Posting Inventory

Use the Inventory Posting feature to update inventory quantities into the Inventory System. Generally, you post inventory for different items on regularly scheduled time periods as set up by your system administrator. Common examples include Daily (hot item), Weekly, Biweekly (every other week), Monthly, and/or Period. In addition to posting inventory for specific item periods, you may also have special inventory posting categories for certain items, such as meat items.

Your System Administrator has defined the type of inventory to be used. There are two inventory types available: Location or Categories.

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Inventory by Location — is where you can assign items to specific areas within the restaurant (e.g., Cooler, Storeroom, etc). You count all the items assigned to the location and then move on to the next location and count those items and continue until all locations have been counted. When the inventory is posted, items that are assigned to multiple storage locations are added to together to give a total amount of inventory for that item.

•	Inventory by Category — uses the category assigned to the items to determine the grouping of the item for inventory purposes. With this inventory you enter the total on-hand amount for the item.

After you post inventory, MenuLink Client calculates the following, as shown on various reports:

•	Calculate ending inventory extensions and the Dollar value for that inventory.

•	Calculate product usage for the time period.

•	Compare the actual usage with the theoretical usage and show you the items that cost you the most because of overuse.

•	Calculate food and beverage costs.

All of this information can be accessed through the various Inventory Reports that your system administrator has activated.

Preparing to Post Inventory

Before you can enter inventory, you can do the following:

•	Print the inventory worksheets.

•	Count your inventory using the printed worksheets.

Inventory Posting By Location

The procedure and screens that you view to post inventory is basically the same for each posting period or category (e.g., Daily/Hot Item, Weekly, Meat Items, Bi-weekly, and/or Monthly), as described below.

Tip: If you make a change to item cost after posting inventory, you may need to access and resave the existing inventory to update the inventory value. If you are making changes to an invoice that affects the current inventory it is not necessary to resave the inventory to update the prices. However, if you make a change to an invoice from a previous inventory cycle you must resave the inventory to update the price for that inventory.

When you are ready to enter the quantities that you have counted for inventory, follow these steps to post inventory in MenuLink Client.

1.	On the Inventory Switchboard, click Inventory Posting.

 

2.	In the Inventory Posting Selection screen, click the type of inventory you want to post (i.e., Shift, Daily, Full Inventory, etc.).

This is an example only. Most likely, you will see different choices in your Inventory Posting Selection.

3.	In the Inventory Posting Selection dialog box, select the time frame for the inventory you want to post.

This example is for weekly inventory. Depending on the Inventory option you selected, the available choices may be different. Select the appropriate Inventory By and Time Frame options.

4.	If you are creating a new posting, enter the information in the New tab.

5.	If you are updating an existing posting, select the Existing tab. Note: Your system administrator determines the number of days prior that you will be able to make adjustments to posted inventories. Inventories that were posted beyond the defined number of days can be viewed but not modified.

Creating a New Inventory Posting: From the New tab, select the options appropriate for the time frame for the inventory posting. Select the appropriate Inventory By and Time Frame options.

Modifying or Viewing an Existing Inventory Posting: From the Existing tab, select a date from the Inventory Type drop-down list.

6.	Click Continue.

WARNING: If an inventory exists for the period and week selected, MenuLink Client displays the message ‘An Inventory exists for that period, write over it? YES or NO’. Verify the period and week to make sure you entered them correctly. Click NO to exit from that inventory. If you click YES, the inventory that exists is deleted and you will have to reenter the entire inventory.

 

7.	In the Inventory — Posting by Location screen, enter the inventory posting quantities for each item you counted.

To enter inventory, select the field above the unit you are counting and type the quantity. In this example, we have counted one case of Cherry Pie and 12 slices. Tip: Use the Tab key to quickly navigate between fields. (Shift+Tab to go backward) Note: Blank fields are allowed.

 

Keep the following points in mind as you use the Inventory – Posting by Location screen:

•	The storage location is identified in the Description field in the top left area of the screen. To navigate to another location within the inventory, use the navigation arrows above the unit fields.

•	Click the right arrow to access the next available storage location or click the left arrow to go back to the previous storage location. The arrows with lines take you to the first location or the last location.

