Managing stock is never easy for a restaurateur or wine merchant: tracking inflows and outflows, knowing when to reorder without ending up with overstock or stockouts... Whether it's wine or products needed for the menu, it's essential to keep track of stock to ensure a complete offering for customers and avoid frustration.
Use specialized software for inventory management
By equipping yourself with the right tools, you can ensure nothing is missed and your inventory is properly managed . Tracking via an Excel spreadsheet or even a sheet of paper quickly leads to errors and oversights. With digital solutions, more reliable and faster options exist to monitor all bottle entries and exits from your stock and to determine the optimal times to reorder.
Digital tools allow you to increase reliability and save a significant amount of time, as many tasks are automated or even eliminated. Saving time on administrative tasks means more time to focus on the quality of your service, your product selections, and your cooking. We've selected a few tools from the wide range of digital inventory management solutions available.
For wine stock management
For wine stock management, there is the Somm'it tool, which defines itself as a digital sommelier that helps to build the wine list, to select wines, to track wine sales performance and above all to control cellar stocks.
The advantage of this tool is that it allows you to manage your wine sales, while also alerting you when reordering is needed. It's specifically designed for wine and therefore ideal for managing your wine cellar. This strength is also its weakness, as it won't allow you to track the stock of other products in your restaurant, such as those needed for your menus, other beverages, etc.
For overall inventory management
If you need a more comprehensive inventory management tool (managing all products), we recommend L'Addition . L'Addition is a point-of-sale system that goes far beyond inventory management. This tool also includes order taking, payment processing, and a reservation system. Its comprehensiveness makes it easy to use and manage, especially for its inventory management functionality. You can record incoming quantities and their prices with a single click. You can also define a minimum order quantity, which is the quantity at which you need to replenish your stock. You can also indicate stock withdrawals for breakages, expired products, etc. Finally, the fact that this tool is also linked to the order-taking system allows the server to know immediately when taking an order whether a dish is available in the kitchen or not.
In a similar vein, there's also the Easilys tool, which also allows for easy management of stock entries and exits. This tool isn't a cash register, but it's also comprehensive, as it allows for the management of menus and recipes in restaurants, which is also very important for inventory management to know the quantities of each product.
Some basic rules of inventory management
So you now have an idea of the digital tools available for managing inventory and their functionalities. Despite this automation, it's still essential to adhere to some basic rules for inventory management:
- Regularly check that the actual stock level matches the one indicated on the tool. Manual entries or exits can always be missed.
- Follow the "first in, first out" rule to prevent certain products from expiring and to successfully sell off stock, especially when renewing your card.
- Anticipate your required quantities: the required quantity may vary for similar products if the suppliers are different, and their delivery times can also vary. Therefore, it's essential to define them carefully, taking all these factors and potential risks into account.
- For products subject to seasonality, clearly indicate this on the menu so as not to give false hope to your customers.
You now have all the tools you need to effectively manage your inventory and avoid wasting too much time on it. To avoid wasting time on other management tasks, be aware that there are many other essential tools for restaurant owners to manage recruitment, reservations, supplies, and more.
To supply you with wine, for example, Les Grappes Pro offers catering professionals direct access to a selection of winegrowers, while also offering advice on how to create their wine list and make their wine selection.
