It is plain and simple: You need to know your food costs. Why? Because understanding how your food spend relates to your sales is the
defining health measure of your business. Of course, there is plenty of evidence if you pay attention, you will be more profitable. So, when we talk about inventory, we are really talking about profits, money, cash flow – the reason you got into business. But inventory sucks, and we all know it. The clipboard. The count. The data entry. The price look-up. No one in the restaurant likes it. That is probably why 60% of restaurants do not take a regular inventory. It is time-consuming, tedious, and to be honest – our employees do not really understand why we’re taking it in the first place So, they do not do it. Or they just kind of do it. They fudge the count or do not update all the prices and you are left with an inventory evaluation that is not even correct. And that’s… less than ideal. At Almas Hospitality Consulting Group, we have worked with the restaurants on how to calculate their food costs.  One of our key findings has been most restaurants do not take inventory because their employees do not understand “why” it’s so important or “how” to use the data once they have taken it. And this is something that needed to be cleared up yesterday. We are ready to end the confusion. Below, we have outlined the several reasons why it is critical you and your team take regular inventory. We have even created an inventory training cheat sheet for your employees to help them understand the extreme importance of inventory for your restaurant’s operations. Knowledge is power. And power can make you more money.