Buying for events, not for a steady trade
A restaurant reorders against a fairly stable daily pattern. A caterer does not. One week has a wedding for a hundred and fifty, the next has two small lunches, and the week after has nothing booked. Any approach that assumes a steady par level will overstock in the quiet weeks and run short in the busy ones.
The workable approach is to plan purchasing from the events on the calendar: work out what each event needs, subtract what is already in stock, and order the difference. The stock system provides the second half of that sum, which is an accurate picture of what is on hand and when it expires.
Non-perishable staples are the exception. Oils, dry goods, disposables and packaging can still use minimum levels because they are used across events and do not spoil quickly.
- Plan perishables from the event list, not from a par level
- Use minimum levels for non-perishable staples and disposables
- Subtract on-hand stock before ordering for an event
- Record what was left over so the next event starts from real numbers
Perishable stock, expiry and cancellations
Ingredients with short lives are the main financial risk. A cancelled or reduced event leaves purchased stock that was planned for a specific date, and the clock keeps running. Knowing what is in stock and when it expires is the difference between reusing it in another event and throwing it away.
Recording batch or delivery date and expiry on receipt allows first-expired-first-out rotation, which is the correct rule for food. It only works when the person taking from the cold room can see which item is next, so labelling and location discipline matter as much as the data.
Expiry alerts a few days ahead are more useful in catering than alerts weeks ahead, because the shelf lives are shorter. They turn a discovery into a decision, such as adding the item to a menu, freezing it, or using it in staff meals.
Equipment that goes out and comes back
Chafing dishes, serving platters, glassware, linen, urns, tables and cutlery all leave for a venue and are supposed to return. A caterer with a busy season loses items in small numbers that add up, usually because nobody recorded what went out or what came back.
Recording the load-out and the return for each event is enough to spot what is missing while there is still time to ask the venue. A short check at each end costs minutes and pays for itself the first time a set of expensive items is recovered.
For larger or more valuable items, treating them as assets with a location and a check-out record gives a history of where they went. That makes recurring losses at particular venues visible, which is otherwise only a feeling.
Dry store, cold room, freezer and vehicle
Stock lives in several places with different shelf lives: a dry store, a cold room, a freezer, sometimes a rented kitchen, and the vehicle on the day. Each one is a location, and a single total for an ingredient hides the fact that half of it is somewhere it cannot be used tomorrow.
Recording transfers, such as moving items from the cold room to the vehicle for an event, keeps the location totals accurate. It also gives a natural moment to check the expiry of what is being loaded.
In StockFlow, ingredients and supplies can carry batch numbers, expiry dates and per-location minimum levels with low-stock and expiry alerts, and stock can be moved between locations as recorded transfers. Recipe costing and menu planning are not part of this and are handled elsewhere.
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