Store-to-kitchen stock control: ending the 'I gave it to you' argument
One stock number cannot tell you whether the loss happened in the storeroom, on the way to the kitchen or on the line. How to separate store and kitchen, record every hand-off, and read the reports that find leakage by item and by person.
- Operations
- 9 min read
- By Team Bhookly
Store-to-kitchen stock control means treating the storeroom and the kitchen as two separate places, each holding its own stock, with every movement between them written down as a request: who asked, who sent, how much left and how much arrived. Once that record exists, the argument between the storekeeper and the chef ends, because the hand-off has a name, a quantity and a time on both sides. It also shows the owner something a single stock figure never can: whether the loss happened in the storeroom, in transit or on the line.
Key takeaways
- A single stock number says how much is missing. It cannot say where it went missing, so nobody is responsible and everybody is suspected.
- Split stock into named places. The store holds what was bought. The kitchen holds what was issued. Stock moves only through a recorded request.
- The hand-off has four steps: request, approve, send, check on arrival. A shortage at the last step needs a reason.
- Set a minimum for kitchen staples, and count the kitchen as well as the store. Those two habits feed the report that matters most: used versus should have used.
- Bhookly records each step with a name, shows what was lost in transit by person, and raises an alert when a delivery costs 10% more than last time.
Why does one stock number hide where the loss happens?
Take a kitchen that buys 100 kg of chicken in a week. The recipes say the dishes sold should have used 82 kg. The count on Sunday finds 6 kg left, so 12 kg is unaccounted for. That is all a single stock number can tell the owner. It might have been short on delivery and signed for anyway. It might have left the storeroom by the back door. The store might have issued 20 kg and the kitchen received 18. The cooks might be over-portioning or trimming badly. Each of those has a different person behind it and a different fix.
With one pool of stock, the conversation that follows is always the same. The storekeeper says, “I gave it to you.” The chef says, “You never sent that much.” The owner has no record to settle it. In a small kitchen where the owner does the buying and unlocks the store, this hardly matters. In a larger kitchen with a storekeeper, a kitchen manager and several cooks across shifts, it is where most unexplained food cost hides.
How do you separate the store from the kitchen?
Decide that stock lives in named places and that each place has one person answerable for it. For most restaurants two places are enough: the store, which receives deliveries and is run by the storekeeper, and the kitchen, which holds what has been issued for cooking and is run by the kitchen manager or head chef.
Then make one rule and keep it without exceptions: nothing moves from one place to another without a recorded request. A cook does not walk into the store and take a bag of flour. It protects the honest storekeeper as much as it exposes a careless one.
What does a proper hand-off look like?
| Step | Who does it | What is recorded | What it settles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Request | Kitchen manager | Items and quantities needed, and when | What the kitchen asked for |
| Approve | Storekeeper | What will be sent, which may be less than asked | Whether the store agreed to it |
| Send | Storekeeper | What left the store, and the time | What the store let go |
| Check on arrival | Kitchen manager | What arrived, counted or weighed | What the kitchen accepted |
| Explain a shortage | Kitchen manager | A reason for any gap between sent and arrived | Whether stock was lost in transit, and under whose name |
The same steps run in reverse when leftovers go back to the store.
Three details make this work. The check on arrival has to be quick when everything matches, or it will be skipped at the busiest time of day. A shortage must need a reason before it can be saved. And the weighing or counting happens at the kitchen door, because once a crate is unpacked the evidence is gone.
What reasons should a shortage carry?
- Not sent: the store approved an amount and then sent less.
- Damaged or spoiled in transit: it arrived and could not be used.
- Weight difference: the store's scale and the kitchen's scale disagree, which is a finding in itself.
- Not found: it was sent, by the record, and never arrived.
Keep the list short. A single “not found” is a mistake. The same reason again and again against the same person or item is a pattern.
How should the kitchen hold staples?
Oil, salt, flour, sugar, rice and the base spices are used all day in amounts too small to request one at a time. Set a minimum for each in the kitchen: the amount below which service is at risk before the next issue from the store. Once a day, usually before service, look at everything under its minimum and request it in one go. This replaces the mid-service shout for oil.
Why count the kitchen as well as the store?
Counting only the storeroom tells you whether the storekeeper's shelves match the book. It says nothing about what the kitchen did with what it received. Counting the kitchen closes the loop. The sum is simple: what the kitchen held at the last count, plus what it received, minus what it holds now, is what it used. What the recipes say the sales should have consumed is what it should have used. The gap between the two is the kitchen's own loss: over-portioning, trimming, spills and unrecorded waste.
