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Guide summary
- Rigorous inventory control is one of the most direct levers on your restaurant's profitability, since raw materials represent almost a third of turnover, and every loss impacts your margin
- Technical recipe sheets, warehouse organisation, applying the FIFO method, and regular waste analysis are the foundation of effective inventory management.
- Your suppliers are business partners. Negotiate prices, lead times, and conditions, verify every delivery, and maintain a relationship of trust. This has a direct impact on your costs and your ability to respond to unforeseen events
Table of contents
30% of a restaurant's turnover in Spain goes to raw materials. The good news is that this can be controlled with good daily management. The bad news is that it can easily spiral. Poorly calibrated orders, products expiring before use, waste that nobody records… every loss accumulates on the bottom line without the source always being identified. With rigorous inventory control, you reduce costs and improve the quality of what you serve. Discover how to improve your restaurant's inventory management step by step.
Key figures
- In 2024, food waste in bars, restaurants, and collective canteens in Spain stood at 28.03 million kilos or litres, 8.8% less than in 2023 (1)
- It is recommended that raw material costs represent around 30% of turnover in a Spanish restaurant (2)
- The average spend in Spanish restaurants is €27 and grew by 2.5% in 2025 (3).
How to take your restaurant's inventory?
Technical recipe sheets for each dish
Before controlling what you have in the warehouse, you need to know exactly what each dish consumes. That is why the technical recipe sheet exists. It should include:
- The dish name and description
- The list of ingredients with the exact weight per serving
- The unit cost of each ingredient and the total raw material cost
- The preparation time
- The selling price and the resulting food cost
With this information, you can plan your orders precisely, standardise recipes, and avoid overestimating requirements. It also allows you to identify which dishes are eroding your margin without you having noticed.
Our tip: update the sheets every time the price of a supplier changes. A food cost calculated with prices from six months ago is useless.
Warehouse organisation
A precise inventory starts with a well-organised warehouse. If products are mixed together, poorly labelled, or distributed without a clear system, the stock count becomes a source of errors. Organise your storage spaces following these basic rules:
- Separate by product family to comply with hygiene regulations (fresh, frozen, dry, beverages)
- Label each item with the date of receipt and expiry date
- Reserve separate areas for the highest-turnover products
- Keep temperatures in each area within the ranges required by HACCP regulations
This order speeds up stock counts, facilitates temperature monitoring, reduces handling errors, and guarantees the traceability required by HACCP systems from the moment the product enters your premises.
Inventory frequency
A monthly inventory tells you what has happened, not what is happening. For truly useful inventory control, you need more frequency:
- Weekly for the highest-turnover products: meat, fish, fresh produce, and any item with a short use-by date
- Monthly for the rest: dry goods, beverages, tinned goods
Beyond frequency, consistency is equally important. Always do it on the same day and at the same time, assign a fixed person in charge, and always use the same format (paper or software). Consistency makes the data comparable from one week to the next. The sooner you detect a deviation, the less impact it has on your margin.
The FIFO method
The FIFO method (First In, First Out or first in, first out) is the standard for stock rotation in hospitality. When you receive a delivery, place new products at the back and move older ones to the front so they are used first.
In practice, this means:
- In refrigeration units: newer products go to the back, older ones to the front
- In the dry goods store: same logic, by expiry date
- At the bar: opened or older bottles are used before opening new ones
Applied systematically, FIFO reduces losses due to expiry, improves the freshness of what you serve, and simplifies the work of whoever carries out the inventory.
Team training
A well-managed inventory does not depend solely on the head chef. The whole chain is involved. If the assistants do not record waste, if the bartenders do not apply FIFO at the bar, or if nobody verifies the contents of a delivery when it arrives, deviations accumulate without anyone detecting them.
Train your team on these key points:
- Stock rotation and application of the FIFO method
- Recording waste and expired products
- Receiving and verifying orders (quantities, prices, and condition of products)
- Respecting expiry dates and storage temperatures
For these tasks to be properly distributed, it is essential that they are integrated into the organisation of shifts and clearly communicated to the whole team.
Analysis of waste and residues
Recording what is thrown away is just as important as recording what is purchased. Without this data, you cannot know whether the problem lies in your orders, your portions, your menu, or the way the team works.
At least once a week, record:
- Products that expired or deteriorated before use
- Portions prepared but not sold
- Preparation errors and returned dishes
- Leftover food that customers systematically leave on their plates
Over time, this monitoring reveals concrete patterns. A product that always has leftovers at the end of service, an oversized portion that customers never finish, a dish that generates more preparation waste than expected.... Each pattern is an opportunity to adjust your orders, review your menu or correct your portions and recover margin directly.
