Inventory Instructions
On the Menu page, find the item or modifier you want to track with inventory, and click the Edit button on the left
Then enter the SKU for the item. The SKU can be unique or items can share SKUs to track inventory together. Please note that the spelling and capitalization of the SKU must be an exact match if items share the SKU. If the SKU is not already being tracked by the system, this will create it and start tracking its inventory. Once the SKU is entered, click the Update button on the left to save the item.
To delete a SKU, select it on the inventory page and uncheck the "Enable Inventory" checkbox and then click the save button. Click OK on the warning that pops up, and it will delete the SKU and remove it from all menu items.
Update inventory amounts
From the Web Portal:
On the Inventory page, type or select the SKU you want to edit the current inventory amount.
The “Current Quantity” value cannot be changed directly. If you want to change the quantity there are two ways to do so. If you already know the quantity you have, enter the “New Quantity” and the system will automatically calculate the “Adjustment” value. If you prefer to enter how much inventory you are adding or subtracting, enter the “Adjustment” value and the system will automatically calculate the “New Quantity” for you. Once you have entered the new value, click the save button and the “Current Quantity” value will update.
From the LinkPOS app:
We do not currently have a way to reduce the inventory on the ipad in quite the same way you do on the website, however it can be done. From the starting screen there should be an Inventory button in the top left of the screen. Click that and select an employee to make the adjustment, and you should have the option to Add. Click that and select the SKU you want to adjust, and enter the amount to adjust it. You would use a negative number for the example you gave. then Click the Add at the top right and it will update the inventory. Please be aware that if you enter a negative amount here, the adjustment will show up as a "Waste" entry in the Inventory Count reports.
Adjusting the inventory on both the iPad and the web site should show changes immediately.
Contained Items
Item SKUs can be set up to contain other item SKUs such as ingredients or part of a combo. To set this up click the Contained Items tab on the Inventory page after selecting the desired SKU that will contain the other SKUs. Then select the SKU this higher level SKU will contain, as well as the quantity of the lower level SKU each of these higher level SKUs will consume when sold. Click Add to Container to finish adding the SKU to the container. In the example below, each 20bbqchicken contains the 16 of the Ingredient Chicken SKU, and every time a 20bbqchicken is sold it will decrease the inventory of the IngredientChicken SKU by 16. Multiple SKUs can contain the same SKU, so for example any SKU that contains the IngredientChicken SKU will decrease its inventory amount when they are sold.
Tracking inventory amounts
We only track menu items with the SKU set on the menu item (in the menu web page). When an item with a SKU is sold we make a record of the number sold and the date.
The Inventory Costing report can be used to track inventory sold, added or wasted as well as the inventory counts if they are completed on the iPad app.
The Inventory report lists all of the SKUs with their set desired Minimum amount and their Current amounts, along with the quantity sold during the specified date range. The SKUs are grouped by whether the items need to be restocked, as determined by whether the current amount is less than the desired minimum.
The Cross-Store Inventory reports simply lists the SKUs for all stores with their Minimum and Current amounts. There is no date range for this report. It only displays the current amounts, grouped by store.
Inventory Costing
The costing is based on when the item is sold, not when the inventory was bought necessarily.
On the Inventory page, under the costing tab they can enter a date when they set the price of the item. The Cost is not the menu price, but the cost to you for each item.
Then, when an item is sold it uses the cost from the most recent cost entry before it was sold.
So if they enter a cost for 1/1/2020 at $0.50, then enter another cost on 2/1/2020 for $1.00, an item sold on 1/17/2020 would cost $0.50, and an item sold on 2/5/2020 would cost $1.00
The costing doesn't track the amount the store bought at that price, just the date that the price changed.
The Inventory Count Report will show the total cost of SKUs sold and wasted in the date range specified
Inventory Counts
Inventory counts can be made on the iPad app throughout the day. These are tracked and the total results for the day can be viewed in the Inventory Count Report on the website as well as in the iPad app itself.
To enable the inventory button on the main page of the iPad app, click the manager gears at the bottom right. Then click Settings and then click the gears at the top. Scroll down to the bottom and you should find the setting "Use Inventory Drop". Turn it on and click Done at the top.
To enter inventory counts, on the main page of the iPad app click the Inventory button at the top to see the inventory page.
From there employees can select to enter their opening or closing counts, or adjust inventory amounts, and users with access can view the Inventory Count Report.
To view the Inventory Count Report, enter the date range you wish to view and click the report button at the top right.
The Open value is the count the employee entered for the item at the beginning of their shift. The Add value is the manual adjustments entered by the employee. The Close value is the amount entered by the employee at their end of shift count. The Variance value is the difference between the Close count and the expected close count as calculated from the Open + Add - Sold - Waste.
The website report will show similar information to the information shown in the Inventory Count report on the iPad App.