•	Click Skip Location, if active, to skip the current storage location from this inventory process. Use this button when items assigned to a location are not to be included in the inventory and will not affect your actual usage amounts. This button is typically disabled by the administrator.

Process Advisory: If you skipped a location and want to include it on the inventory you are currently entering, you must delete the inventory and reenter it.

•	Click Abandon Inventory to exit the inventory posting process without saving any quantities entered for the current session. Inventory quantities remain the same as they were before you started posting (i.e., as they were in Step 1).

•	Click a column heading to sort the worksheet contents based on the selected column, thus taking the entire list out of the normal worksheet order. Click the column head again to reverse the sort order. Click ‘Worksheet Sort Order’ to return the worksheet contents to its original sort order.

•	If MenuLink Client is set up to do so, click Upload from PDA to enter inventory information contained on your Personal Digital Assistant device into MenuLink Client. See Upload PDA Inventory for more information on using a PDA to manage inventory.

Note: if the PDA button is not visible this is due to the licensing not being activated.

•	The inventory items that appear are presented in the same order as the corresponding inventory worksheet. To change the order of the items within a location, you must use the Worksheet Sort Order feature.

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If an item does not appear on any of your inventory worksheets or posting screens, the item may not be set up to be counted for an inventory type or may not be assigned to a storage location. Find the item in the Item Lookup screen and make sure that the item is selected for an inventory type (Daily, weekly, and so on) and the item has been assigned to a storage location.

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The five Units columns to the right of the item name is where you can enter the quantity based on the units of measure listed below that field. If the item has more than 5 counting units assigned, the system adds an additional line below the item to display those additional units. Inventory units can be assigned in the Inventory tab of the Item Lookup screen.

•	Quantities can be entered in decimal form. For example, enter a half case as ‘.5’.

•	When entering quantities, press the TAB key to proceed to the next field. MenuLink Client takes you through the fields from left to right for each item. If you hold the SHIFT key and press the TAB key it you move the cursor back one field.

 

•	When you have reached the last item in a storage location, click the right arrow above the unit fields to access the next location. You can also use the other arrows to navigate among storage locations as described on the previous page. Repeat Step 5 as many times as necessary.

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When you have entered the inventory quantities for all locations, click Save. Your system administrator can set up alerts that indicate when your inventory is out of the expected range. If these alerts are set up and your inventory is not within the acceptable range you may see the following message:

•	Preview report brings up the Inventory and On Hand Count report. This report compares the actual on hand count to the theoretical on hand count. The theoretical on-hand count is calculated using the last full inventory plus any purchases for the week minus what was used based on the sales mix.

•	Edit inventory takes you back to the inventory entry screens so you can review your inventory

•	Save inventory saves the inventory and ignores the alert

•	Once you have viewed this report and you click close, MenuLink Client automatically redirects you back to the inventory entry screen so that you can make any necessary changes.

9.	View reports as desired through Reports. Samples are shown later in this chapter.

Inventory Posting by Category

Inventory by Category is essentially the same as Inventory by Location except that the raw materials are listed by their categories instead of their physical locations. Below are some examples of Inventory by Category. You can see that many of the same options are available.

Hot Item Inventory

Hot Item or Daily Inventory is used to track the usage of inventory items more frequently than those inventoried through the weekly or monthly inventory process. Hot Items are critical items such as seafood, meats, or other high-cost items. Hot Item inventories can be done daily or they can be done multiple times during the day, such as after a shift. Once a Hot Item inventory and a sales import from your POS system are completed, you can compare what you actually used to the theoretical usage.

Before entering Hot Item inventory, do the following:

•	Print the Inventory Worksheets.

•	If there are ‘hot’ items that should be listed in the worksheet but are not, make sure they are set up properly as hot items. In the Item Lookup screen, make sure the box is selected next to Hot Item Inventory for the items that you want to include on your hot item inventory.

•	Count your inventory using the printed worksheets.

When you are ready to enter the quantities that you have counted for your Hot Item Inventory, follow the general procedure for posting inventory.

Note: Be sure to select the appropriate time frame in the Inventory Posting Selection dialog box.