Key points
- Each day, count only the ingredients your best sellers can't be made without, about five to ten items.
- Pick one time to count, opening or closing, and use the same units every day.
- Set each minimum from your highest daily usage and your delivery time, not from another business's numbers.
- Before a rush buy, move surplus stock from another outlet and record the transfer at both outlets.
Picture this: it's noon, the line at the counter is long, and your barista says there's one carton of milk left. Orders for Kopi Susu Aren, your best seller, get turned away until someone has time to run to the store.
Chances are the milk was already low at closing the night before, but nobody counted it.
The routine below prevents that. Count a few key items at the same time every day, then compare each count with a minimum you set yourself. An owner or shift lead can finish it in a few minutes.
Pick the items to count
You don't need to count the whole storeroom every day. Count only the items your best sellers can't be made without.
To build the list:
- Take your five best sellers from your sales report. If you're new to reading it, start with our guide to the daily sales report.
- For each one, write down the ingredients you can't swap for something else. Kopi Susu Aren needs coffee beans, UHT milk, palm sugar, ice, and cups with lids. Nasi Goreng needs rice, eggs, cooking oil, and your spice paste.
- Merge the ingredients that show up in more than one menu item, so nothing gets counted twice. That's your daily count list.
Keep the list short, say five to ten items, because a long list is easy to skip on a busy shift. If you end up with more, keep the ones that run out fastest or are hardest to buy at short notice. Everything else, like dish soap or napkins, can be counted once a week.
Packaging counts too. If a lot of your orders are takeaway, cups, lids, and bags matter as much as the food.
Count at the same time every day
Pick one time, opening or closing, and stick with it. Counts taken at different times can't be compared.
A closing count shows what's left after a full day of sales. You still have the evening to order or move stock, so it works well if your suppliers deliver in the morning.
An opening count captures what's actually on the shelf before the first order, including anything delivered that morning. The catch is that you have less time to act before the rush.
To make the counts reliable:
- Count in the same units you buy in: liters, kilograms, or pieces.
- Estimate opened packs, say half a carton. What matters is doing it the same way every day.
- Write a number, not "plenty" or "we're fine."
- Make one person responsible for the count, such as the shift lead on duty at that hour.
Your daily counts also tell you your usage: yesterday's count, plus what came in, minus today's count. Say you close Monday with 15 liters of UHT milk, and a 12-liter delivery arrives on Tuesday, so you have 27 liters. If you close Tuesday with 21 liters left, you used 6 liters on Tuesday.
Set a minimum from your own usage
Your minimum is the level that tells you to act. If today's count is below it, order or move stock that same day.
You can't copy this number from another business, because usage and delivery schedules differ from place to place. What you want is enough stock to last until the next delivery arrives, even if that day is busy.
A simple way to set it, if you count at closing:
- Track daily usage for a week, as above.
- Take the highest daily usage from that week.
- Multiply it by the delivery time: the number of days from placing an order to the delivery arriving. Ordering tonight for delivery tomorrow morning, before you open, counts as 1 day.
If you count at opening, add one day, because the stock you just counted still has to cover that day's sales. If deliveries usually arrive after you open, add one more day.
Worked example:
| Item | Highest daily usage | Delivery time | Minimum |
|---|
| UHT milk | 9 liters | 1 day | 9 × 1 = 9 liters |
| Palm sugar | 0.8 kg | 2 days | 0.8 × 2 = 1.6 kg |
If today's counts are 6 liters of UHT milk and 1.2 kg of palm sugar, both are below their minimums. Order or move both today, so you have enough to last until the next delivery arrives.
Write each minimum next to the item on your count list, so whoever counts can see right away what needs action. Review the numbers once a month, and sooner if your menu changes or you're planning a promotion.
Record deliveries and use older stock first
A delivery that isn't recorded makes your usage numbers wrong. Stock seems to grow for no reason, and that day's usage looks lower than it really was.
When a delivery arrives:
- Check the quantity against your order and the supplier's receipt.
- Check expiry dates and packaging. Send back or note anything damaged.
- Write down what you received, the date, and who received it. Keep the receipt.
- Label each pack or container with the date it arrived.
Then use first in, first out (FIFO): the stock that came in first gets used first. Put new deliveries behind or under the older stock, so staff reach for the older packs first. Old stock buried at the back is easy to miss until it expires.
For UHT milk, check the expiry date on each carton. If a new delivery expires sooner than the stock you already have, use the new cartons first. Once a carton is open, follow the storage instructions on the pack. Keep palm sugar in a closed, dry container.
Check other outlets before a rush buy
If you have more than one outlet, an item that's low at one may be sitting in surplus at another. Before you send staff out on a rush buy, check your other outlets.
A rush buy at the nearest shop usually means paying retail, and the shop may not carry the brand you normally use. The menu item can taste different, and if the price is higher, so is your COGS (cost of goods sold) per portion.
The rule: only move what the sending outlet has above its own minimum, so you don't just move the shortage somewhere else.
Example: The Seturan outlet is down to 1.2 kg of palm sugar, with a minimum of 1.6 kg. The Kaliurang outlet has 5 kg with a minimum of 2 kg, so it can spare up to 3 kg. Send 2 kg to Seturan: Seturan now has 3.2 kg and Kaliurang keeps 3 kg. Both stay above their minimums.
Record the transfer at both outlets: out at the sender, in at the receiver. Without that record, both outlets' usage numbers come out wrong. The sender looks wasteful, and the receiver looks thrifty.
Where Kazeer helps
You can run all of this with a notebook. If you use Kazeer, some of the work happens in the same app you take orders with:
- Kazeer's Inventory holds your list of items and ingredients. That's where you check stock and see what's left.
- Ingredient stock goes down automatically with each sale. So if your physical count is lower than the stock Kazeer shows, the gap points to ingredients thrown out or used without being recorded.
- Your sales records include the items sold, and today's sales report updates itself with no manual recap. Use them to pick the best sellers for your count list.
- If you have more than one outlet, they're all in one account. The catalog and stock are managed per outlet, and you can move items to the outlet that needs them. See an example of reports and stock per outlet.
You can ask Kazeer AI questions in everyday words, on the web or in WhatsApp. Ask "Which items need checking?" and the answer can look like this (sample data): "UHT milk is down to 6 liters and palm sugar to 1.2 kg." (Kazeer AI mostly replies in Indonesian; this answer is translated.) Compare that with the minimums on your list, then decide what to order and what to move. See example questions for Kazeer AI.
Inventory and the Kazeer AI chatbot are listed in all three Kazeer plans. Our article on choosing a plan compares them in full.
One more feature is in development: automatic ingredient orders to suppliers over WhatsApp when ingredient stock runs low. It's coming soon.
The daily routine as one checklist
Keep this list where you count, or send it to your staff WhatsApp group:
- Count the items on your daily list at the same time, in the same units.
- Write each count next to its minimum.
- Mark anything below its minimum.
- If you have more than one outlet, check first whether another outlet has extra. If it does, move it and record the transfer at both outlets.
- Order whatever is still short from your supplier that same day.
- When a delivery arrives, check it against the receipt, write down the quantity, label it with the date, and put it behind the older stock.
- Once a month, recalculate your minimums from recent usage.