What's inside?
- The five-step inventory method — set up your count, count accurately with the tenthing method, sum totals across every storage area, take a second (ending) inventory, and calculate consumption — plus the formula that ties it together: Starting Inventory + Received − Ending = Consumption.
Count Once, Correctly — Then Know What You Used
A restaurant inventory is a full count of stock at a point in time; the inventory method is how you turn two of those counts into your true usage. Count everything the same way, in the same order, at the start and end of a period, and the difference — adjusted for what you received — is your consumption.
Accuracy is the whole game. Counting bottles by the tenthing method (estimating the remaining liquid in tenths) and matching your count sheet to your shelf order removes the two biggest sources of error: sloppy partials and losing your place. The payoff is real — a disciplined count reaches 99.7% accuracy, and that number is the foundation every variance, pour cost, and purchasing decision is built on.
How Do I Calculate What I Actually Used?
Consumption is the number that matters, and it takes two counts and one formula:
- Starting inventory — your full count at the beginning of the period, summed across the kitchen, walk-in, storage, and every other area.
- Received inventory — everything that came in during the period, from your invoices.
- Ending inventory — a second count, taken the same way, at the end of the period.
Then: Starting + Received − Ending = Consumption. That figure tells you what you truly used — and set against what you sold, it exposes variance, waste, and the dead stock quietly tying up cash on your shelves.
Inventory isn't about knowing what's on the shelf — it's about knowing what left it. Two accurate counts and one formula turn a count into consumption, and consumption into control.
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