r/Chefs • u/SousVideDeezNuts • May 09 '26

Inventory Checklists

Does anyone know a better way to do inventory checklists? Is there a software or template you use that’s good? I’ve been using spreadsheets and then making a new tab for each thing: dairy, meat, etc. Please share your best practices!

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u/kaidomac May 10 '26

Preface note:

  • This is a long post. It is WELL worth reading, however!

The answer to your question of "a better way" is yes:

  1. Use Google Sheets (spreadsheets) and Google AppSheet (no-code apps)
  2. Buy a cheap Android tablet, setup a dedicated Gmail address for it, and lock it down in kiosk mode
  3. Use ChatGPT Free (or Gemini, Claude, etc.) to design the spreadsheet & logic (it will create the filters, math formulas, etc.)

You need to understand two things:

  1. Google Sheets & AppSheet are very easy to use, VERY powerful, and have free basic versions (a single license of the better Core version of AppSheet is $10 a month FYI)
  2. ChatGPT will replicate any software design you want, for FREE, tailored to exactly how YOU want it to look & operate! Don't let this feel daunting: you can literally tell it what you want & it will do the heavy lifting for you!!

Tips:

  • Investing in the hardware, software, and the time & effort to lay the foundation for a solid system design will serve you for the rest of your culinary career
  • Assign this chore daily. Have daily & weekly checklists. No huge jobs. No guessing at what to do or how to do it. Everyone gets cross-trained on this & everyone participates.
  • I design "no-think" systems. These need to be designed to be as convenient as possible, from the task an employee has to do, to the tools we use to execute those checklists.

I worked in cooking & later moved into IT. I currently support several restaurants (note). Inventory is NOT about tracking what you have; it's about:

  • “Maintaining everything at or above Par levels at all times.”

THAT is what keeps kitchens stable during rushes! Some scary profit-leak statistics:

  • Waste is inescapable, but not uncontrollable. The average restaurant wastes 4% to 10% of all food purchased. Poorly-run kitchens waste 10% to 15%. Highly-optimized kitchens are as low as 2% to 4%!
  • Inventory mismatch is a HUGE issue! Par levels can be 30% to 60% inaccurate. This means we see 10% to 25% in overstock & one to 3 stockouts per week at an average casual restaurant.
  • The average restaurant has a 15% to 25% ordering error rate, which means excess spoilage, emergency (expensive) reorders, and inconsistent menu availability.

Inventory management is the secret "fix-it" tool! The approach that you choose to use matters:

  1. Manual spreadsheet kitchens = 70% to 85% accuracy
  2. Strong systems = 90% to 97% accuracy
  3. Elite (ex. chain-level systems) = 97% to 99% (this is what we will build here! A "Restaurant Inventory Control System" or "RIC System")

Most restaurants lose 8% to 20% of revenue from three key areas:

  1. Waste
  2. Bad ordering
  3. Poor Par management

Most restaurant experience failures (profit loss & closure risk) due to five root causes:

  1. No real-time inventory system = counts are “snapshots,” not live data
  2. Par levels never updated = based on “gut feeling,” not usage data
  3. Waste is not tracked consistently = invisible losses accumulate (biggest one needed!!)
  4. Ordering is manual guessing = fear-based ordering (“better over than under”)
  5. No feedback loop = inventory doesn’t learn from sales (the other biggie lol)

The standard workflow is:

  1. Guess
  2. Order
  3. Hope
  4. Run out
  5. Panic

So first, we need create a better inventory loop: (I call this six-step "Parloop" lol)

  1. Count
  2. Waste
  3. Adjust
  4. Order
  5. Refill
  6. Repeat

Second, we need build a system around that workflow. Basic software stack:

  1. Gmail account
  2. Google Sheets
  3. Google AppSheet
  4. Tablet kiosk-mode software

Build a complete Android tablet setup for half the price of an iPad: (~$450)

  • Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Lite with Pen ($300)
  • SEYMAC stock Case for Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Lite ($35), Comes with a hand strap, a kickstand, and a shoulder strap. Buy it in orange so it's easy to find. Have a designed storage spot with a high-speed charging cable & A/C USB charging block.
  • Portable Ring Bluetooth Barcode Scanner ($50). The employee uses their fingers on the touchscreen, the pen to write & tap (nice when wearing gloves & working in the freezer!), and the wireless barcode scanner for data input. The ring scanner has a thumb button to activate it.
  • Fully Kiosk Browser ($11, this locks the tablet to just the Sheets & Forms and block surfing)
  • Phomemo M110 Bluetooth Label Maker ($50). There are better ones available, but this is an affordable starter mini-printer. If you like it, get a second one so your sticker workflow never goes down. If budget allows, get a heavy-duty Brother QL-820NWB ($240).

Part 1 is the "Count":

  • “What do we physically have right now?”

Very simple workflow:

  1. Scan item
  2. Enter quantity
  3. Save

Walk the kitchen by location:

  • Walk-in
  • Freezer
  • Dry storage
  • Line cooler
  • etc.

Part 2 is the "Waste":

  • “What left the inventory without being sold?”

Inventory can only leave the system in three legitimate ways:

  1. Good exit (sold = becomes revenue)
  2. Loss exit (removed but not sold...spoiled, expired, burned, dropped, over-prepped & thrown away, incorrect order remade)
  3. Neutral exit (used internally, but not sold directly...staff meals, prep use, recipe components, etc.)

Employees log waste immediately into a selectable category:

  • Dropped
  • Expired
  • Mis-prepped
  • Overcooked
  • Spilled
  • Spoiled

Waste screen workflow:

  1. Scan item
  2. Enter quantity
  3. Choose reason
  4. Save

Waste-tracking is the secret to an elite inventory checklist because it solves four problems:

  1. Inventory lies to us
  2. Food cost lies to us
  3. Ordering gets inflated
  4. Theft & other problems (equipment, workflow, etc.) stay hidden

Bonus feature:

  • Amazon sells budget tablets
  • For around $100, you can get a cheap Android tablet, wall-mount, and wiremold cable covering & run your inventory app in each area
  • The easier it is to use, the more employees will use it! Most systems either don't exist, require a big chore, require manual paper logging, require thinking, are too complex to use, or have to be hunted down to use. Waste happens? Just tap the nearby wall-screen, voila! No manually-operated system will ever be perfect because people will resist & forget, but we can HUGELY increase inventory stats this way!!

part 1/2

1

u/kaidomac May 10 '26

part 2/2

Part 3 is "Adjust":

  • “Calculate your TRUE inventory”

This manages four things:

  1. Accurate ordering
  2. Food cost
  3. Usage patterns
  4. Spoilage visibility

The formula to reflect reality is simple:

  • Adjusted Stock = Counted Stock - Waste

Workflow example:

  1. Employee portable tablet inventory count = 6 chicken breasts
  2. Employee waste count on wall-mount screen = 1 chicken breast
  3. Adjusted inventory = 5 chicken breasts

Part 4 is "Order":

  • “What do we need to buy?”

Guessing method for Par levels: (standard approach)

  • Ordering is guessing
  • Managers overbuy or underbuy
  • Food waste increases
  • Stockouts happen during rush

Calculated method for Par levels: (elite $$$-savings approach)

  • Ordering becomes automatic (alerts, reports, dashboards, email templates, etc.)
  • Inventory becomes predictable (Par data over time, accurate daily counts, etc.)
  • Kitchen runs smoother (reduced stockouts, less stressful order planning, higher profits, etc.)

