Do your food cost every week.
Unless you work for a chain where the weekly inventory and
food cost is mandated, most owners and managers treat the weekly inventory as an
“optional” exercise. Believe me, it is
not.
I always enjoyed doing the inventory because I like to see
the result, and make sure that I was meeting my profit goals. I can’t have a big impact on my Fixed Costs
every week, but I can really make sure that my food cost is in line with my
projections and goal. It is a first key step
to make sure that your inventory is making you money.
There is a variety of things that can happen to your food
before is turns into revenue, and most of them are bad. Delivery errors, waste, theft, reduced yields,
spoilage, over portioning, recipe mistakes, and comps are adding to your usage
without bringing revenue, thus increasing your operating costs and reducing
your profits. Careful inventory management helps you spot the problems, before the costs drive you out of business.
I crave success and thus spent a lot of time making sure my
inventory was turning into revenue. I
took ownership of the food from the time I placed the order until I scraped the
“leftovers” into the trash can. Food
Cost awareness was a part of my job that I really enjoyed.
The calculator part is easy.
The handling, arranging, counting and calculating can be just as easy with some
planning. Establish your routine and it
becomes very easy.
1) Review your food
inventory every shift.
I started
every shift touching and checking all of the food. I always knew what I had “on hand” and what
it was going to yield. I knew what we
were going to sell that shift and what we needed to have prepped. My kitchen staffs always worked from a large white
board. You can’t sell what you don’t
have!
2) Watch what is being
used. Watch prep, item sales and ending
counts.
I always
watched what is being prepped and how closely the recipe cards are being
followed. An experienced cook can hit
the ingredient measure very close, but for costly food items make sure the
recipe is followed, using all the proper measurements. I do not like waste in the kitchen!
3) Watch for the
leftovers and “doggie bags”.
What is
being scrapped off the plate by your bussers and dishwashers? It is smart to make sure that your guests are getting what
they paid for, but are your portions the right size for your guests? Too small and guests feel cheated, too large and they waste it or take it home to "finish" later?
I don’t want my customers to
waste food, and I don't want my menu items "re-served" under less than optimal conditions, so I made sure my portions were right.
4) Be consistent about what you count and when you count
it.
It makes
the most sense to count your inventory when your food stock is lowest, just
prior to reordering most of your stock.
Typically, that is going to be Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. You must decide if you are going to count
food items that are “in use”, such as spices that are opened on the spice rack,
or menu ingredients that are already prepared.
Prepped and in use ingredients are usually consistent enough to not
affect food cost week to week.
5) Place your food
order carefully and check it in carefully.
Make sure
you order everything you need and get everything you are charged for by your
purveyors. Mistakes rarely happen, but
it’s very smart to get errors taken care of at the time of delivery.
6) Keep accurate records of purchases and on hand inventory.
It really
doesn’t matter if your food cost bookkeeping is paper based, using a pencil and
calculator or if it uses electronics and software, keep accurate records for
both this week’s calculations and for your long term records.
7) Train your team to store the same items in the same manner
every day.
To keep
your records accurate, your whole team needs to be on the same page with you
about how the food stock is handled and stored.
I kept my rules simple, only unopened, full cases in the stock room, open
and partials in back stock, and units in the production and service lines. It saved me a lot of time to have my team
work smart.
8) Go thru your stock once a day to keep order and know what
is on hand.
Every shift
tour included time in all storage areas, opening all doors, and checking in all
cabinets. Part of this is following up
on the team, and part of it is to previewing all stock to make sure everything
is where it needs to be.
9) Precount your inventory, check units, arrange stock for
fast counts.
Before you
start the actual inventory, do a walk through to assure everything is ready for
counting. To do the inventory in the
shortest time, you must have everything ready to count, you do not want to have
to move items or open boxes to do the count.
Your focus must be on the count and writing it on your ledger
sheet.
10) Count by location, and count the same way at each
location each time.
Door to
left, right to left, top to bottom, frozen to dry, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is the routine. Routine helps focus you on the count and
working through it quickly.
If you have done your steps, everything is ready, and
inventory will go very quickly. Plan, organize and control your food cost
system to insure accuracy and efficiency, as well as profitability. It will pay off for your restaurant.
In the next post we are going to talk about food cost for each individual menu item. Stay tuned!
