Monthly vs weekly stocktakes: which pays?

A head chef dreads the last Sunday of the month. After the final service, the stocktake begins: every shelf of the walk-in, every freezer, every jar in the dry store, counted and written down, often until well past midnight. The numbers go to the accountant, the food cost comes back a week later, and if it is high, nobody can say which week of the month the problem started in.

Another kitchen counts every Sunday, but counts less: the twenty most expensive and most used items, in under an hour. Its food cost figure arrives every week, problems show up within days and the full count happens only once a month. The two kitchens spend a similar number of hours a month counting. One learns far more from them.

How often to count is a real trade-off between the hours a stocktake costs and the money it finds. This guide compares monthly vs weekly stocktakes, sets out what each costs and finds, and describes the hybrid of full counts and spot checks that most kitchens end up running. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

Counting stock is the only way to know what the kitchen actually used. Opening stock, plus purchases, minus closing stock, gives the cost of food used, which set against sales gives the real food cost. Without a count, the food cost is a guess.

A stocktaking is also the moment problems become visible: waste nobody recorded, deliveries short, portions too large, stock going missing. The more often the count happens, the sooner those problems show.

A monthly count gives the food cost for each month, matched to the accounts. It is usually a full count of everything, which makes the figure as accurate as the count itself. Many accountants need it, because the monthly accounts depend on the closing stock value.

Its weakness is timing. A problem that starts in the first week of the month is not seen until the count at the end, and by then four weeks of money have gone.

A weekly count gives the food cost every week. Problems show within days rather than weeks, and the cause is easier to find because there is only a week to look back on. A new supplier price, a change of chef or a portion creeping up is visible almost at once.

Its weakness is effort. A full count every week takes four times the hours of a monthly one, and in many kitchens that is simply not possible.

A full count of a typical restaurant's stores might take two to four hours for two people. Done monthly, that is a few hours a month. Done weekly, it becomes ten to sixteen hours a month, which is a large share of someone's time.

Those hours have a real cost, at the counters' true hourly rate, and they come at the end of a service when people are tired. Tired people make counting mistakes, which make the figure less reliable.

The money a count finds is the difference it makes to decisions. A monthly count that shows a food cost two points above target, a month late, lets the kitchen fix the problem from the next month onwards. A weekly count that shows the same rise in week one lets the kitchen fix it three weeks sooner.

For a venue with significant food sales, three weeks of a two-point overspend can be worth far more than the extra hours of counting. For a very small venue, it may not be.

The value of counting more often is the cost of the problems it catches sooner. A supplier who quietly raises prices, a cook who over-portions a steak, a fridge door left open overnight or stock walking out of the back door all cost money every day they go unnoticed.

Estimate it for your own kitchen. If a typical problem costs a certain amount a week, catching it three weeks earlier is worth three times that amount, which can easily exceed the cost of a short weekly check.

In practice, stock count frequency is not one choice but several. Different items deserve different frequencies. Expensive, fast-moving items, such as meat, fish, dairy and wine, change quickly and cost a lot; slow, cheap items, such as spices and dry goods, change slowly and cost little.

Counting everything at the same frequency wastes time on the items that matter least. Counting by value and speed puts the effort where the money is.

In most kitchens, a small number of items make up most of the food cost: often twenty or so lines of meat, fish, dairy, key vegetables and the main drinks. These are the items where waste, over-portioning and theft cost the most.

List them by value, using a month of purchases. They are the items worth counting every week, even when the rest is counted monthly.

Spot checks are short, regular counts of a few items, done between full counts. Counting twenty key lines every week takes perhaps ten or fifteen minutes and shows whether those items are being used as expected.

Our guide to spot checks: twenty lines, ten minutes, every week covers how to choose the lines and run the checks so they find problems quickly.

Most kitchens end up with a hybrid: a full count of everything once a month, matched to the accounts, and weekly spot checks of the key items in between. The full count gives the accurate monthly food cost; the spot checks give an early warning on the items that matter most.