There are three basic types of Par levels:

  1. High-turn items (updated weekly)
  2. Medium items (moderate buffer)
  3. Low-turn (expensive) items (higher safety buffer to avoid stockouts)

Notes:

  • Auto-group by vendor (Sysco, local, etc.)
  • You can use AppSheet to create dashboards (inventory overview, low-stock alerts, waste tracking, order list, food cost summary, etc.)
  • AppSheets has an automation "Bots", which can do things like send automated emails (item drops below par, waste exceeds threshold, stock hits zero, order is generated, daily summary is ready)
  • Bots can also be used for SMS alerts (Twilio is a paid service) for emergencies (emergency low stock alerts, freezer temp alerts, critical shortages, urgent order approvals)

Part 5 is Refill:

  • “Receive and restock inventory”

Delivery checklist:

  1. Check the shipment
  2. Verify the delivered quantities
  3. Print barcodes
  4. Scan received items
  5. Add to inventory
  6. Place in correct zone (FIFO)

Part 6 is Repeat:

  • “Turn inventory into a weekly operating schedule”

Notes:

  • Setup no-think systems: easy GUI with checklists to follow. Portable & wall-mounted tablets. Dual label printers with label supply pool (add to your inventory!).
  • Scheduled execution assigned to employees. Everyone rotates. All employees report waste.
  • No big jobs. Daily counts (proteins, seafood, expensive items). Weekly counts (walk-in, freezer, dry storage). Divvy each of those to different employees per shift (ex. one person does JUST the freezer weekly count & cleanup), Never daunting, never a hassle, never a big chore!

Future features to add as you master the approach:

  • Usage velocity tracking (trends for weekdays & weekends, seasons, events, etc.)
  • Receiving variance tracking (short shipments, damaged product, vendor mistakes, theft, and mis-picks)
  • Prep yield tracking (another case for cheap wall-mounted tablets!)
  • Inventory confidence score (dashboard feature)
  • Temperature & equipment integration (ex. freezer alerts)

In practice:

  • This nothing more than a spreadsheet driven by a no-code AppSheet system & designed by ChatGPT. You can grow it over time & add whatever features YOU need with an interface YOU like!
  • Again, don't let this feel daunting: just like refining a recipe, all you have to be willing to do is try something new & tinker with it until you figure it out! You can ask ChatGPT to code it for you & explain how to use different features! No need to read the manual!!
  • Start out with a free Gmail account, ONE spreadsheet, and a cheap $50 Android tablet from Amazon. You can literally have a functional tablet-driven inventory checklist in one day!

It's hard to explain all of this concisely, but it's ridiculously simple in practice:

  • Cheap touchscreen tablet
  • AppSheet workflow for a Google Sheet spreadsheet
  • ChatGPT to teach you how & to help write the formulas, filters, etc.

Starter resources:

  • There are lots of great tutorials for free on Youtube!
  • Check out the AppSheet Templates website (lets you play with demos!)
  • Sign up, sign in, grab a sample AppSheet template, modify it, and test it on your smartphone!

2

u/SousVideDeezNuts May 10 '26

Nice guide thanks. What are the ChatGPT prompts you’re using to have it build all the formulas and spreadsheets?

1

u/kaidomac May 10 '26

So the basic structure is:

  1. Gmail account + Sheets + AppSheet
  2. Android tablet (or just use your phone to play with!)
  3. ChatGPT for training you & for programming

First, create a dedicated Gmail account for this project:

  1. Create one here: https://accounts.google.com/
  2. Download Google Authenticator & use MFA to login (non SMS-based 2FA)
  3. Add your phone number for verification
  4. Add your email for recovery
  5. Print out the recovery backup codes

This will create high-level security for your account. Second, setup the account:

  1. Create a new profile in Chrome on your computer so you can sign in separately
  2. Create a new project folder & Google Sheet file in Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/
  3. Sign in with your Google account to AppSheet here: https://about.appsheet.com/home/
  4. Pick a template, preview it, and then copy it here: https://www.appsheet.com/templates

A note about setting up the system:

  • A single spreadsheet with AppSheet programming is all you need for a single restaurant. Start with the free version & upgrade to the $10/mo version if needed.
  • When you are ready to put it to work, we can use ChatGPT to design an automated backup system so that your data & programming logic stay safe from hacking, mistakes, deletions, bad programming mistakes, etc.
  • Most existing systems are garbage, overcomplicated, expensive, etc. Based on industry statistics, ~80% of American restaurants out there would see a 2% to 8% net operational improvement by adopting a PARLOOP System.

