Restaurant Inventory Management Software
Keep tabs on stock, without daily counts
Automate your inventory management with software for multi-unit restaurants. Keep food and beverage stock accurate down to the raw ingredients. And save time on inventory counts with our barcode scanner app.
Close the inventory gap
Apicbase's restaurant inventory software reduces the difference between your actual and theoretical inventory, increasing profitability at all your locations.
Reduce food waste
How much of your stock is unaccounted for, lost, or not tracked properly? Identify the pitfalls, notify your teams, and take action to improve procedures.
Understand actual food costs
Don’t rely on P&L reports alone to understand the health of your restaurants. Apicbase performance dashboards show the food costs and margins of each location in real-time.
Register stock movements with the app
Your teams can register all stock movements in the restaurant inventory app. The goal is to bring inventory variance down to zero.
Bring automation and precision to your restaurant inventory management
Apicbase's food inventory software saves time and gives your staff access to accurate purchasing and food waste data in professional dashboards.
Real-time stock depletion
Break down the wall between front and back of house. Every sale registered in your EPOS-systems automatically depletes stock down to the raw ingredients.
Measure the difference between actual and theoretical inventory
The difference between what should be in your fridges, freezers and pantries and what is actually there indicates how well your restaurants manage their inventory.
Keep track of semi-finished products
Apicbase software differentiates raw ingredients, semi-finished products, and finished items. It monitors all changes in inventory, ensuring every addition or use of ingredients and products is accurately tracked.
Barcode scanning
Why make things complicated? Simply scan packages upon delivery, and the data instantly syncs to the inventory app and adjusts the corresponding quantities and values throughout the system.
Get all the data in one go
Restaurant inventory management software ensures consistent procurement and optimal stock levels. Apicbase also generates data-driven insights to improve decision-making. The result is less food waste and lower food costs in all your F&B outlets, which greatly improves profitability.
Generate bills of materials & purchase orders
Apicbase takes into account real-time stock levels, future sales and minimum and par stock levels to generate precise purchase orders. With one click, your suppliers know exactly what to deliver and where, eliminating excess inventory or shortages.
Never run out of supplies
Shortages are a thing of the past thanks to the easy restaurant inventory tracking app for your kitchen teams. Set minimum inventory levels for ingredients and sub-recipes, and get low stock alerts.
Always meet demand
Vendor management is key. Make sure critical items are available at all times. Set par levels and instantly re-stock up to par by sending orders to your preferred wholesale food suppliers straight from your restaurant inventory management tool.
Keep stock turnover high
Prevent overstocks and inventory shrinkage. Order what you need, when you need it — and nothing more. Apicbase food inventory software keeps track of the stock levels in your restaurants via a deep POS integration.
Understand the health of your back of house
Don’t wait three months for the P&L. Detect profit leaks immediately, and plug the gap.
Control costs and COGS with automated inventory management
Monitor back of house performance group-wide
Catch errors before they inflate food costs and shrink your dish margins.
Apicbase calculates the exact amounts we need to order for each outlet. I can’t say how many hours we’ve won, but it’s a lot.
Fréderique van Alfen-Las
Project director Food and Beverages
Frequently asked questions
Restaurant inventory management software is an essential tool. It enables restaurants to improve inventory accuracy, control costs, streamline operations and make more informed business decisions.
Inventory management systems for restaurants provide centralised control, data visibility, process automation and analytics.
Simply put, inventory software makes it easier for restaurants, especially those with several locations or big operations, to handle their stock. They let businesses keep a close eye on what ingredients and supplies they have, cutting down on waste and saving money. These systems automate the ordering process and use data to forecast what’s needed, avoiding too much or too little stock.
In short, systems, like Apicbase, help big restaurant operations manage their supplies better, save time, and run things more smoothly.
Finding the right tech partner to fit your specific needs and budget can feel overwhelming. We recommend you take these factors into account. This will help you choose the best inventory management system for your restaurant or food service business:
- Real-time inventory tracking: Look for software that offers real-time visibility into inventory levels across all locations. Why? This enables proactive inventory management, which prevents stockouts and overstocking.
- Scalability and compatibility: For multi-site operations, the software should offer centralised control and visibility across all locations. Make sure the system integrates seamlessly with your existing POS, accounting and other restaurant management tools.