Count the kitchen by walking the shelves in order, at the same time each week, with the count approved by someone outside the kitchen.
Which reports find leakage by item and by person?
| Where the gap opens | What it looks like | The report that shows it |
|---|---|---|
| At the supplier | A delivery that is short, late or dearer than last time | Supplier price changes and punctuality |
| In the storeroom | The store count is below what the book says | Store count gaps, in units and in money |
| Between store and kitchen | The store sent 20 kg and the kitchen received 18 | Lost in transit, by person |
| During prep | A batch gives fewer portions than the recipe says | Cooking yield, by cook |
| On the line | More used than the sales explain | Used versus should have used, by item |
| On the shelf | Stock that is not moving, or is close to its date | Slow and expiring stock |
Each row is a different place for the same missing kilos, with a different person answerable.
Read these in order, from the supplier inwards. If deliveries are arriving short or the price has crept up, the kitchen is being blamed for a buying problem. If the store's count is right and transit is clean, the loss is on the line, and yield by cook will usually point to a training gap before it points to anything worse. A name in a report shows where to look: a cook whose batches come up short may simply have been shown the trim differently.
How does Bhookly handle store-to-kitchen control?
Bhookly keeps stock in named places, and it moves between them only through a recorded request.
- Ask the store for stock: the kitchen requests, the store approves and sends, and the kitchen checks what arrived. When everything matches, the check is one tap. A shortage needs a reason before it is saved.
- Send back to store: leftovers return through the same flow in reverse, so they go back into stock with a record.
- Kitchen basics: set a minimum for staples such as oil, salt and flour, and one tap asks the store for everything running low.
- Count the kitchen: walk the shelves and enter the counts, with barcode scanning, and the store approves the count.
- Make food: recording a batch deducts its ingredients, earliest expiry first, puts the result on the shelf with a use-by date, and shows whether it gave more or less than planned.
- Weak Wi-Fi: requests and batches are saved on the kitchen tablet when the connection drops and sent later, never twice.
- Reports: used versus should have used, whether the kitchen got what it asked for, lost in transit by person, cooking yield by cook, slow and expiring stock, and supplier price changes and punctuality.
- Supplier price alerts: an alert is raised when a delivery costs 10% more than last time, so a supplier cannot raise prices unnoticed.
An owner sees the state of all of it on one kitchen dashboard: plans, cooking, store requests, the store and buying, with what is waiting, short or late. A count shows its gap in units and in money, such as “about Rs 900 missing”. The Inventory and Purchasing module pages describe the stock and supplier side in detail.
Frequently asked questions
What is store-to-kitchen stock control?
Store-to-kitchen stock control is a method where the storeroom and the kitchen each hold their own stock, and every movement between them is recorded as a request with a name, a quantity and a time. It shows whether a loss happened in the store, in transit or on the line.
How does Bhookly record stock moving from the store to the kitchen?
Bhookly records it as a request with four steps: the kitchen requests, the store approves, the store sends, and the kitchen checks what arrived. A full match is confirmed in one tap, and any shortage needs a reason. The same flow runs in reverse to send leftovers back.
What does “used versus should have used” mean?
It compares what the kitchen actually consumed with what its recipes say the dishes sold should have consumed. Actual use comes from kitchen counts and recorded hand-offs. Expected use comes from sales and recipes. Bhookly reports the gap by item, which is the clearest measure of loss on the line.
How do I find out which supplier is raising prices?
Compare the unit cost on each delivery with the one before it, for every item, every time. Bhookly does this as deliveries are received and raises an alert when a delivery costs 10% more than last time, alongside a report of supplier price changes and punctuality.
Will recording every hand-off slow the kitchen down?
It adds a short step to each hand-off and removes the arguments and the recounts. In Bhookly a matching delivery to the kitchen is confirmed in one tap, staples are requested together in one tap, and the kitchen tablet keeps working when the Wi-Fi drops.
The bottom line
Food cost that will not come down is usually a question of where, before it is a question of who. Split the store from the kitchen, make every movement a request, insist on a reason for every shortage, and count both places. The reports then show whether the leak is at the supplier, in the storeroom, in transit or on the line. Bhookly gives each of those hand-offs a name, a quantity and a time, so the answer is on a screen and the argument is over.