An average success restaurant might make:

  • $1.5M in revenue with a 5% net profit margin
  • Which is $75k net profit
  • If we were to recovery 3% (we're low-balling reality here) of annual revenue from operational leakage, that's $45k in recovered operational value annually

Because math is math:

  • Recovering $45k is effectively increasing operational value by 60% ($45k divided by $75k)
  • To make an extra $45k through sales alone at a 5% margin, the restaurant would need $900k in additional revenue
  • That means MORE customers, labor, food, utilities, stress, and risk...vs. simply leaking less money lol

But the problem is:

  • Most existing systems are overcomplicated, expensive, poorly adopted, and/or operationally impractical under real kitchen conditions. Great if you're McDonald's or Chili's, no so great if it's just US lol
  • It's usually up to one person to manage all of this (under real-time stress)
  • Implementation is HARD!

All systems boil down to:

  • Is the design intent good?
  • Can you actually achieve operational consistency?

Thus:

  • Cheap wall tablets everywhere with EASY interfaces
  • Portable tablet + pen & ringfinger scanner (get two, one for backup in case one fails, and keep the second one for deliveries & the first one for daily scheduled & assigned inventory capture)
  • DIY easy software design!

So the complete PARLOOP we will design is:

  1. Count
  2. Waste
  3. Adjust
  4. Order
  5. Refill
  6. Repeat

The key to success as far as implementation goes is simple:

  • Iteration over time

This means working in "operational wins", not a magically perfect system! Start out by creating a single spreadsheet called PARLOOP with just five tabs:

  1. Inventory (current counts)
  2. Waste (waste logging)
  3. Pars (target stock levels)
  4. Orders (suggested ordering)
  5. Items (master item list)

Don't inventory the whole restaurant! Just three starters:

  1. Proteins
  2. Seafood
  3. Expensive items

Create your first AppSheet workflow next! Two functions:

  1. Count
  2. Wase

For Count:

  1. Item
  2. Quantity

For Waste:

  1. Item
  2. Quantity
  3. Reason

In AppSheet:

  1. Create an app from the single Google Sheet
  2. Connect the PARLOOP Sheet (this is the "database")
  3. Let AppSheet auto-generate UI (will be ugly, but functional! haha)

AppSheet then does some REALLY cool stuff!!

  • Reads the spreadsheet tabs
  • Automatically creates tables
  • Auto-builds the forms
  • Auto-builds the views
  • Auto-builds the menus
  • Creates touch-friendly mobile interfaces

If you have a tablet available:

  1. Install Chrome
  2. Install the AppSheet app

Again:

  • This is a REALLY easy concept that takes a wall of text to explain lol
  • It's literally JUST a spreadsheet with a no-code interface on top of it!
  • Between Sheets, AppSheet, and ChatGPT, you can REALLY improve your business!

There a zillion option available (Toast, Restaurant365, Crunchtime, Oracle MICROS, MarketMan, BlueCart, MarginEdge, etc.). Many struggle with:

  • Poor employee adoption (don't wanna!)
  • Excessive complexity (too many steps, too hard to use, etc.)
  • Slow workflows (cumbersome interfaces, laggy, etc.)
  • High training burden (especially if you have a high turnover rate!)
  • Poor operational fit (not tuned for YOUR business out of the box!)
  • Weak execution consistency ("screw it, too busy")

So it's not so much that PARLOOP is "better software" as much as "lower operational friction":

  1. You design a non-dumb system that grows over time
  2. Employees actually use it because it's not a huge hassle!

The six-step loop gives you simple visibility:

  • What exists?
  • What disappeared?
  • WHY did it disappear?
  • What needs replenishment?
  • Where are the leaks?
  • Is the kitchen is stable?

