Ingredient Tracking

[Driftless]

I have been trying to figure out ingredient tracking for multiple purposes. For food it's integral to know how many of "x" ingredients you have on hand. For example, a simple bacon cheeseburger. Burger, buns, cheese, bacon (additionally any toppings like lettuce, onions, tomato, etc) it would be game changing!

And then on the bar side of things, yes it's simple enough for inventory of thing like a can or bottle of an item, but there's no way to really do liquor semi-easily. 

Is there ANYTHING coming for ingredient tracking? It appears it's been promised throughout various threads for nearly 5 years yet nothing? It was one of the reasons I switched to Square, kind of thought it was feasible..... any solutions, updates, or?

[TheRealChipA]

HI there @Driftless.. While Square does have a robust retail inventory system, it has not yet rolled out one that is a comprehensive for food & beverage sellers.  There is a very rudimentary ingredient tracking system that is in a very limited beta right now but it is a very early feature and many of the limitations it has make it unusable for many F&B sellers, like me for example.  Anyway, if you want to explore that, you can ask to join this group and see if it might help you.  Otherwise, the only options you are are these.

• You can do like I do and create a spreadsheet to do this.  Mine is set up for me to download daily sales of both items and modifiers into it.  Then it keeps track of my theoretical inventory and ordering needs.
• In the Square App Marketplace, you'll find third-party apps that integrate with our Square accounts.  I tried out Restoke, but there are others.  Just search for "restaurant inventory" to start.  Keep in mind that because of the highly complex nature of F&B inventory and ordering, these apps are all subscription based.  This is because of the amount of server processing and storage that is required to do it correctly.

I hope that helps get you started.

[IroncladCafe]

Does Restoke actually push stock to Square at all?

I remember one app I used years ago would mark square items as out of stock when their shared ingredient was marked as out.

Very disappointed in my demo call with Marketman that both the advertised price on Square's pricing page was incorrect (says $99/month) and it's incapable of pushing stock changes to square. Can't see the worth without that capability.

[TheRealChipA]

Hi @IroncladCafe. Restoke did not push data to Square when I used it.  There are many technical reasons why I doubt that any third-party restaurant inventory app does.  Because of the massive server requirements that would be involved, none of them process transactions in real-time.  If they did, they would cost much more than they already do.  Even if Square did have what you are wanting, the same server issues would be involved and would probably make it too cost prohibitive at this time.

Another thing to keep in mind is that these apps create what is called theoretical inventory.  Due to shrinkage, waste, over-portioning, etc, there are too many variables for this sort of inventory to be anything except for a general indicator that requires eyes-on verification.  As I mentioned, I have a very complex spreadsheet that I use daily.  But I always check every item it thinks I am running low on to be sure.  Stuff happens minute-by-minute in food service -- too much stuff for exact inventory.  I would never want an inventory app (Square or otherwise) to be in control of things like 86ing items or modifiers.  It's just too risky.

But, trust me, it's worth it, regardless.  Not having to do a visual inventory every day, or even every week, is a real help to me.  And we all know that we can not trust employees to always tell us when they take the last of an ingredient, or when they notice something is running low.