Inventory and waste in a restaurant: how to keep stock under control
In a restaurant, money is not lost all at once — it leaks away 30 grams at a time. The gap between what you should have used, according to the recipe cards, and what you actually used is called variance. This guide shows how to keep stock under control: the formula, a worked example, the types of waste and how often to count each area.
How to keep stock under control (short answer)
- Record every goods receipt with quantity, price and batch, on the day it arrives at the venue.
- Link every dish to a recipe card, so stock is depleted automatically with every sale.
- Log waste separately: write-offs, breakage, expiry, cancelled orders and staff meals.
- Count by area at different frequencies: bar weekly, perishables twice a week, dry store monthly.
- Compare actual and theoretical consumption monthly and investigate any variance above 3%.
Theoretical versus actual consumption
The formula for actual consumption is simple: opening stock + purchases − closing stock = actual consumption.
Theoretical consumption is obtained by multiplying every item sold by the weight on its recipe card. The gap between the two is the variance — the loss nobody sees.
Example at the bar: you started the month with 12 bottles of whisky at 0.7 L (8.4 L), received 6 bottles (4.2 L) and ended with 5 bottles plus 0.3 L (3.8 L). Actual consumption is 8.4 + 4.2 − 3.8 = 8.8 L.
Sales reports show 168 servings of 50 ml, i.e. 8.4 L of theoretical consumption. The variance is 0.4 L, or 8 lost servings. At 22 RON a serving, that is 176 RON on one product alone; across 40 bar products, the monthly loss easily reaches several thousand lei.
Table: types of waste and where to record them
Restaurant losses, with a concrete example and the matching document
| Type of loss | Concrete example | Where it is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Technical loss | Cleaning vegetables, trimming meat | On the recipe card, as a per-ingredient yield |
| Expiry | Dairy unused past its use-by date | A write-off note, with batch and quantity |
| Breakage and damage | A bottle dropped at the bar | A write-off note, at purchase value |
| Cancelled or returned order | A dish sent back to the kitchen | A cancellation reason, attributed to the waiter |
| Staff meal | The team's lunch before opening | Internal consumption, kept apart from sales |
| Guest comps | A dessert offered after a complaint | Promotional consumption, approved by the manager |
Table: how often to count inventory
Inventory frequency by area, in a restaurant with a kitchen and a bar
| Area | Frequency | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bar (spirits, drinks) | Weekly | High value per unit and high variance |
| Perishables (meat, fish, dairy) | Twice a week | Risk of expiry and of mis-ordering |
| Dry store (flour, pasta, tins) | Monthly | Slow rotation, rare losses |
| Full inventory, valued | Monthly, plus the mandatory annual count | The basis for the month's result and a legal requirement |
What the law says
- An annual inventory of assets, liabilities and equity is mandatory (OMFP 2861/2009).
- Traceability is mandatory: you must be able to identify the supplier of every batch received (EC Reg. 178/2002, art. 18).
- HACCP-based procedures require records of temperatures and use-by dates (EC Reg. 852/2004).
- FEFO rotation — first to expire, first out — is the practical rule that keeps you within use-by dates.
- The stock section of the D406 (SAF-T) return is submitted only at ANAF's express request, not monthly.
Common mistakes
- Counting the bar once a month: by the time you spot the variance, you have lost 30 days of evidence.
- Not logging staff meals, so they show up as unexplained loss in the report.
- Counting open bottles as either full or empty instead of estimating the remaining contents.
- Receiving goods without weighing them, then finding a shortfall at inventory that was never in the venue.
- Comparing only the total stock value instead of consumption per product — an 8% variance on one item disappears in the average.
How 4restaurants.net helps
- Stock is depleted automatically from the recipe card with every dish sold, so theoretical consumption computes itself.
- Inventory is taken by area, from a phone, and differences appear immediately, per product.
- Waste has predefined reasons — write-off, breakage, expiry, comp — so you know where goods are going.
- Purchase orders are generated from minimum stock levels and from the actual consumption of recent weeks.
- Every receipt keeps the supplier, the batch and the use-by date, so traceability is one click away.