Sunday night with a calculator
The head chef or the owner sits down on Sunday with the week's function sheets. Five events, each with its own menu. They work out how much beef, how many kilos of new potatoes, how many bunches of herbs, how much cream. Then they split it by supplier, remember that the fishmonger needs orders by noon for next-day delivery and does not deliver on Monday, and that the greengrocer has a minimum order.
Orders go in by text, email and a supplier's website. By Wednesday, numbers have changed on two events and someone phones in a top-up. On Friday, a whole case of something turns up that is already in the walk-in from last week, because nobody checked.
Menus do not turn into orders on their own
Ordering needs the recipes, the numbers, the stock you already hold and each supplier's rules, all at once. Those live in different places.
- Recipe quantities are not linked to event numbers, so every order starts with arithmetic.
- Stock levels are known roughly, by looking in the walk-in, not recorded.
- Suppliers have different cut-offs, delivery days and pack sizes.
- Number changes after the order are handled by phone and not recorded.
- Nobody compares what was ordered with what was used.
The arithmetic itself is not hard. What makes it slow is that it has to be redone from scratch every week, by the person with the most knowledge of the menus, at the moment they are also planning prep and staff. Any change after the order is sent turns into a phone call and a note on a scrap of paper.
Pack sizes quietly cause waste too. A recipe needs 600ml of double cream per batch, but it comes in 2 litre tubs. Across five events, the total might fit neatly into three tubs, or it might leave most of a fourth tub open in the walk-in. Nobody works that out on a Sunday night.
Where it leaks
Over-ordering is the safe choice under pressure, so the walk-in fills up and some of it is thrown away. Under-ordering leads to top-up trips and emergency buys at a higher price. Both take time from someone senior who should be doing something else.
You also lose sight of supplier prices. When orders are sent in a rush by text, nobody notices a price change until the invoice, and by then the event is priced and gone.
Draft orders from confirmed events
- Each dish links to its recipe quantities, and each ingredient links to a supplier product with its pack size and price.
- Confirmed events feed in their menus and current numbers.
- The system totals ingredients by day needed, taking off what you record as in stock.
- It builds a draft order per supplier, rounded to pack sizes and timed to each supplier's cut-off and delivery days.
- The chef reviews and adjusts the drafts, then sends them by email or through the supplier's ordering system where there is an integration.
- When numbers change, a top-up draft is created for the difference, with the reason attached.
- Deliveries are checked in against the order, and supplier invoices are matched in Xero or QuickBooks before they are paid.
| Supplier | Cut-off | Delivers | Draft built from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butcher | 2pm day before | Tue to Sat | Meat by event and day |
| Fishmonger | Noon day before | Tue to Fri | Fish by event and day |
| Greengrocer | 8pm day before | Mon to Sat | Produce by day, minimum order checked |
| Wholesaler | Weekly | Wednesday | Dry goods for the whole week |
Stock does not need to be perfect to be useful. A quick count of the main items before ordering is enough to stop the obvious duplicates.
Ordering as a review, not a project
On Sunday, the drafts are waiting. The chef checks them, adjusts the few things that need judgement, and sends. Mid-week changes turn into small top-ups with a note of why. Deliveries are checked against what was ordered, and short deliveries are recorded.
Over a few months, you can compare what you ordered for each event with its price per head, which is where the useful conversations about menus and pricing start.
Do these sound like your week?
- Orders are worked out by hand from function sheets.
- Top-ups are phoned in mid-week because numbers changed.
- Stock turns up that you already had.
- Supplier price changes are noticed on the invoice, not the order.