Know what your waste costs you
An expired product, a kitchen mistake, a staff meal: every loss is recorded with its reason, on the till's tablet or in the web app, and InnoBooks puts a cost on it. Stock follows your sales, your purchases and your counts, and every item keeps the history of its movements and its prices.
Every loss, at cost
A loss is recorded item by item, with its quantity and reason. InnoBooks puts a cost on it the moment you save it: the last purchase price for an ingredient or a resold product, the recipe cost for a dish. Three portions of soup thrown out are worth three times the recipe cost, and the soup's ingredients leave the stock, just as on a sale. An item with no known purchase price counts as zero: your purchases and expenses keep that price up to date.
Nine reasons sort your losses: expired, spoiled, overproduction, preparation error, breakage, staff meal, theft, inventory correction and other. The Waste & adjustments page adds up the cost of the period's losses; it filters by reason and date, and you can search for an item by name.
- At the last purchase price, or at recipe cost for a dish
- Nine loss reasons
- Cost computed on entry, then kept
- Total waste for the period
On the tablet, like a cart
In the till's menu, « Waste / Loss » opens the tablet's catalogue, with its categories and search. You tap the lost products the way you fill a cart, adjust the quantity, pick the reason — the last one picked carries over to the next line — and add a note if needed.
Before sending, the tablet sums up the lines; once the loss is saved, it shows what it cost. Your employees can record a loss; only the administrator and the manager delete an adjustment, and deleting it puts the stock back as it was.
- The till's catalogue, its categories and search
- Quantity, reason and note on every line
- Summary before sending, cost shown afterwards
- Every line keeps its source — till or web — and who entered it
Waste on the dashboard
The dashboard's Waste panel shows the value of losses over time, how they split by reason and the items thrown out most, with the total for the period. It covers the last six months by default and follows the date filter.
Only losses count there: a count that adds stock corrects the inventory, it does not inflate the waste. You see where the money goes, and where to start.
- Value of losses over time
- Losses by reason
- The items thrown out most
- Total waste for the period
Stock, item by item
Every item's sheet holds its quantity in stock, its minimum and its unit: kilo, litre, unit. If you buy it by the case or the bag and the sheet says so, you count in that unit: InnoBooks converts.
Stock goes down with every sale rung up at the till and every invoice; it goes up with every purchase received and every expense linked to the item. A dish with a recipe draws down its ingredients. If stock drops below zero, the item sheet tells you: a purchase is missing, or a count is due.
The « Low stock » tile, which you can add to the dashboard, lists the items that fell below their minimum, the furthest below first, among those with inventory tracking turned on.
- Quantity, minimum and unit on every item
- Count in cases or bags, converted to the item's unit
- Stock deducted on sales and invoices, added on receiving
- « Low stock » tile on the dashboard
Fix the stock after a count
In the web app, one adjustment holds as many items as you like. On each line you choose Loss or Addition, the quantity — in the unit you count in, if needed —, the reason and a note. Each line's estimated cost and the total show before you save.
Every adjustment gets its number and leaves a trace in the history of the items it touches. A loss is not a sale: nothing goes to MEV-WEB, and no accounting entry is created, since your purchases are already counted in your expenses.
- Several items in one adjustment
- Loss or addition, with reason and note
- Estimated cost before saving
- Adjustment number and a trace in the item's history
Every item's history, and its prices
Item history gathers every document an item went through: invoices, till receipts, expenses, purchase receivings and adjustments, with the photo, date, supplier and note. You filter by type, supplier and period.
Open an item: a chart shows how its purchase price has moved, and a table gives the latest price paid to each supplier. Pick a supplier and you see every purchase made from them, at its price.
- Invoices, receipts, expenses, purchases and adjustments
- Filters by type, supplier and period
- Purchase price chart
- Latest price by supplier
When a purchase price goes up
When an expense or a purchase receiving shows that an item costs you at least 10 % more than the time before — from the same supplier first —, InnoBooks lets you know on your phone, in the mobile management app. The alert names up to three dishes that use the item, with their food cost before and after the increase.
Two prices in different units, per pound and per kilo for instance, are converted before they are compared; when they cannot be, InnoBooks stays quiet rather than raise a false alarm. The same item never triggers more than one alert a week.
- Alert from a 10 % increase
- Notification on your phone
- The dishes affected, food cost before and after
- No alert when the units cannot be compared
Which plan or option?
Each item's quantity, minimum and unit are in every plan. Waste and adjustments come with the Point of sale option, which adds entry on the tablet, or with the Recipes and food cost option, for a kitchen without a till. The Restaurant Package includes the Point of sale.
Item history, with the price history, and the equipment register are part of the Elite Plan and the Restaurant Package.
- Stock and minimum: every plan
- Waste and adjustments: Point of sale or Recipes and food cost option
- Item history and equipment: Elite Plan
- All included in the Restaurant Package
Your equipment register
Oven, fridge, tablet, computer: every piece of equipment has its record, with its serial number, purchase date and price, current value, warranty end, location, the person it is assigned to and its status — active, in repair or disposed. It links to its supplier and to the expense that paid for it, and the list exports to PDF or CSV.
The « Suggest Equipment » button goes through your expenses and proposes the ones not linked to any equipment: you tick them, and each becomes a record with its date, price and supplier. If needed, AI reads the attached invoice to find the serial number and the warranty length.
- Serial number, warranty, location, assignee
- Status: active, in repair, disposed
- Suggestions drawn from your expenses
- PDF and CSV export
See also
- Point of sale — Card, cash, discounts, receipts and MEV-WEB, on a tablet or in the browser.
- MEV-WEB (Revenu Québec) — MEV-WEB compliant till: every receipt sent to Revenu Québec, even after an Internet outage.
- POS installation — Installing a POS system: the app, the hardware, your items and taxes, step by step.
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