The hours are modest: one full count a month and a short weekly check. The information is far richer than a monthly count alone.

Food cost variance, the gap between what the kitchen should have used and what it did use, is where the count pays off. Set the counted usage against the theoretical usage from the recipes and the sales, and the variance shows how much went somewhere it should not have.

Weekly spot checks give a weekly variance for the key items; the monthly count gives it for everything. Our guide to food cost variance: reading the number without panic covers how to read it.

Whatever the frequency, the count must be done properly: at the same time, in the same order, in the same units, with every item counted, including the open bottles, the half-used tubs and the stock in the bar and the line fridges.

Our guide to how to run a restaurant stock count properly covers the method, from preparing the sheets to valuing the stock.

A full count covers every place stock is kept: the walk-in, the freezers, the dry store, the bar, the cellar and the fridges on the line. The line fridges are often forgotten, and they can hold a surprising amount of prepared food and open stock.

Count them all, in the same order every time, and count prepared items, such as sauces and prepped vegetables, at the value of their ingredients. A count that misses the line fridges understates the closing stock and overstates the food cost.

Open stock, half-used tubs, part-used bags, open bottles, causes most counting mistakes. Agree how it is counted: in tenths of a unit, by weight or by a simple rule such as counting anything more than half full as one.

Use the same rule every time and for every counter. Different counters using different rules can move the figure by more than the real change in stock.

Count at the same point in the week each time, usually after the last service of the week and before the next delivery. A count taken at different points in the week compares different amounts of stock and makes the figures jump for no real reason.

Match the sales period to the count exactly. If the count is taken after Sunday dinner, the sales for the week should run from after the previous Sunday dinner to the end of this one.

Two people count faster and more accurately than one: one counts and calls out, the other writes. It also reduces mistakes and makes it harder for anyone to adjust the numbers.

Rotate who counts, so the same person is not always counting their own section. A fresh pair of eyes finds things a familiar one misses.

Count in units, then value each item at its latest invoice price. Use the same pricing method every time, such as the most recent price, so the value is comparable from count to count.

A stock value that swings sharply from one count to the next, when the shelves look the same, usually means prices or units were recorded differently. Check before drawing conclusions.

Counts are also the basis of good ordering. A weekly count of the key items, set against their par levels, tells you exactly what to order to get back to the level you want to hold. The count then pays twice: once in the food cost and once in better ordering.

Our guide to par levels: how much stock to hold, and why covers how to set the levels the counts are compared against.

Counting is a skill. New counters miss items, count units wrongly and treat open stock inconsistently. Train everyone who counts on the method, the order, the units and the rules for open stock, and check their first few counts.

Pair new counters with experienced ones until they are confident. A well-trained pair counts faster and more accurately than a rushed one, and the figures can be trusted.

Full weekly counts make sense for venues where food cost is high, margins are tight and stock moves fast: busy restaurants with expensive ingredients, kitchens with known waste or loss problems, or a new kitchen whose patterns are not yet known.

They also make sense for a period after a problem is found: counting weekly for a month or two to see whether the fix is working, then returning to the hybrid.

Monthly counts, with no weekly checks, can be enough for small venues with simple menus, stable teams and food costs that rarely move. If the figure is steady month after month and close to the recipes, extra counting may find little.

Even then, a short weekly check of a handful of expensive items is cheap insurance. Problems rarely announce themselves before they become expensive.

The bar's stock usually deserves counting as often as the kitchen's key items, and often more, because spirits and wine are expensive and easy to over-pour or lose. A weekly count of the main spirits and wines, set against drinks sales, shows quickly whether the bar is on track.

Count open bottles carefully, in tenths or by weight, and keep the bar's figures separate from the kitchen's.

Counts can be done on paper or on a tablet. Paper is simple, cheap and works in the cold of a walk-in; a tablet can add up the values automatically and compare each count with the last.