Annual monitoring dashboard
Point-in-time data is useful for reacting. The annual view is what allows you to anticipate. A monitoring dashboard that crosses your purchases, sales, and waste month by month against the number of covers served gives you a perspective that no weekly inventory can provide on its own.
With that historical data you can:
- Detect seasonal variations and adjust your orders in advance
- Identify the months when food cost spikes and analyse the causes
- Negotiate with your suppliers using real data
- Improve your purchasing forecasts year on year
Over time, this dashboard becomes one of the most valuable tools for the management of your restaurant. And it can be very useful if you have access to specialist hospitality advisory services to help interpret it.
Crossing sales and cover data with your inventory tracking is much easier when your management software centralises the information. Covermanager gives you a global view of your restaurant (from reservations to performance per service) so you can make decisions based on real data.
How to manage your supplier relationships?
Choosing your suppliers wisely
The quality of your inventory depends largely on the quality of your suppliers. An unreliable supplier generates stock shortages, tension in the kitchen, and losses that are difficult to anticipate. Before finalising an agreement, evaluate:
- Their reliability in terms of lead times and delivery regularity
- The quality-price ratio and their ability to maintain it over time
- Certifications and quality seals: organic products, local produce, designation of origin
- Payment terms and delivery lead times
- Their ability to adapt to orders of variable volume depending on the season
- References and reputation in the sector
Do not work with a single supplier for critical products (meat, fish, fresh produce). Having an alternative for the highest-impact categories protects you against unforeseen events and gives you room for negotiation.
Negotiating prices and terms
Many restaurateurs accept a supplier's initial terms without negotiating. This is a mistake.
You can negotiate:
- The unit price, especially if you commit to a minimum volume or a long-term contract
- Volume or early payment discounts
- Payment terms (Law 15/2010 sets a maximum of 60 days for business-to-business transactions, and 30 days for fresh and perishable products)
- Delivery lead times and order frequency
- Return conditions for products in poor condition
Review your agreements with suppliers at least once a year. Raw material prices fluctuate, and what was competitive twelve months ago may not be today.
Verifying deliveries
Receiving an order without verifying it means assuming everything is fine. It is not always the case. Every delivery must be checked before signing the delivery note:
- Quantities received against quantities ordered
- The condition of products: temperature, packaging integrity, absence of damage or visible deterioration
- Expiry dates, especially for fresh and refrigerated products
- The invoiced price against the agreed price
If there are discrepancies, note them on the delivery note before signing it and inform the supplier immediately. An error not flagged at the time is a cost you absorb.
Maintaining a professional and trusting relationship
Your suppliers are not just a supply channel. They are business partners. And as such, develop a win-win relationship. This means: paying on the agreed terms, communicating changes in demand in advance, and handling incidents with respect. In this way, you can benefit from more favourable terms, priority when there is a shortage, and flexibility when you need it.
Suppliers remember customers who cause problems, but also those who inspire trust.
Periodic reassessment
The market changes, prices evolve, and new suppliers emerge. Set aside time once or twice a year to review whether your current agreements are still competitive. It is not about constantly changing suppliers, but about continuously optimising the management of your restaurant, starting with the costs you can control most.
FAQ
How often should a restaurant carry out its inventory?
It depends on the type of product. For the highest-turnover items (meat, fish, fresh produce) weekly control is ideal. For the rest, a monthly inventory is sufficient.
What KPIs should I track to manage my restaurant's inventory properly?
The most relevant indicators are:
- Food cost %: the percentage of your sales that goes towards purchasing raw materials.
- Stock rotation rate: measures how frequently you renew your inventory. A high rotation rate indicates good management and lower risk of losses due to expiry
- Waste rate: the percentage of purchased products that do not become revenue.
- Deviation between theoretical and actual food cost: if the difference exceeds 3–5%, there is a problem to locate (portioning errors, unrecorded waste, or other losses)
What inventory management software should I use in hospitality?
A good inventory management software allows you to automate stock counts, receive low-stock alerts, track food cost in real time, and connect POS sales with actual raw material consumption. The choice depends on the size of your business and the level of integration you need with your POS and your booking system.
Sources:
1 - Ministerio de agricultura, pesca y alimentación
2 - Caixabank
3 - Delectatech
