How you manage your bar or restaurant inventory can make or break your hospitality business. Successful inventory management involves accurately tracking your food and beverage inventory stocks, making the most cost-effective purchasing decisions, and ordering your stock at the optimal level of demand.

But how you decide to manage your inventory is just as important – pen and paper records, even computer spreadsheets, don’t cut it anymore. You need professional restaurant software to make the biggest difference in your profits and performance.

A restaurant inventory management software app or system like Optimum Control is a complete, computerized solution for all your inventory needs.

With professional restaurant software, you can track all of your inventory counts and values, scan barcodes for fast entry, calculate recipe values and food costs, automate your ordering and purchasing processes, and even produce real-time reports so you can be on top of all your warehousing needs.

And the best restaurant software, like Optimum Control, is easy-to-use and easy to install – it integrates with your existing POS system and can be used on your desktop or mobile device and across your multi-unit chains.

So if you’re looking to upgrade your inventory management, you’ll want to look for restaurant software like Optimum Control that delivers the following important functions to keep your operations efficient and organized.

Food and Bar Inventory Tracking

Using your software to save and print clear, easy-to-read labels on your products and mark the location of where they should be stored is important in inventory tracking – you’ll save time and money avoiding looking for things that people have stocked in the wrong area.

Inventory software can also make using consistent units of measurement a breeze: if you start classifying your produce by pounds instead of bags, you can keep this consistent from ordering to inventory to stocking, make it easy for everyone, including your suppliers, when you’re ordering.

First In First Out, or FIFO, is another tracking and control method where inventory is based on the time and date it was delivered. Items acquired first are used and sold first to ensure your food does not go bad. This highly effective method is even more efficient and easy to implement with bar and restaurant management software, helping you track your inventory, control food and beverage costs, and save your profits with just a click of a button.

Recipe and Food Costing

Restaurant inventory management software like Optimum Control helps you identify and weigh your recipe, food and liquor costs, allowing you to ensure the best pricing models for your restaurant or bar. You can easily and automatically break down how much your restaurant is spending on full cases, to the prep/batch, and to the plate, so you can set reasonable prices to keep both you and your customers happy.

Based on a concrete target cost percentage, your inventory management software will help you calculate your optimal selling price and determine the expected yield of each batch recipe. Plus, you can digitize the detailed preparation instructions along with pictures of the recipe in your database, making it accessible to all kitchen staff across all your chain units, saving money and achieving consistency in taste and presentation.

Ordering and Purchasing

Without accurate ordering, you can run out of certain food and bar items, risking unhappy customers or forcing you to order items last minute, in a rush and at higher prices. When you order properly and maintain accurate inventory records, you get a precise view of when you need to order new items, allowing you to make better-informed purchasing predictions.

Conversely, without accurate inventory tracking and precise ordering, you can end up with excessive amounts of spoiled food, week after week. Proper inventory tracking means you can order the proper amounts of food and beverages every time, so you never have to throw away your profits.
Investing in restaurant inventory management software offers you precise ordering efficiency, so you will always have consistent expenses with no cost fluctuations.

Pricing

One of the hardest things to master when you own a bar or restaurant is setting menu prices. The right inventory management software can help you determine your optimal prices to bring in the right amount of profit, but still drive sales.

And if your restaurant or bar is prone to making sporadic orders or multiple last-minute requests, you will need to deal with numerous vendors, and at a higher price. With software like Optimum Control, you’ll have precise and consistent ordering, allowing for a better relationship with your supplier and better overall pricing for your inventory.

Staff Scheduling

Scheduling is a tricky balancing act. You want to have enough staff in both the dining room and the kitchen to provide quick and effective customer service, but you also don’t want to overstaff your establishment, paying more for staff than you earn in profits during a quiet period. While you’re focusing on hiring and training the right staff, you should also make sure you have them working the right hours to match the peak and slower times in your restaurant.

Restaurant management software is the perfect tool to help predict your bar or restaurant’s peak and off-peak hours and help plan your shifts for optimal service. Switching from paper and pen to an automated system ensures you can accurately track and schedule employee time and improve your establishment’s overall efficiency and profits.

Optimum Control

Optimum Control is your best restaurant inventory management software solution. Our software helps you easily and accurately achieve an ideal inventory, freeing you and your staff up to tackle more important things like reviewing reports, delivering excellent customer service and investigating better pricing options for food and bar items.

Digital solutions can do wonders for boosting the efficiency of any business – investing in restaurant management software can streamline your processes, improve communication between staff and multiple units, and better organize your team for maximum efficiency and bigger profits.

Take control of your inventory today with Optimum Control! Talk to us about our full suite of restaurant management solutions or browse all the features and benefits we offer.