How to control stock in a restaurant or bar with stock management software
How to control stock in a restaurant or bar with stock management software
If stock control isn't your favourite management task, you're not alone. For many operators, stock control is fragmented and frustrating – if it happens at all. And this is a problem. UK restaurants create £628 million worth of food waste every year (according to Business Waste UK). With operating costs spiralling and customers demanding more, venues simply can’t afford to let that amount of profit drain away.
This is where the right tech comes in. Embracing bar and restaurant inventory management software not only transforms how you work, but also how you think and feel about stock control. It slashes the hours it takes to carry out those monthly, weekly and daily tasks. Real-time inventory tracking puts you back in control and, dare we say it, you might even start to enjoy it once you notice your venue’s books looking healthier.
With that in mind, let’s look at why stock management is so critical to your venue's success, some best practices, and how the right tech makes it possible.
Save time and labour with smarter processes
Let's start with the bigger picture. The less time you (and/or your managers) spend on stock management tasks, the more time you have to oversee Front of House, support team members, interact with customers and do your job more effectively.
Feedback from our users suggests streamlining the stock ordering process can save up to 2 hours a week – and that’s just one element of stock control. Factor in time savings in other tasks such as stocktakes, price updates, automated ordering, and waste management, and those saved hours can really add up. Assuming a typical manager’s rate of £15 per hour, that can translate to hundreds of pounds in labour costs saved every month.
Further time savings come when your stock control is fully integrated with POS systems rather than separate platforms.
And that’s before we get even get into the ways stock control systems can optimise your stock management and increase your GP...
Boost cash flow with automated ordering
Business Waste UK estimates that 10% of food bought by venues never reaches customers, and 6% of total sales are lost through food waste.
Most food waste stems from over-ordering – either through panic buying when items run out, or simply not understanding your customers’ buying patterns. With robust systems in place, you find out about these issues before it's too late. You know exactly where your stock is going, and reduce waste and spoilage by ordering the right amounts.
This applies to your wet stock too. A stuffed cellar means your money is tied up in too many barrels and bottles, and can’t be used for other essential outgoings such as paying staff.
Demand forecasting helps you maintain ideal stock levels. With smart systems such as ours, you can set up 'low stock' notifications so you'll receive email alerts when a product or ingredient is running low, and only order when you really need to. You can also set PAR levels for each product. Then you can hit ‘Order to par’ and populate your entire order form with the quantities you need to hit those levels.
Alternatively,
Suggested orders
uses your sales data since your last order, your current level of stock and your preset minimum stock levels to suggest order quantities that see you through to the next order. Whichever method you choose, you get
accurate orders in a single click.
Control food costs and maximise gross profit
BDO's Restaurant & Bars Report 2025 states: 'Rising food costs mean restaurants will need to be even more vigilant in tracking and monitoring costs.'
Gross profit is one of the most important metrics for profitability. But without real-time data on ingredient costs, portion usage, and waste patterns, you're flying blind on a major factor. Even a small drop in costs (2-5%) can equal thousands added to your annual gross profit.
One way to reduce your food costs is to tighten up your portion sizes so you need to buy less. Environmental NGO, WRAP, estimates 15% of main courses get left uneaten, with 48% of diners reporting excessive portion sizes as their reason for leaving food. If you notice a lot of leftovers being brought to the potwash, keep track of which products or ingredients are left most often. Then you can test reducing portion sizes gradually while monitoring customer feedback.
With detailed recipe costing and batch management tools like those in our system, you can edit ingredient amounts and portion sizes precisely and see exactly how much your GP increases with slight adjustments. This data-driven approach prevents the guesswork that often leads to over-portioning and unnecessary waste. It also works really well for cocktails.
As all operators know, supplier costs can fluctuate quickly and significantly. Supplier management tools let you track costs and adapt quickly to these changes. The bulk price update function in our system lets you edit prices for any selected products in minutes, giving you automatic GP% calculations as you edit.
Tech makes it so much easier to get a crystal clear understanding of your costs, so you can reduce them and maximise profits.
Make your menu make sense
BDO's Restaurant & Bars Report 2025 notes: "A well-optimised menu is the secret ingredient to minimising food waste, reducing costs and enhancing the dining experience. With menu engineering, we can calculate which dishes are both popular and profitable. It will also highlight those dishes that are neither [and not worth keeping]."
The most successful venues use reporting and analytics to inform menu decisions, promotional strategies, and pricing adjustments. You want a feedback loop between what you buy, what you sell, and what drives profit. According to an article by Menu Cover Depot this ‘menu engineering’ can increase profits by as much as 10-15% (it also has a useful matrix to help you classify your menu items).
Armed with integrated data from effective stock control software, you can highlight your most profitable dishes and optimise your offerings – while avoiding overwhelming customers with too many options that don’t make you money.
Efficient, targeted stocktakes
Stocktakes are one of the most effective ways to use your hospitality EPOS to track stock. But let's be honest – no technology can completely eliminate the human work in a stocktake. But it can take a lot of pain out of this essential task while making your counts far more impactful.
Generally, the higher the volume of stock you buy and sell, the more often you should do stocktakes. Large, busy bars should do weekly stocktakes to ensure expensive goods like premium liquors aren't being missold or pilfered. It's also essential for busy food venues with lots of fresh, perishable ingredients to do at least weekly stock checks to catch spoilage early.
If that sounds like too much work, remember this: it doesn't have to be a full stocktake every time. Flexible systems like ours let you focus on selected lines rather than running a full stocktake every time. This is particularly useful if you have high-value products or you've noticed variance issues on certain lines that need closer ongoing monitoring.
Data should work for you rather than overwhelming you with irrelevant details. Our system lets you configure which columns display in your stock report. If you only want to see the product and the amount of variance, that's fine – just hide the other columns. If you want to dig down into figures like costs and variance percentages, you can do that too. Set up the flow of information in a way that suits you.
Pinpoint variances and get faster resolutions
When it comes to stock variances, time is of the essence. The sooner you notice and investigate variances, the more likely it is that you’ll identify root causes and implement corrective measures.
Our system makes rapid response possible by including a Variances tab on every stock report. It extracts any lines with variances, and allows you to sort them however you like – by cost price, level of variance, percentage loss or gain. This means you can prioritise your investigation efforts where they'll have the biggest financial impact.
Communication is crucial in keeping on top of stock, particularly when multiple people are responsible for stock control tasks. Develop a consistent note-taking system for common variance patterns. These notes help you spot recurring issues quickly and stop you from re-investigating the same variance multiple times. Our stock reports include a notes section where you can easily highlight any key issues.
Built-in stock control without the extra cost
Stock control isn't just for big chains. With the right approach and tools, every venue can reduce waste, save time, and boost profit – even with a small team.
There’s a range of inventory management tech available, varying in price, capabilities and usability. Some are standalone platforms, requiring an additional payment on top of your other crucial tech. But for many venues, complete integration with POS systems offers the simplest path – lower fees, fewer platforms to get to grips with, and faster insights – so you have more time to focus on delighting your customers.
Our system gives you all the tools and reporting & analytics capabilities you expect from a standalone stock management platform, built into a powerful, intuitive EPOS with further Back Office systems, for a flat fee of £39/month (including one POS license).
Ready to reclaim hours per month, boost your GP and grow your business? Our experts can show you exactly how integrated stock control can benefit your venue with a free demo tailored to your needs.
Give them a shout today.