- Purchase order management: The software should automate the purchasing and reordering process based on predefined stock levels, i.e. par-levels. Why? This feature streamlines the ordering workflow and ensures consistent delivery of required ingredients to your restaurant outlets.
- Barcode and QR-code scanning: Systems with barcode or QR capabilities improve the accuracy and efficiency of inventory counts. Why? Scanning reduces data entry errors and saves your restaurant teams time compared to manual counting.
- Tracking and analysing costs: Look for software that offers detailed reporting and analysis on inventory costs, usage and waste. These data-driven insights enable your restaurant teams and head office staff to make informed decisions to control costs and optimise profitability.
- User-friendly interface: Many people will be using the inventory app, both on the floor and at HQ. That is why it should have an intuitive, mobile-friendly interface. Why? Easy to use software encourages consistent usage and accurate data entry.
- Vendor reputation and support: Examine the vendor’s track record, customer reviews and quality of technical support and onboarding. Reliable vendor support is crucial to maximise the system’s capabilities, ensure rapid adoption by staff and generate a robust ROI.
- Affordability and value: Inventory systems are an investment in sustainability, profitability and operational excellence. Look at the pricing structure of the software and whether it fits within your restaurant’s budget. But, crucially, also evaluate the overall value it offers in terms of cost savings, efficiency gains and profitability improvements.
Restaurant inventory management software provides a one-stop solution to streamline operations, improve cost control, enhance decision-making and ultimately increase a restaurant’s profitability and sustainability.
The key benefits of inventory management software for restaurants are:
- Improved inventory accuracy: The software provides real-time tracking and monitoring of inventory levels, reducing the risk of overstocking or running out of essential ingredients.
- Cost control and waste reduction: By accurately tracking stock usage and expiry dates, the software helps identify areas of waste and enables better cost control.
- Streamlined ordering and purchasing: The software automates reorders based on predefined stock levels, integrates with suppliers and simplifies purchase order creation.
- Improved menu engineering: The software provides data on ingredient popularity and price trends, allowing restaurants to make more informed menu planning decisions.
- Time saving and efficiency: By automatically tracking inventory, the software saves staff time and allows them to focus on core activities instead of manual inventory tasks.
- Forecasting and demand planning: The software analyses demand patterns to help restaurants predict future inventory needs more accurately.
- Reporting and analysis: The software generates comprehensive reports and analysis to provide meaningful insights for data-driven decision-making.
- Centralised control across multiple locations: For restaurant chains, the software provides a centralised platform to control stock levels, track sales and manage orders across all locations.
- Higher employee satisfaction: By eliminating problems with stock shortages or overstocking, the software creates a less stressful working environment for employees.
- Sustainable practices: The software can help minimise food waste by optimising stock levels and orders, contributing to a restaurant’s eco-friendly initiatives.
Apicbase offers a smart way to keep track of both the theoretical and actual inventory for your restaurant locations and central kitchens.
It seamlessly integrates with your Point of Sale (POS) system, automatically adjusting your theoretical inventory levels every time a sale is made. This means that every dish sold is immediately reflected in your stock, deducting the necessary raw ingredients, and providing your team with up-to-the-minute information about what’s available at their location.
For actual inventory tracking, your staff can easily use the Apicbase app on their phones or tablets. They can scan items using barcodes or QR codes, or even input stock details manually. This real-time updating ensures your dashboard always shows the latest data, including important figures like inventory variance and food cost percentages, helping you manage costs more effectively.
You can find more specific information on how inventory management works in Apicbase on our support website.
Yes. You can take stock in a walk-in fridge, cellar or any other place where they might be no Wi-Fi in your restaurants or kitchens. Apicbase updates stock levels and dashboards throughout the system as soon as a connection with the internet is available again.
No. Apicbase works on your laptop, tablet and phone. Apicbase is a cloud-based solution. You can use it anytime, anywhere, and you don’t need to invest in additional hardware.
Apicbase has integrations with all leading POS platforms, including Square, Lightspeed, Caspeco, Micros, Clover, Revel, UnTill, Deliverect and many more. View the full list of POS integrations here.
On average, Apicbase saves its customers 5% on food costs and 4 hours per week/unit. Here are some specific customer cases.
Apicbase sends a notification to the appropriate person when stock is running low. Each stock item can be assigned a minimum level and a par level. Apicbase automatically creates purchase orders (PO) for your suppliers based on real-time stock and future demand or par levels. POs can also be created or modified manually.
