It is essential that you run a food stocktake in your catering or hospitality business at least once a year as a very minimum as this will allow you to maintain healthy inventory levels and minimise food losses – and it will keep your accountant happy too.

However, stocktakes can be time-consuming and frustrating, while zapping you of all your energy and taking you away from the parts of business you are good at and enjoy. Yet it needs to be done and if you choose not to use an expert food stocktaker to complete your food stocktake for you, then you need to develop a well-structured process that employees and managers can follow with ease and without mistakes.

Step One – Schedule It

Don’t leave your stocktake to the last minute, instead take the time to look at the busy and quiet times of the business and select a time that works for you and your staff while not hurting your bottom line or create disruptions to the smooth running of the business. You may find the best time to complete a food stocktake is outside of business hours.

Step Two – Tidy It

Before you start your stocktake tidy up all the areas where stock is stored so stock can be counted easily. Label shelves, check for empty boxes and keep an eye on best before dates while you are in the stockroom too.

Step Three – Prepare It

Make sure you have all the tools ready that your team will need to complete the stocktake – this includes things like pens, calculators, clipboards, stock sheets, scanners, scales and even mobile devices and apps if you have a cloud-based inventory management system. When using your own employees for the stocktake make sure they know their goals and responsibilities along with what is expected of them. Remember, these are catering employees and very good at what they do; but they are not stocktakers so you will need to take the time to explain the process to them.

Step Four – Count It

Some things will be counted per container, some per serving, some by weight and some by size – you need to check the inventory and the stock list so you know what you are counting and how it needs to be counted. This is the area where mistakes are often found or made.

When you have completed the stocktaking process review how well it has gone, what improvements can be made and how you can make your food stocktake more efficient next time.