Whatever the tool, the count sheet should list items in the order they sit on the shelves, so the counter walks through the stores once without searching.

A large event, a festive week or a private party can distort the figures if the count does not allow for it. Stock bought in for the event and used in one night makes the week's usage look unusually high.

Note any event in the week's count, and look at its stock separately where you can. A variance that appears only in an event week is usually explained by the event, not by a problem in the kitchen.

A count is only worth the hours if someone acts on it. Each week's spot check and each month's full count should end with a short review: is the variance in line, which items moved, what might explain it and what will change?

A kitchen that counts carefully and never acts on the results has paid for the counting without getting anything back.

Credits for returned or short deliveries change the purchases figure, and forgetting them makes the food cost look higher than it was. Record every credit in the period it relates to, and check that the supplier's statement matches.

The same applies to stock returned to a supplier or moved to another venue. Each movement in or out of the stores needs a record, or the count and the purchases will never quite agree.

Counts tell the chef more than the food cost. A weekly spot check that shows an item running down faster than expected may point to over-portioning, a prep problem or a dish selling better than forecast. One that shows stock building up may point to over-ordering or a dish that has stopped selling.

Share the spot check results with the chef each week, briefly. A chef who sees the numbers can act on them the same day, rather than hearing about the month at the end of it.

Note anything unusual in each week's count: a large event, a supplier's mistake, a broken fridge, a menu change, a public holiday. A short note explains a figure that would otherwise puzzle whoever reads it later.

When the monthly full count comes, the weekly notes explain most of the month's movements. Without them, a variance from three weeks ago is hard to explain.

In a group, agree one method for every venue: the same count day, the same key items, the same units and the same pricing. The figures can then be compared, and a venue whose variance on a key item is much higher than the others stands out.

A central team can help with the monthly full counts, which also brings a fresh pair of eyes to each venue's stores.

An invented brasserie counts everything on the last Sunday of each month, taking two people four hours after service. Its food cost is often a few points above the recipes, but by the time the figure arrives, nobody can say why. The chef lists the twenty items that make up most of the food cost and starts a weekly spot check of them, taking fifteen minutes each Sunday.

Within three weeks, the spot checks show that the brasserie's beef usage is well above what the sales and recipes suggest. Portion checks find the steaks are being cut large. A scale on the grill fixes it, and the next monthly count shows the food cost back within a point of the recipes. The monthly full count stays; the weekly spot checks become permanent.

servearound does not count or value stock: there are no stock counts, spot checks, purchases or recipe costs in it, and inventory tracking is coming. So the restaurant stock count and the spot checks stay on your own sheets or tools for now.

What it holds is the sales side, which every count needs to match. The menu report shows how many of each dish sold, with revenue, for any range of dates on the venue's own clock, so the sales period can be set to exactly the week or month between two counts, and multiplying the units sold by your recipes gives the theoretical usage that food cost variance is measured against. See Analytics.

They find problems sooner but cost more hours. Most kitchens do best with a hybrid.

A full monthly count of everything, with weekly spot checks of the key items.

The twenty or so that make up most of the food cost, plus the bar's main spirits and wines.

Around ten to fifteen minutes.

When food cost is high and moving, or for a period after a problem is found.

At the same point every week, usually after the last service and before the next delivery.

They count faster and more accurately, and it reduces mistakes.

A short review of the variance and a decision on what to change.

Monthly vs weekly stocktakes is a trade between hours and information. A monthly full count is accurate and matches the accounts, but finds problems weeks late. A weekly full count finds them within days, but costs four times the hours and tires the team. Stock count frequency works best when it follows value: the items that cost most counted most often.

Most kitchens settle on a hybrid: a full restaurant stock count each month and weekly spot checks of the twenty items that matter most. Count at the same point each week, match the sales to the count, read the food cost variance each time and act on it, and the hours spent counting will pay for themselves.