Restaurant inventory sheet: count, set par levels and value stock at year end

In a week you will count every shelf for year end, and that total feeds cost of goods sold on your tax return. Prices split over the past year: in our analysis of BLS retail prices, ground beef rose 7.4% while eggs fell 34.9%.

A restaurant inventory sheet lists every item by storage area, in the unit you count it in, with the case pack, the par level and the last invoice price. Count the same way on the same day each week, set each par as average daily use times the days until your next delivery plus a safety buffer, and order up to par in whole cases. At year end, count everything once more and value it at cost. Your CPA picks the valuation method. Last checked: 5 November 2026.

What goes on a restaurant inventory sheet?

A usable sheet has one row per item and eight columns. Sort rows in the order you walk past them, not alphabetically, so a count takes one lap.

Three US details decide whether the sheet works:

• Count unit versus purchase unit. Your supplier sells a 6/#10 case (six #10 cans), but you count cans. Your invoice says "CS" and your recipe says ounces. Pick one count unit per item and write the conversion on the sheet from the label, for example "1 case = 6 cans; 1 can = 106 oz net".
• Partial units. Count open containers to the nearest tenth (0.4 of a can, 0.7 of a bottle). Weighing is more accurate for proteins and cheese; eyeballing is fine for dry goods.
• Prices from the last invoice, not the order guide. Order guides lag. Prices on the invoice are what you paid.

How do you set par levels?

A par level is the quantity you want on hand right after a delivery so you never run out before the next one. Use this formula for each item:

Par = (average daily use x days until the next delivery) + safety stock
Order quantity = par - on hand, rounded up to a whole case

Worked example. Boneless chicken thighs come in 40 lb cases, delivered on Monday and Thursday. You use an average of 18 lb a day. The longest gap is Thursday to Monday, four days.

• Par for the Thursday order: 18 lb x 4 days = 72 lb, plus one day of safety stock (18 lb) = 90 lb.
• You count 22 lb on hand on Thursday morning.
• Order quantity: 90 - 22 = 68 lb, rounded up to whole cases = 2 cases (80 lb).

Set a separate par for the Monday order, because the gap to Thursday is three days, not four: 18 x 3 + 18 = 72 lb.

Our decision rule for safety stock: one day of average use for items you can buy at a cash-and-carry in an hour, two days for anything you cannot replace before service, and zero for items with a shelf life under three days (fresh fish, berries), where the cost of waste is higher than the cost of an 86. Recalculate pars every quarter, and before any month that runs well above or below average, such as December or January.

Restaurant inventory sheet template

Copy this into a spreadsheet. Keep one tab per storage area so two people can count at once, then add the area totals on a summary tab.

RESTAURANT INVENTORY SHEET
Location: ________   Count date: __/__/____   Counted by: ________   Checked by: ________
Count time: before open / after close (circle one; keep it the same every week)

AREA: WALK-IN COOLER
Item              | Count unit | Case pack | Par  | On hand | Unit cost | Extended value
------------------|------------|-----------|------|---------|-----------|---------------
                  |            |           |      |         |           |
                  |            |           |      |         |           |
Area total                                                              $

AREA: FREEZER
(same columns)
AREA: DRY STORAGE
(same columns)
AREA: BAR (count bottles to the nearest 0.1; kegs by weight or estimate)
(same columns)
AREA: LINE AND PREP (count prepped items at their recipe cost)
(same columns)

SUMMARY
Food inventory value          $________
Beverage inventory value      $________
Paper and packaging           $________ (count, but keep out of food cost)
TOTAL INVENTORY               $________

Notes: items with no price this week, items over par, items at zero

Two habits keep the numbers honest. First, count prepped food (stocks, sauces, portioned proteins) at the cost of its ingredients, or the value of a full line disappears from your books. Our recipe costing guide shows how to cost a batch per ounce. Second, count paper, cleaning supplies and to-go packaging on the same sheet but keep them out of the food total, so they do not inflate your food cost.

How do you check deliveries against the invoice?

