before I see patterns in my data?
Clear trends emerge after 2-3 weeks of consistent tracking. Weekly patterns become obvious first, while seasonal trends require 2-3 months of data collection.
📚 Sources consulted
- EU Verordening 852/2004 — Levensmiddelenhygiëne (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 853/2004 — Hygiënevoorschriften voor levensmiddelen van dierlijke oorsprong (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 1169/2011 — Voedselinformatie aan consumenten (2011) — Official source
- NVWA — Hygiënecode voor de horeca (2024) — Official source
- NVWA — Allergenen in voedsel (2024) — Official source
- Codex Alimentarius — International Food Standards (2024) — Official source
- FSA — Safer food, better business (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- BVL — Lebensmittelhygiene (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- Warenwetbesluit Bereiding en behandeling van levensmiddelen (2024) — Official source
- WHO — Foodborne diseases estimates (2024) — Official source
Food Standards Agency (FSA) — https://www.food.gov.uk
The HACCP standards shown in this application are for informational purposes only. KitchenNmbrs does not guarantee that displayed values are current or complete. Always consult the FSA or your local authority for the latest regulations.
Written by
Jeffrey Smit
Founder & CEO of KitchenNmbrs
Jeffrey Smit built KitchenNmbrs from 8 years of hands-on experience as kitchen manager at 1NUL8 Group in Rotterdam. His mission: give every restaurant owner control over food cost.
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