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Every business is faced with the
unfortunate reality that employees will steal from their employer. An
effective inventory management system combined with secure storage and
lock-up procedures will result in far less loss due to employee theft.
In the restaurant industry there are
primarily three types of inventory management systems: Manual or Limited
Integration, Mixed P.O.S. or Partial Integration and Fully-Integrated.
Manual or Limited Integration
Manual restaurant inventory
management refers to the process of physically counting each item every
week to obtain restaurant costs. This system is more suited to smaller,
independently-owned operators who purchase fewer items and maintain
simpler accounting records.
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Once all counting is completed, then
data can then be transferred to the restaurant's accounting system. If
there are no errors, the inventory is complete. If there are errors
however, the entire inventory process must start again to find the
mistakes.
Mixed P.O.S.
Mixed Point of Sale (POS) or partial
integration, combines the restaurant's POS system with manual inventory
procedures. Point of sale refers to the computer system used to order
food and drinks as well as settling all checks.
Each time an item is ordered through
the POS it is removed from the current inventory. When the items are
counted during inventory, the on-hand stock should match the inventory
listed by the POS. If however, there are discrepancies between the two
lists, another physical count of the inventory must begin.
This method of inventory management is
more effective than the limited system, and when combined with strong
loss-prevention procedures can result in large cost reductions per
month.
Fully-Integrated
A fully-integrated inventory management
system implements three different elements into its system. It combines
the restaurant POS system with an Ordering/Shipping system as well as an
electronic physical inventory system. This is the most sophisticated and
accurate of the three systems and results in the least amount of monthly
and overall loss of product and profits.
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Some restaurant suppliers will
provide their more important restaurants with an online ordering system.
This system is integrated with the restaurant's POS and can accurately
predict what is in on-hand inventory, as well as forecasting the size of
the next supply order.
Once per week or even per month there
is a physical inventory done with portable, electronic bar-code readers
and electronic scales. All data is automatically sent to both the
supplier and the restaurant.
Some are so sophisticated that they
incorporate the recipe breakdowns, by ingredient and then calculate the
inventory. This type of system will save you money in the long run but
also help you run a more streamlined and efficient restaurant business.
R&I Solutions is the maker of Cost
Genie, a leading restaurant costing and inventory software program. Get
a free demo today at
http://www.costgenie.com |
