Inventory

Track what you have, record what you receive, and keep your PAR order sheet accurate — so you never run out of what matters and never over-order what doesn't.

How inventory flows through the app

Inventory is a weekly cycle. Each step feeds the next, so accuracy at every stage is what keeps your PAR order sheet, usage averages, and EOM financials clean.

1. Stock Count — count everything in the store except retail merchandise.
2. Order Tracker — record what you received from each delivery.
3. PAR Order Sheet — reviews on-hand vs. PAR to tell you what to order.
4. Internal Transfers — record any product moved between store locations.
5. Merch Count — count retail merchandise (weekly and at EOM).
6. EOM Count — full stock and merch count to close the month.

1. Stock Count — counting what's on hand

A stock count is a full physical count of everything in the store except retail merchandise. That's tea, sugar, fruit, coffee, dairy, consumables, cups, lids, straws, jugs, snacks, food items, etc.

Stock counts are done once a week. This count is the foundation of everything downstream — your PAR order sheet, usage averages, and EOM financials all depend on an accurate weekly count.

Steps:

• Open Inventory → Stock Count.
• Select the correct store and date.
• Work through each category and enter your on-hand quantities.
• Pay close attention to the Count By field for each item. If counting by CS (case), quantities must be entered in .25 increments — because a case breaks into 4 units, a quarter case is the smallest meaningful unit. Entering a whole number when you're partway through a case will overstate your on-hand and may prevent the PAR order sheet from triggering an order when it should.
• Use Save Draft if you need to pause mid-count. A draft is not a submission — it will not update your PAR order sheet or usage averages until you submit. Come back and submit as soon as the count is complete.
• Hit Submit when the count is finished.

Note on units: most items use qtyInCases = qty / caseDivisor when entered in EA, or qty directly when entered in CS. Snack waste and giveaway overrides are the rare exception — see Key Formulas → Case divisor and Snack waste pack overrides.

Why accuracy matters: every number you enter here feeds your 4-week usage average, which is what your PARs are based on. One bad count skews the average and can cause over-ordering or stockouts for weeks.

2. Order Tracker — recording what you received

Every time you receive a product you ordered off your PAR order sheet, submit an Order Tracker form. This tells the system what product came in so it can calculate accurate on-hand quantities between weekly counts.

Enter what you actually received — not what you ordered. If the delivery was short, back-ordered, or substituted, record reality. Entering the order quantity instead of the received quantity will make your on-hand look higher than it is and throw off your PAR order sheet.

Steps:

• Open Inventory → Order Tracker.
• Select the correct store and set the date to the date of delivery — this is critical. The system uses this date to calculate what was on hand at the time of your weekly count. A wrong date creates a gap in the data.
• Enter each item received and the quantity.
• Submit the form.

Best practice: submit the order tracker as soon as the truck is received. You can submit it after the weekly count is taken — but the date must be correct. Submitting late with the right date is fine; submitting on time with the wrong date is what breaks things.

Why this matters: the PAR order sheet works off two inputs — your weekly count and your order tracker. If a delivery isn't recorded, the sheet thinks you have less product than you do and may suggest unnecessary orders. The inverse — recording a delivery you never received — inflates on-hand and causes stockouts.

3. PAR Order Sheet — knowing what to order

The PAR order sheet is the output of your weekly count and order tracker. It compares your current on-hand quantity against your PAR (the minimum amount of product you want on hand for a week) and tells you what needs to be ordered.

When on-hand drops below the PAR, the sheet flags that item for ordering.

How PARs are set

PARs are set manually by your GM or owner using the 4-week usage average as a reference. The system calculates the average automatically — your job is to look at that number and set a PAR that makes sense for the item.

General guidelines:

• Core commodities (tea, sugar, etc.) — set PARs generously above the usage average. Running out of these stops production entirely. It is always better to have more than you need.
• Non-core items (chocolate bars, specialty syrups, etc.) — set PARs at or close to the usage average. These are lower stakes and over-ordering ties up cash and storage.
• Seasonality — usage averages shift between summer and offseason. Revisit PARs when you move into a new season.

Examples:

• If your 4-week usage average for chocolate bars is 0.25 CS, set the PAR at 0.25 CS.
• If your average for tea is 3 CS, set the PAR at 4 CS to absorb a big week.

Math reference: Key Formulas → PAR level and 4-week usage average.

