Restaurant Inventory Management Software

Manage food and beverage inventory, simplify physical inventory counts, keep ingredient costs current, and create vendor order guides with EZchef.

EZchef restaurant inventory software brings inventory management together with menu and recipe costing, so changes in ingredient costs can flow through to the menu items and sub-recipes that use them.

Try EZchef Free for 15 Days | Purchase EZchef

Manage Restaurant Inventory in One System

EZchef provides a practical way to organize the food and beverage products your restaurant purchases and uses.

• Enter inventory items manually
• Import products from an existing spreadsheet using the EZchef Transfer Template
• Import current products and pricing directly when using a supported Distributor Version
• Organize inventory by product category and storage location
• Convert purchased units into recipe and inventory count units
• Prepare physical inventory count sheets
• Calculate inventory values
• Create vendor order guides
• Export inventory information to Excel
• Keep ingredient costs connected to menu items and sub-recipes

Import or Enter Your Restaurant Inventory

Restaurant inventory can be entered manually or imported from existing spreadsheet data using EZchef’s Transfer Template.

Restaurants using one of EZchef’s supported Distributor Versions can also import an order guide supplied by that distributor. These order guides contain the products your restaurant purchases along with your current pricing.

Importing updated distributor information can help you add newly purchased products and keep inventory prices current without manually re-entering every item.

Learn About Supported Distributor Versions

Organize Inventory by Category and Location

EZchef allows you to organize restaurant inventory in ways that match how your operation actually stores and counts products.

Inventory can be grouped into product categories such as produce, meat and poultry, dairy, beverages, and other categories appropriate to your restaurant.

Items can also be assigned to inventory locations, allowing physical counts to be organized around areas such as:

• Walk-in coolers
• Freezers
• Dry storage
• Bar storage
• Kitchen storage
• Other user-defined inventory locations

This makes it possible to prepare count sheets by product category or by physical location.

Simplify Physical Inventory Counts

EZchef helps organize period-ending restaurant inventory counts by creating printable inventory worksheets.

You can print inventory sheets by category or location and arrange items in shelf-to-sheet order so staff can count products in the same sequence in which they are physically stored.

After inventory quantities are entered, EZchef:

• Extends quantities using current item prices
• Calculates category totals
• Provides an inventory summary
• Allows inventory results to be printed or exported to Excel

The resulting inventory information can then be used when preparing financial records and period-ending accounting adjustments.

Convert Purchased Units to Recipe and Count Units

Restaurants do not always purchase, count, and use ingredients in the same units.

A product might be purchased by the case or pound but used in a recipe by the ounce, cup, tablespoon, or other measure.

EZchef includes a Conversion Tool that allows you to convert a vendor’s As Purchased Unit into the Recipe Unit or Count Unit you use inside the restaurant.

These conversions help connect inventory pricing with accurate menu and sub-recipe costing.

Keep Ingredient Prices Current

Accurate menu costing depends on accurate ingredient costs.

EZchef allows inventory prices to be updated manually, imported through the EZchef Transfer Template, or updated through distributor order-guide imports when using a supported Distributor Version.

When linked inventory costs change, those updated costs can be reflected in the menu items and sub-recipes that use them.

This connects restaurant inventory management directly with food-cost and menu-cost analysis.

Create Vendor Order Guides

EZchef can create vendor order guides using the products assigned to each food and beverage supplier.

Order guides can include information such as:

• Current product pricing
• Par levels
• Current on-hand amounts
• Multiple order columns
• Products organized alphabetically, by category, or by primary location

This gives restaurant operators a practical worksheet for reviewing inventory levels and planning vendor orders.

Track Inventory Price Changes

EZchef includes tools for reviewing changes in food and beverage costs.

Inventory Price History can be used to review historical price changes for individual products or groups of inventory items.

A user-defined Price Change Alert can also identify significant increases or decreases when inventory prices are manually updated.

This can help restaurant operators identify cost changes that may affect menu-item costs and profitability.

See Where an Inventory Item Is Used

EZchef’s Find & Display feature can show the menu items and sub-recipes that use a particular inventory item.

If an ingredient needs to be replaced, the Find & Replace feature can substitute a different inventory item throughout linked menu items and sub-recipes without requiring each recipe to be changed individually.

This can be useful when:

• A product becomes unavailable
• A restaurant changes suppliers
• An ingredient is temporarily substituted
• A lower-cost alternative is introduced

Include Prepared Foods in Inventory Counts

Prepared foods can represent meaningful inventory value.

EZchef allows selected sub-recipes to be included in physical inventory counts as prepared food items. Their current batch costs can then be
incorporated into the inventory process along with regular food and beverage products.

Restaurant Inventory Management Connected to Menu Costing

Inventory management in EZchef is not an isolated function.

Your inventory items provide the ingredient costs used in:

Menu & Recipe Costing

Build menu items and sub-recipes using current inventory pricing.

Explore Menu & Recipe Costing

Menu Engineering

Combine menu costs with sales mix information to evaluate menu-item profitability.

Explore Menu Engineering & Sales Analysis

That connection means an ingredient price change can become useful information for menu costing and profitability analysis rather than remaining only an inventory number.

What EZchef Inventory Management Does — and Does Not Do

EZchef is designed to maintain your restaurant’s food and beverage inventory items, support physical inventory counts, produce vendor order guides, and provide current ingredient costs for menu items and sub-recipes.

EZchef does not record or track individual food and beverage purchases as a purchasing or accounts-payable system would.

Its purpose is to help restaurant operators maintain accurate inventory and cost information and connect that information to menu costing and analysis.

Try EZchef Restaurant Inventory Software Free for 15 Days

The easiest way to understand how EZchef handles restaurant inventory is to try it.

The free 15-day demo includes sample Inventory, Menu Items, Sub-Recipes, and Menu Engineering data so you can explore the system before purchasing.

Request My Free Demo

Restaurant Inventory Software Questions