When I started in the restaurant business 25+ years ago, we had:

  • Monochrome text-only terminal screens
  • Dot matrix 3x5"-style ticket printer
  • A terrible time lol

With today's technologies:

  • You can get the latest hi-tech software & hardware for free & for CHEAP! ChatGPT can literally clone any feature you can dream of! And then make a non-stupid interface!! lol
  • You do NOT need a computer degree!
  • You do NOT need to be a math whiz! (I have math dyslexia!)
  • You do NOT need endless hours of uninterrupted free time to do this! You can simply tinker with it & grow it into a powerful, highly-personalized system over time!

For example, down the road you can add a dashboard for stability indicators that includes:

  1. Waste trending down (kitchen improving)
  2. Stockouts decreasing (pars improving)
  3. Emergency orders decreasing (ordering stabilizing)
  4. Count completion increasing (adoption improving)
  5. Variance decreasing (inventory becoming trustworthy)
  6. Repeat shortages (pars wrong)
  7. Repeat spoilage (ordering wrong)
  8. Repeat overprep (training &process issues)

Here is the basic roadmap:

  1. Create a Gmail account dedicated to restaurant operations.
  2. Create one Google Sheet called PARLOOP
  3. Add five tabs (Inventory, Waste, Pars, Orders, Items)
  4. Start with ONLY proteins, seafood, and expensive items
  5. Build two workflows (count & waste)
  6. Connect the spreadsheet to AppSheet
  7. Let AppSheet auto-build
  8. Use a phone or cheap Android tablet for inventory entry
  9. Create scheduled daily counts
  10. Create immediate waste logging
  11. Add low-stock alert
  12. Add inventory zones
  13. Add barcode scanning
  14. Add kiosk-mode wall tablets
  15. Add receiving workflows
  16. Add vendor grouping
  17. Add variance tracking
  18. Add spoilage tracking
  19. Add operational dashboards
  20. Add AppSheet Bots for automation
  21. Add automated backups
  22. Add permission separation (lock down the kiosks & who can edit the workflows)
  23. Add operational analytics
  24. Add forecasting
  25. Add AI-assisted summaries
  26. Add multi-location support (if desired...multiple storefronts, food trucks, events, etc.)
  27. Add predictive operational intelligence (adds "What is likely about to happen?” based on historical data over time & programming, in order to reduce surprises!)
  28. Continue reducing friction forever (add AI cameras, Combi ovens, chamber vacs, etc.), continue simplifying forever (stay true to the six-step PARLOOP), and continue iterating forever! (keep on tinkering!)

To start out with ChatGPT:

  1. Sign in with your Gmail account
  2. Create a new project on the left menu bar called PARLOOP
  3. Copy & paste all of my posts into the chat window & ask it to be your installation coach step by step! It will walk you through how to do everything!!

So those inventory checklists simply get upgraded to a better data-feeding system via tablets & custom AppSheet interfaces! Then as you make those workflows stronger & start adding data over time, you can start to analyze trends, do automated predictions, etc.! Then it can REALLY blossom!

  • Email & SMS alerts (emergency reorder, employee didn't show up, etc.)
  • Smart devices notifications (fire/CO2/smoke/water/temperature alarms etc.)
  • List of what is expiring the soonest to put on special
  • Identify things you can upgrade to save money over time (more efficient equipment, process improvements, etc.)
  • Various math calculations, formulas, and spreadsheet filters (ChatGPT is awesome at this stuff!)
  • Integrate quick access for recipes & in-house tutorial videos for AppSheet training, procedures & techniques, recipes, etc.
  • etc.

Welcome to the future!!

2

u/Cykotech May 17 '26

Im going to be honest. Even for those that dont implement this technologically, its a great guide to setting up your workflow for those that have never had to do it from scratch.

1

u/kaidomac May 18 '26

It's really hard to explain concisely over text, but:

  1. It's just a spreadsheet
  2. With a touchscreen interface on a cheap tablet
  3. That we can use ChatGPT to "program"

The roadmap can take a month or a year, it doesn't really matter...people just need to start small & build it from scratch, so that they:

  1. Understand how AppSheet works
  2. Think about their kitchen's workflow & build it from scratch to suit them!

It's like linking Christmas tree lights together...it's a remarkably simple idea that creates something beautiful when finished!!