Inventory software for restaurants: the back-of-house loop

The short answer

• The loop: supplier delivery → storeroom → prep → service → count → next order. Software has to hold the whole loop, not just the count.
• The food specifics: use-by and batch tracking, recipes that consume ingredients, counts fast enough to be frequent.
• The POS stays a POS — front of house belongs to the till; the back-of-house record is what restaurants are missing.
• BSimple runs the record: batches with expiry, recipes consuming stock, counts from a phone, Xero or MYOB handoff, from $180/month (AUD).

The loop, and where it leaks

A delivery lands during prep: crates counted against the supplier's docket — or not — and quantities drift before the first service. Prep consumes stock by recipe: without recipes tied to the record, theoretical and actual diverge by the evening. Service sells through the POS, which knows what sold but not what spoiled, was prepped or was wasted. The close count finds the gap, and the gap becomes folklore instead of data. Ordering then happens from a shelf glance, on a phone call, with no purchase order anyone can check later.

Software fixes the loop only where the loop is recorded: receipts against purchase orders, recipes that draw down ingredients as prep happens, counts that reconcile against a live record rather than discovering one, and orders raised from demand signals. The POS and the stock system meet where sales deplete the record — everything behind the kitchen door belongs to the stock side. The restaurant free-software assessment covers what this costs honestly, and free restaurant order management gets its own audit.

The food specifics worth insisting on

Batch and expiry tracking: every delivery is a lot with a use-by date, and the system should answer "which lots of this ingredient are active, and what is due first". Traceability matters as much in a kitchen as in manufacturing — a supplier recall is a search, not an archaeology. Recipes with multi-level bills of materials: prep turns ingredients into sub-recipes and dishes, each level consuming the last, with shortage checks before the prep run, not during service. Counts from a phone: daily or weekly counts only happen if they take minutes, in the aisle, from the device already in an apron pocket.

BSimple carries these as core capabilities, not modules: batch and lot tracking with expiry and two-way traceability search (mass-balance reporting supports organic certification for food businesses — ACO, NASAA and OFC are cited by existing customers), recipes and production runs included in every plan, and counts from any phone browser.

Where BSimple fits

We build BSimple, so weigh that — with the boundary first: it is not a restaurant POS, reservations or table-management product. It is the back-of-house system: supplier purchase orders from demand, goods receipts updating live stock, batches with use-by dates, recipes consuming ingredients, counts from any phone, and invoicing handed to Xero or MYOB. Plans start at $180/month (AUD), and the free trial runs a real week of deliveries and counts before anything is paid.

For multi-site groups, the same record spans locations; for a single venue, it is the storeroom discipline that POS-attached spreadsheets never quite hold. The inventory management overview shows the record the loop runs on.