How stock moves
Stock falls automatically as dishes are sold, through their recipes. It rises when you record a purchase. In a well-kept system you should rarely type a stock figure by hand.
Purchasing
Purchase records what you buy from suppliers - what arrived, at what cost. Enter it when the delivery arrives, not when the invoice is paid. Stock is wrong in the meantime otherwise, and food cost is calculated from stale prices.
Update costs when they change. Supplier prices move constantly, and every dish containing that ingredient is mispriced until you do.
Counting
Count your stock regularly - weekly for fresh, monthly for dry goods at minimum. Compare the count against what the system expects.
The difference is your waste, spillage, over-portioning and theft combined. You cannot manage it without measuring it, and the number is usually larger than people expect.
When the count does not match
Work through these:
- A delivery not recorded, so stock was never increased.
- A recipe that is wrong - too little recorded against a dish, so sales deplete less than reality.
- Over-portioning - the recipe says 150g and the kitchen serves 200g. This shows up as a steady
shortfall on specific ingredients.
- Waste not recorded - spoilage and mistakes that nobody logged.
- Staff meals rung up as nothing, or not at all.
Most persistent shortfalls are portioning or an inaccurate recipe, not theft. Check the recipe against what the kitchen actually does before anything else.
Khata
Khata records credit for regulars who settle periodically. Record the charge and the payments. Unpaid khata is money that is not in your bank, and in a restaurant it accumulates quietly.