How to Manage Restaurant Inventory: A Complete Guide

Beyond Counts and Alerts

A basic inventory system records quantities and warns when an item runs low. More detailed records help with the decisions that follow: what to reorder, which stock to use first and how much a sale should deduct.

An item can carry a physical location, owner, variants and sell-by date, along with rules for deducting stock when it sells. For example, selling a 125ml glass at the bar can deduct the corresponding amount from a bottle without a manual adjustment.

Knowing Who Owns What

Many restaurants own all their stock. Venues that also hold consigned wine, member-owned products or supplier-consigned stock need to record ownership for each entry. Otherwise, staff have to check spreadsheets or member accounts during reconciliation. Recording ownership lets the same wine sit in the cellar under different owners and be priced or billed accordingly.

Tracking Variants and Variant Quantities

A bottle of wine might be sold whole, as a 25cl carafe or as a 125ml glass. Each serving has its own price but draws from the same stock. Set the deduction for each variant so that every sale reduces the bottle inventory by the correct amount.

Ingredient-Level Deduction with Recipes

For a dish, cocktail or charcuterie board, stock needs to decrease at the ingredient level. A recipe records the quantity of each ingredient used, so selling a carbonara deducts the specified amounts of bacon, pasta and other ingredients. The same approach works for bundles and other products made up of several items.

Expiry, Spoilage, and Sell-By Dates

Fresh produce, draught beer and wine with a drinking window can go to waste if they sit too long. Sell-by dates on stock entries help flag items approaching expiry and mark expired stock as unavailable for sale.

Inventory Linked Across Sublocations

A venue may sell a product from multiple locations while keeping it in one place. Wine from a central cellar, for example, may be sold at the bar, restaurant or private dining room. Linking those sales locations to a shared stock entry keeps every sale in the same count.

When Inventory Shares a Database with the Rest of the Platform

When inventory shares a database with the POS, CRM and booking system, a sale can update the order, customer record and stock together. Configured recipes and variant quantities determine the ingredient or fractional deductions.

This reduces work such as:

• Reconciling POS and stock reports
• Entering delivery data more than once
• Moving inventory and purchasing data between spreadsheets
• Exporting stock figures for finance
• Combining stocktake CSVs before upload
• Checking member accounts for consigned stock

The Bottom Line

Tiquo’s inventory features sit on the same platform as its POS, CRM and booking system. Stock Ownership records who owns each entry. Variant Quantities and Recipes control deductions for servings and ingredients. Sell-By Dates flags approaching expiry and removes expired stock from sale. Shared inventory lets several sublocations sell from one stock pool.

FAQs

Does Tiquo handle restaurant inventory?

Yes. Inventory is part of the platform alongside the POS, CRM and booking system. It includes stock counts and low-stock alerts, plus ownership, sell-by dates, recipes, variant deductions and shared inventory across sublocations.

Does Tiquo deduct ingredients automatically when a dish is sold?

Yes. The Recipes feature records the quantity of each ingredient to deduct when a product sells. A carbonara sale, for example, can deduct the specified amounts of bacon, pasta and parmesan. Recipes also work for cocktails, bundles and other composite products.

Does Tiquo track sell-by dates and stock expiry?

Yes. Sell-by dates can be set per stock group. Tiquo flags approaching expiry and marks stock past its date as unavailable for sale.

Can the same product be sold from multiple sublocations with shared stock?

Yes. Inventory in Tiquo can be linked across sublocations, so the same product can be sold from the bar, restaurant, and private dining while drawing from one shared stock entry. Every sale registers against the same inventory.