How to run a restaurant stock count you can trust

A stock count tells you what you really have. Every food cost figure, every reorder and every variance report depends on it, so a careless count quietly breaks everything downstream. Here is a way to run counts that hold up.

1. Decide what and when

• Full counts cover everything at a location. Most chains do one at month end, because it closes the period for food cost.
• Cycle counts cover a few items more often: daily or weekly for expensive or easily lost items such as meat, seafood, dairy, dry fruits and alcohol.
• Count at a quiet time, before opening or after closing, when nothing is being received, issued or cooked.

2. Prepare the store

• Finish receiving and put deliveries away first, or leave them outside the count clearly marked.
• Post transfers and production that have already happened, so the system is up to date.
• Tidy shelves so the same item sits together, with the oldest stock at the front.
• Make sure scales work and every count sheet or device shows the unit to count in.

3. Freeze movements

Nothing comes in or goes out of the area while it is being counted. If the kitchen must keep cooking, issue what it needs before the count starts and record the issue.

4. Count by location, not by list

Walk the store shelf by shelf: dry store, walk-in chiller, freezer, bar, kitchen line. Counting in the order things sit is faster and misses less than jumping around a list.

• Count in the unit the item is stored in. Kilograms for rice, litres for oil, pieces for eggs. Do not mix units for one item.
• Count opened packs. Weigh part-used bags and tins rather than guessing.
• Separate what cannot be used. Expired, damaged or held stock is counted on its own line, not mixed into usable stock.

5. Count blind

A blind count is one where the counter does not see the expected quantity. It takes away the temptation to write down the number the system expects. If you can, use two people: one counts, one records.

6. Compare and recount

Compare counted with expected. Do not adjust anything yet.

• Small differences on cheap items can be accepted.
• Large differences, or any difference on expensive items, get a recount, ideally by someone else.
• Before blaming the shelf, check the paperwork: an unrecorded transfer, a delivery received but not entered, a disposal nobody logged.

7. Post adjustments with a reason

What remains after the recount becomes an adjustment, with a reason: counting error, unrecorded waste, damage, unexplained. An approver who did not do the count should approve large adjustments.

Unexplained adjustments are the ones to watch. The same item at the same outlet, month after month, is worth a closer look.

8. Learn from it

Keep the variance by item and by outlet. Over a few months you will see which items and which places need tighter receiving, better storage or more frequent counts.

How Buddhi helps

In Buddhi, counts run on a phone or tablet in the floor app, item by item with scanning, and can be blind. Buddhi compares counted with expected, asks for recounts where the difference is large, and posts approved adjustments to the stock ledger with their reasons, so the count also closes the period for food cost.