When considering inventory software for your bar or restaurant, you'll encounter numerous options. These range from free spreadsheets to programs with AI capabilities that assess your inventory and estimate content amounts.
The truth is, that the sheer number of choices can be so overwhelming that you might end up abandoning any solution altogether.
This article will delve deeper into a specific software called CooksTime.
Before we proceed, full disclosure: CooksTime is more than just restaurant inventory software. It is an all-in-one accounting platform built specifically for restaurants, with features for restaurant bookkeeping, inventory management, financial budgeting, employee scheduling, and more. In this article, we'll focus on its inventory management features.
Restaurant Inventory Management
When it comes to controlling inventory costs, CooksTime is one of the few restaurant inventory management programs that helps control your restaurants' food and alcohol costs on the same platform. Combining this with other bundled features can help streamline tasks and save your restaurant money on software fees.
Creating Recipes and Menu Costing
CooksTime is designed with a simple-to-use recipe creation module for food and alcohol. For food, it allows the user to create a recipe for batches, a single serving, or a sub-recipe which is a recipe that is attached to another recipe. It also makes it simple to calculate each ingredient's yield factor and convert units of delivery to units of measure by volume or weight.
When setting up recipes, alcohol is straightforward. The user can attach their alcohol ingredients directly to the POS menu items however for food, the user must first create the recipe and then attach the recipe to the menu items. This method allows the user to create a recipe and easily attach a single recipe to as many menu items as they like.
Cookbook and Training Guide
CooksTime recognizes the importance of consistency when it comes to your restaurant's success, so they've taken your recipe creation and turned it into your very own cookbook which you can use to train your staff.
The Cookbook will outline ingredients, serving sizes, cooking instructions and even a photo of the plated dish. You can also access the cookbook via their mobile app, desktop or create a printed copy.
Tracking Waste and Spills
No more tracking spills and waste on your kitchen clipboard. CooksTime makes it simple to enter these details into their software which automatically calculates the cost of your waste, records the loss in your financials and adjusts your inventory on-hand quantity.
Setting Pars and Low Inventory Text Alerts
There's no easier way to help optimize cash flow than to re-order inventory based on set pars. A properly set par is designed to help you replenish what you sold. Ordering based on par values is also a great way to help quickly determine if inventory is being lost.
In addition to setting your pars, the system also offers an option to receive text alerts if items get below a certain amount that you can set.
Purchasing and Receiving Inventory
CooksTime offers a few ways to order and receive new inventory items.
Their system can automatically upload your purchase data from certain vendors and then allow you to approve the order once it's received.
You may generate your orders via the ordering module which will send your orders electronically to individuals you designate.
After the order and invoices are received, you may enter your invoice details via their data entry module
The company is currently adding new EDI vendors which will create a more seamless and direct method of ordering and receiving new products.
Restaurant POS Connections
CooksTime currently connects to more than a dozen different POS systems including Toast, Square, Touch Bistro, Aloha, Foodtronix, Future, Tabit, and others. If your POS is not on the list, no worries, they can still make the connection.
Easily Count Inventory
CooksTime makes it simple to count your alcohol inventory using its mobile app and built-in barcode scanner. You can also count using a simple scale that weighs your alcohol bottles in ounces or you can use the traditional point method.
For food, they recommend using their shelf-to-sheet printable form. The shelf-to-sheet setup is fairly simple and it's designed to make your food count simple and fast.
Shrinkage and Lost Inventory Report
After each inventory count, their customers will receive a full detailed report of any missing items. This report includes quantity variance, cost variance, and even a performance score.
Mobile App
The CooksTime mobile app places all of your inventory information in a single location in the palm of your hand. This includes purchase history, daily units sold, on-hand inventory, view recipes, count inventory, shrinkage report, the ability to order, and more.
Usage -vs- Purchase Report
Your usage versus purchase report is exactly what it sounds like. This report tracks everything you purchase and compares it to everything you sell. For example, if you purchase 10 bottles of vodka but you only sell 6 bottles of vodka, this can be a quick indicator that a problem exists. In many cases, the problem could be that the item isn't included in all of the correct recipes which means that your recipe and menu costs aren't 100% correct. The variance could also be related to excess purchases, slow-moving items, and possibly theft or abuse. Either way, the usage versus purchase report is a great report to review regularly.
Financial Reporting and Savings
CooksTime estimates that it can save the average full-service restaurant around $250 per week or $13,000 per year in inventory waste and losses. That equates to an estimated retail value of $60K per year.
The Company argues that its secret to success is its ability to keep everyone focused on the problem by highlighting the losses on the financial reports. "Once an owner or manager recognizes the accounting variance line on their financials, they become addicted."
A restaurant must manage its inventory in order to maximize profits. Inventory losses in a restaurant are inevitable however CooksTime focuses on reducing those losses to pennies, not dollars.
For more information regarding the CooksTime all-in-one accounting software please visit https://www.cookstime.com
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