What are the 5 Steps to Control Inventory in a Restaurant?

Nowadays, many people ask how to control inventory in a restaurant. It is so stressful to struggle with wasted ingredients, overstocked supplies, or running out of essential items. And of course, without proper tracking, you risk losing revenue, disappointing customers, and creating operational inefficiencies. However, the Restaurant Management System empowers managers to make informed decisions, reduce waste, and optimize operations for maximum efficiency and profitability.

In this blog, let’s get to the why controlling inventory is important, 5 Steps to Control Inventory in a Restaurant, and how POS and Inventory help you Know Exactly What You Sell.

Understanding the Importance of Controlling Inventory in a Restaurant

We can’t deny that controlling inventory in a restaurant is important for managing your costs, reducing your restaurant’s food waste, and improving your profitability.

Let’s deeply get to know the benefits of Inventory Control in Restaurants:

• Reduces Food Waste: Integrating your restaurant with an advanced Point of Sales System in Saudi Arabia, like BonTech, can help you prevent over-ordering, which leads to spoilage of perishable items.

• Lowers Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): It’s well-known that food costs typically represent a significant portion of restaurant expenses, and controlling inventory helps keep these costs in check.
• Prevents Stockouts: To accurately answer the crucial question of how restaurant management inventory, it is important to know that the POS ensures essential ingredients are available to fulfil customer orders, avoiding lost sales and disappointed customers.
• Improves Vendor Relations: Leveraging the point of sales system allows you to better manage your orders and payments and optimise your purchasing plans.
• Increases Your Profitability: Most importantly, it minimises losses from waste and theft, and supports accurate food costing and pricing strategies.

How to control inventory in a restaurant using digital tools instead of manual records?

There are 5 Steps to Control Your Inventory Digitally:

1. Choose a Suitable Inventory Management Software: There is no doubt that you need to pick a professional software designed for restaurants in Saudi Arabia, such as BonTech, which integrates inventory with POS and ordering systems.
2. Automate Data Entry: You can use digitalised features, such as barcode/QR code scanning and invoice scanning. This aims to automatically enter your items into the inventory system without manual logging.
3. Track Inventory in Real Time: Surprisingly, digital tools provide updates on stock quantities and ingredient usage as sales occur, so you always know current inventory levels.
4. Set Alerts for Low Stock and Expiry: When items are running low or nearing their expiration date, you can get notified automatically to reorder timely manner and reduce waste.
5. Analyze Usage and Trends: when it comes to how to manage stock in a restaurant, you can use analytics to identify which items are consumed most, optimise menu planning, and forecast purchasing needs based on customer preferences.

Integrate POS and Inventory to Know Exactly What You Sell

Integrating a Point of Sale system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with inventory management allows you to know exactly what is sold by automatically updating inventory levels in real time as sales occur. 

Here is How Integration Works:

• Real-Time Stock Updates: We always look for how to manage stock in a restaurant every second. Undoubtedly, every sale through the POS automatically adjusts inventory counts, so you can always know what is available and what needs to be reordered.​

• Menu Insights: The system enables you to track which dishes are selling and which ingredients are being used, helping optimise menu offerings and portion control.​

• Automated Reordering: When inventory for key ingredients drops below a set threshold, the system can trigger automatic reorders to prevent stockouts and minimize food or stock waste.​

• Sales and Inventory Analytics: Most importantly, integrated systems provide detailed reports on sales, ingredient usage, and profitability. This allows you to make important decisions relevant to your business plans.
• Staff Accountability: Simply, you can assign staff to shifts or tasks in the POS, and track ingredient usage to identify any discrepancies or unusual activity.

How does the Bontech Restaurant Management System provide sales and consumption insights?

The Bontech Restaurant Management System provides sales and consumption insights through its integrated Point-of-Sale (POS) and reporting tools. 

Here’s how it works:

1. Real-time Sales Tracking: Every transaction made through the POS is recorded instantly, so you can view daily, weekly, or monthly sales by menu item, category, or branch.
   
2. Consumption Patterns Analysis: The system tracks which dishes or products are ordered most frequently. It highlights trends such as peak hours, popular combos, or seasonal preferences.
   
3. Inventory Link: By linking sales data to inventory, BonTech shows how much of each ingredient or product is consumed. This helps identify food wastage, overstocking, or understocking issues.
   
4. Customizable Reports: Managers can generate detailed reports on revenue, top-selling items, and customer behaviour. You can filter those reports by time, location, or menu segment to get actionable insights.
   
5. Decision Support: Last but not least, these insights allow you to optimise menus, plan promotions, adjust pricing, and forecast demand.

Why Wait? Start Your Journey With BonTech Today.