Inventory… you already have the tools
Last week we looked at why inventory is necessary. This week, we shall elaborate just how to make inventory a very smooth process.
The good news is, there’s more than one way to take inventory. In fact, you probably must be taking or have taken inventory at one point in your business, only that you dread the process… in which case, your process is the problem.
Do not worry, you already have all the tools to make your process better; so let’s show you some proven methods to make your inventory work for you.

#1 Stay Organized
With the day-to-day running of a food business, it is easy to allow storage spaces to become a bit … haphazard. The truth of the matter is tiding-up takes time.
It is useful to note that, any time you dedicate to keeping your boxes stacked and shelved properly will pay off in a faster shelf-to-sheet inventory taking.
“In fact, we at chowbase recommend and offer instructional videos on great ways to organize your shelves so as to smoothen the inventory process”
Chances are that you have already delegated the responsibility for your storage room organization to one of your inventory takers.
“With the new chowbase staff app, you can make sure that only your assigned staff can record inventory for your business. This way you get to control whoever has access to your inventory and also take care of problem of trust among employees.”
Delegating this duty to one of your staff members will incentivize them to keep the storeroom or pantry always tidy and organized.
Having a well-organized storage space not only makes inventory taking easier — it also helps reduce waste.
At chowbase, we recommend the FIFO (first in, first out) rule. By pulling out the old products first and adding new products behind them, you can make sure you use the older stuff first. This is important since most restaurant products are only viable till their prime time expires… then they become useless hence wastage.
Tips
- Have sections for arranging your inventory — sectioning makes it easier to identify inventory
- Label sections
- Group like items together — remind your staff to use open packages first — lest you will be left with many open boxes.
#2 Train and Assign Your People
Having the task of inventory in the hands on just any employee is a recipe for failure. To ensure consistency and reliability of inventory, you’ll need to have dedicated inventory takers on your team.
Here’s how to do it;
Pick your most detail-oriented employees and give them inventory taker status.
- Take time to train them on proper inventory management
“check out our amazing instruction videos coming soon.” - Assign a staff member for in-house, one for order-receiving and even shelve stocking.
Once the team is trained, you can divide tasks further into different inventory related duties such as: receiving orders, counting inventory, doing price lookups, making orders and generating reports.
“The great news is, chowbase now solves this headache for you. Our smart inventory management tool now does all these tasks for you and generates reports that are… easy to comprehend.”
Pro tip: always incentivize good work by your staff.
#3 Make it a Habit
We cannot insist on this enough.
A step-by-step process increases inventory reliability and improves consistency between different inventory takers. It is however good to note that, what works for one restaurant may not work for all. Find your groove.
Developing a system makes your job easier too. Once you’ve got your process down, you’ll be able to see at a glance how good your products are performing, what is being used and what is not working.


