Why a Restaurant Inventory App is a Must-have For A Bakery Business

What is a Restaurant Inventory App?

Restaurants run on inventory. From food inventory to non-food items such as tissue rolls, paper napkins, stirrers and packaging boxes, every small or big item used to run a foodservice business is counted as part of the inventory, and all of these need to be tracked and managed efficiently. A software system that manages a restaurant's inventory through processes such as sales and purchase orders, via a mobile app is known as a restaurant inventory app.

Inventory software systems allow restaurants to manage their inventory stocks, keep track of usage, send real time updates on low stocks and record product information, including product name, quantity, and price. An inventory app also generates reports that show how much of each product is in stock, the total value of the restaurant's inventory, how much food waste is being generated by the business, and the food costs incurred. This information can help restaurants make decisions about ordering, stocking and pricing their products.

A Bakery's Food Inventory- What's on the Shelves

A bakery's food inventory usually consists of flour, sugar, butter, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, cheese, oil, and different flavor essences. These ingredients are generally used to prepare cakes, cookies, pies and pastries. The front shelves of a typical bakery are lined with all sorts of tempting treats, from cookies and cakes, to breads and pastries. While the selection may vary day to day, or season to season, there are certain staples you're likely to find at any good bakery. Here's a look at some of the most common items in a bakery's food inventory-

Bread - Bread is one of the most basic and essential items in a bakery. There are many different types of bread that may be found in a bakery, including white bread, wheat bread, sourdough, croissant and more.

Cookies - Cookies are always popular with customers young and old. From chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies and sugar cookies, to classic butter cookies, the list is endless. Bakers also develop a few signature recipes that are exclusively to their brand.

Cakes - Cakes come in many delicious varieties, from rich chocolate cake to light angel cake. Whether you're looking for something simple or elaborate, chances are you'll be able to find it at your local bakery.

Pies - Pies are another favorite item found at most bakeriesfrom apple pies, cherry pies, and lime pies, the list is endless.

How Does Inventory Management Benefit a Bakery?

Be it a small business running a street-side bakery or a large chain of bakery houses, all establishments need efficient inventory tracking and inventory management to operate successfully. Bakery inventory management is a strategic process of ordering, storing and using supplies in an optimized way. This helps businesses minimize food waste and maximize profit. A large part of bakery inventory management is keeping track of stock levels and knowing when to order more supplies. This can be a challenge for small bakeries because they often have perishable ingredients and limited storage capacities. Bakery inventory management benefits businesses by helping them-

- Save money by reducing food wastage and food costs.
- Increase profits by optimizing stock levels and ensuring there's no over-purchasing.
- Improve customer satisfaction by ensuring freshness and availability of all products, particularly bestselling, popular menu items.
- Reduce stress levels by simplifying organizational processes.
- Reduce labor costs by helping the staff keep track of all orders, supply and inventory usage data inreal time. This saves a lot of time that managers and bakery operators otherwise spend tracking each process.

Here's a in-depth look at five inventory app benefits. . .

Benefit No. 1- Real Time Tracking

Real time tracking is one of the primary inventory features offered by inventory software apps. This helps restaurants and bakeries enjoy better Inventory Control and streamline their operations. It's a major advantage over manual inventory methods, which can be time-consuming and prone to human error. An accurate and up-to-date view of your inventory stocks can help you avoid stock outs and forecast future sales.

Another benefit of using an inventory app is that it will help save time. Rather than having to manually count every inventory item by names or number and keep track of stock levels yourself, the app will do this for you. Inventory apps can be directly integrated with a bakery's point of sale (POS system) to automatically pull in sales data and accordingly adjust inventory levels. This frees up your time so that you can focus on other aspects of your business. In addition, an inventory app can be integrated with other software platforms such as accounting or supply chain management apps, which can further streamline your operation.

Benefit No. 2- Managing Food Costs

When a business ends up over-purchasing and has Excess Inventory in storage, its food costs and operational costs shoot up, harming profits. Thus, managing food costs and only ordering what is needed is crucial for any bakery or foodservice establishment.

An inventory app does just thatit optimizes inventory control and keeps a check on what's ordered, what's used, and also tracks dead stock in the back of the storeroom. You can enter the cost of each item you purchase and track your spending over time. This information can then be used to help you find ways to save money on your daily expenses. Additionally, the management app will help you keep track of expiration dates and ensure you are not wasting money on food that will go bad before you have a chance to use it for your business.

Benefit No. 3- Invoicing

When it comes to invoicing, an inventory app can save you a lot of time and hassle. With an inventory app, you can quickly and easily generate invoices for all your orders and search for any past invoice from your records. This means you don't have to waste time creating invoices manually. With detailed and streamlined invoicing tools, the management app will help you keep track of all your sales and purchases, supply orders, and vendor order fulfilments with ease. Even if you need to return a product or raise a complaint with any of the vendors, the inventory app will help get it done.

The invoicing feature will also help you create a data bank of all past and current orders in one centralized system, which you can use to generate reports and insights to study your purchase patterns, inventory usage patterns, and more.

Benefit No. 4- Software Integration

Restaurant and bakery businesses need multiple tech tools to manage operations like sales, deliveries, online ordering, and accounting. The best restaurant inventory apps can be integrated with other third party business management apps such as accounting software or POS systems. With this feature, businesses no longer need to manually transfer data from one software to another in a cumbersome process as the system will automatically extract and transfer all the necessary data to the other tools your business may be using.

When it comes to managing your inventory, you will want a platform that will work well with the software systems you're already using. That's why many businesses choose inventory apps that integrate with their existing software. This can make things much easier for everyone involved in the inventory process, from the person responsible for keeping track of what's in stock, to chefs who need to know what products are available.

Benefit No. 5- Reports and Insights

Business managers have access to large volumes of data from their sales, purchases, inventory usage, and other business processes. However, these numbers may not make sense in their raw form. An inventory app can help businesses with this as well, by providing a wide range of reports and insights that can be invaluable to understanding your business and helping you make decisions about where to invest your resources. With so much data at your fingertips, you can quickly see which products are selling well and which are not, track inventory levels, understand customer buying patterns, and much more. This information can help you make informed decisions about stocking levels, pricing, promotions, and product assortment.