Most inventory errors start at the back door, not on the shelf. Check every delivery before the driver leaves:

1. Match the invoice to your order. Anything missing or substituted gets noted on the invoice and initialed by the driver.
2. Weigh what is sold by weight. Proteins, cheese and produce by the pound. A case of chicken labeled 40 lb that weighs 37 lb is a 7.5% overcharge on that line.
3. Check temperatures. Under the FDA Food Code, which most states adopt in some edition, cold food is held at 41°F or below. Refuse refrigerated items that arrive warmer than your state's limit and frozen goods that show signs of thawing.
4. Check the price. Compare each line with the last invoice. Circle any change before you sign.
5. Ask for a credit memo for anything short, damaged or refused, and attach it to the invoice.

The price check is where your sheet earns its keep. It tells you which lines moved and by how much, so you are not guessing whether costs went up or down.

Are food prices going up or down for restaurants?

Both, depending on the item, which is why the line-by-line view beats a headline. The USDA Economic Research Service's Food Price Outlook (updated 23 October 2026) forecasts menu prices, which it calls food away from home, up 3.5% in 2026 and 2.8% in 2027, with a wide 2027 range of 0.7% to 5.0%. Its forecasts for 2026 have beef and veal up 8.7% and eggs down 29.3%.

Our analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics average price data (US city average, September 2026 against September 2025, downloaded 5 November 2026) shows the same split. These are retail prices, not wholesale, so use them for direction, not for your invoice:

A burger restaurant and a breakfast restaurant had opposite years. Your sheet, priced from invoices every week, is the only index that matches your menu. When it shows a line moving for good, our menu price guide covers which dishes to reprice and when.

How much does inventory you cannot account for cost?

Shrink is the gap between what you bought and what you can account for through sales, logged waste and what is left on the shelf. Theft, over-portioning, unlogged waste and receiving errors all land here. Weekly counts are how you find it; the nightly checks that stop it walking out are in our employee theft guide.

Worked example. A full-service restaurant with $1.2 million in annual sales and food cost at 32% (the National Restaurant Association's 2024 full-service median for food and beverage) buys about $384,000 of food a year.

The 2.8% margin is the NRA's median pre-tax income for full-service restaurants in 2024; our US restaurant profit margin guide explains the benchmark. The shrink percentages are illustrations, not survey figures, but the arithmetic holds at any size: a few points of untracked food can take most of a thin year's profit.

How to work out your own variance, actual against theoretical use, is covered step by step in our stock take template guide. It is written for UK operators, but the variance method is the same in dollars. For the monthly food cost figure, use the food cost calculator.

How do you count and value inventory at year end?

Count everything on the last day of your tax year, usually 31 December, after close or before you open on 1 January. This count sets your ending inventory for the year, which feeds your cost of goods sold on the tax return.

1. Schedule it. Two people, one counting and one writing, area by area. Freeze deliveries for the afternoon so nothing arrives mid-count.
2. Count everything, including the bar, prepped items and anything stored off-site.
3. Price at cost. IRS Publication 538 lists the methods for identifying cost (specific identification, first-in first-out and last-in first-out) and for valuing inventory (cost, lower of cost or market, and retail). Pricing the count at the latest invoice price is close to first-in first-out when stock turns over within days. Use the same method every year.
4. Keep the sheets. Signed, dated count sheets support the figure if the IRS asks.
5. Ask about the small business exception. Publication 538 says a small business taxpayer that meets the gross receipts test may choose not to keep an inventory, but must still use a method that clearly reflects income.

Which method suits you, and whether the exception applies, is your CPA's call. Check with an adviser for your situation.

Can TablePort handle this for you?

The Stock Management add-on turns this sheet into a weekly routine:

1. Count on a phone between services, area by area. TablePort compares what you counted with what your sales and recipes say should have gone, and shows the difference.
2. Set pars per item. AI demand forecasting suggests quantities by supplier from your usage, and you review the order before anything is sent.
3. Log waste with a reason (spoilage, breakage, spillage), so the gap left is the one to explain.
4. Prices from invoices. Photograph an invoice, check the lines, and new prices update the items.

The honest limit: forecasts use up to six weeks of usage, weighted by day of week, so a brand-new menu item needs a few weeks of sales first. Stock Management is $199 per location per month. See stock management.