Start with a count sheet organized by storage location and category. Walk through your walk-in, freezer, dry storage, and bar in the same order every time. Consistency matters more than perfection. List every item, measure it in consistent units, and record the count. Proteins and expensive items like seafood or premium cuts get counted daily. Everything else gets a full count at least weekly.

Set par levels for each item based on your sales volume. Par is the amount you want on hand before your next delivery. When you count inventory, you’re checking whether you hit par, went over, or came up short. This tells you what to order and flags potential problems.

The real value of inventory tracking shows up when you calculate usage. Take your beginning inventory, add purchases, subtract ending inventory. That’s what you used. Compare that to what your POS says you sold. If you sold 40 steaks but used 48 steaks worth of product, eight steaks went somewhere other than a paying customer. That’s waste, over-portioning, theft, or a combination.

Your target food cost percentage depends on your concept, but most restaurants aim for 28% to 35%. If your food cost is running higher, inventory tracking helps you find the leak. Maybe your produce is spoiling before you use it. Maybe portion sizes have crept up. Maybe someone is giving away food to friends. You can’t fix what you can’t see.

For tools, spreadsheets work fine if you’re disciplined about using them. Many POS systems have inventory tracking modules that tie directly to sales data, which makes variance analysis easier. Dedicated restaurant inventory software like MarketMan or BlueCart can automate ordering and track waste, but they add monthly cost and require setup time.

Assign one person to own inventory counts. Rotating the responsibility sounds fair but leads to inconsistent methods and finger-pointing when numbers don’t match. The person counting should be someone you trust who understands why accuracy matters.

Restaurants that track inventory consistently run tighter operations and catch problems before they eat into profit. The ones that guess at food cost wonder why they’re busy but not making money. Twenty minutes of counting each week prevents thousands in losses over the course of a year.