4. Internal Transfers — moving product between stores

If product needs to move from one store location to another, it must be recorded as an internal transfer. This applies to all franchisees operating more than one location.

Why this matters: if you physically move product without submitting a transfer form, Store A's inventory stays inflated and Store B's stays deflated. Both stores' PAR order sheets, usage averages, and COGS will be wrong — and those errors carry into EOM.

Steps:

• Open Inventory → Internal Transfer.
• Enter your name.
• Select the Source location (the store sending product).
• Select the Destination location (the store receiving product).
• Enter the items and quantities being transferred.
• Submit the form.

The transfer is not immediate — the destination store must approve it first. Inventory does not move on either store's books until the destination store approves the submission. Once approved, the item is removed from the source store's inventory and added to the destination store's. Because there is no further confirmation step after approval, accuracy on the original submission is critical — a wrong quantity or wrong item will silently move inventory off one store's books and onto another.

How it affects COGS: the source store loses that product from their inventory value. The destination store gains it. This means COGS is correctly attributed to the store that actually uses the product — but only if the transfer is recorded.

Math reference: Key Formulas → COGS — beginning + purchases − ending. A missed transfer inflates the source store's beginning + ending and deflates the destination's, so COGS lands at the wrong store.

5. Merch Count — counting retail merchandise

A merch count is a separate count specifically for retail merchandise — shirts, hats, branded products, and other items sold at retail. Merch is counted separately from stock because it is a different COGS category and tracked on a different schedule.

• Stock count — weekly.
• Merch count — at EOM (and weekly if your store tracks it that way).

At EOM, both a full stock count and a merch count are required to close the month correctly. The merch count feeds the Merchandise line in the EOM Financial report.

6. Manage Catalog — adding and removing items

The catalog controls which items appear in your stock count, order tracker, and PAR order sheet. Access to Manage Catalog is restricted to owners and GMs.

You can:

• Add new items to the catalog when a new product is introduced.
• Remove items that are permanently discontinued.
• Deactivate items that are temporarily not in use — deactivated items stop appearing in counts and the PAR order sheet without permanently deleting their history.

When to use it: any time a new product is added to your store's lineup, or an item is discontinued. Do not deactivate items just because stock is low — deactivation removes the item from your count entirely.

Audit Log — reviewing and editing past submissions

The audit log gives you a full record of every inventory submission by store. Open Inventory → Audit Log, select the store, and choose the submission type — Inventory (weekly stock counts) or Merch (merchandise counts). All EOM, weekly, and order tracker submissions are visible here and can be edited if a mistake was made.

Variance Report

The variance report flags items where the value swung significantly between the prior EOM and the current EOM. It runs two separate checks:

• EOM Flags — items where the EOM inventory value changed by more than 40% month over month.
• Order Flags — order tracker submissions that deviated by more than 50%.

Each flagged item shows:

• Prior — last month's ending inventory value for that item.
• Current — this month's ending inventory value.
• Change % — the percentage swing between the two: (current − prior) / prior × 100.
• Severity — High, Medium, or Low based on how far outside the threshold the item is.

Flags can be filtered by severity (High / Medium / Low) and by store. Each flagged item has two actions:

• Edit — correct the underlying submission if the count was wrong.
• Clear — dismiss the flag if the variance is legitimate (a large one-time order, a new product being stocked for the first time, etc.).

Why this matters: a high-severity flag almost always means a count was entered incorrectly or an order tracker was submitted with the wrong quantity or date. Use the variance report after every EOM close to catch errors before they carry into the next month's averages.

Related math: Key Formulas → Product shrinkage (used − sold, flagged when drift ≥ 1.0) and COGS (the two-path computation that the EOM close lands on).

Common mistakes to avoid

• Submitting the order tracker with the wrong date — the system uses the date to calculate on-hand at count time. A wrong date creates a data gap that skews the usage average.
• Entering CS quantities as whole numbers — if you're partway through a case, use .25 increments. A whole number overstates on-hand.
• Leaving a count in Save Draft — a draft does not update anything downstream. Always submit before walking away.
• Moving product between stores without an internal transfer form — this silently breaks inventory and COGS for both locations.
• Changing PARs without referencing the usage average — PARs should be intentional, not reactive. Look at the 4-week average first.

Tip: do the count, file the order tracker, and walk the variance report on the same cadence — once a week and once at EOM. Most inventory pain comes from one of those three slipping.