Best Restaurant Inventory Management Software for 2023

Marketman’s pricing is transparent; unlike a lot of their competitors. So users know exactly what to budget for. Marketman also offers month-to-month or annual subscriptions, so you can use the system as long as you like. Though you will get a 15% discount on your subscription fees if you pay annually. There are three subscription tiers, and they all include POS integration at no extra cost. Though each vendor integration costs an additional $25 per month.

MarketMan integrates with several popular restaurant POS systems, including:

• Square
• Toast
• Lightspeed
• Revel
• TouchBistro
• Clover
• Eposability
• Redcat
• Lolly
• Ordyx
• TabletPOS
• Squirrel
• Qu
• MobileBytes
• Maitre’D
• Lavu
• Kounta
• Gastrofix
• EZ Dine
• Clover
• Aloha
• Tray
• Micros
• POSitouch
• iKentoo

All MarketMan memberships include a dedicated account manager and one-on-one training sessions. Since MarketMan is cloud-based, you can operate it on Windows and Mac computers and Android and iOS mobile devices. You can further streamline your restaurant operation by integrating your MarketMan software with compatible accounting software: QuickBooks, Sage, or Xero.

MarketMan’s standout features include:

• One-on-one setup: When you sign up for MarketMan, you’ll meet your dedicated account representative. Your rep will walk you through your account setup, even assisting with the data entry to get your system running faster.
• Maximum food cost threshold: With MarketMan, you can set a maximum food cost threshold for each recipe. If ingredient costs go up, your MarketMan dashboard will alert you. So, you can either raise your menu price, find another supplier, or adjust your recipe.
• PO management: MarketMan software sends your orders via email directly to sales reps. You can also require the owner, executive chef, or general manager to be carbon-copied on all new orders. To receive invoices, you can input them manually or scan physical invoices with a smartphone, and the MarketMan team will enter them within 24 hours.
• Vendor integrations: MarketMan has prebuilt direct integrations with ten mainline distributors like US Foods and Sysco. So you can place and track orders and request credits directly from your MarketMan dashboard. An Ultimate level subscription includes two vendor integrations. Otherwise, each vendor integration costs $25 per month.
• Staff task tracking: In the MarketMan dashboard, you can assign specific access levels to employees, enabling more staff to assist with large tasks like weekly physical counts. Enlist bartenders, line cooks, servers, and supervisors to count various stock areas. The software will prompt them if any numbers appear erroneous and send you an email if they override these prompts, so you can still keep personal tabs on your stock.
• Cookbook and recipe management: MarketMan can compile all of your restaurant’s recipes into an easy-to-navigate cookbook. You enter ingredients, portion sizes, instructions, and photographs, and MarketMan takes care of the formatting. Your staff can access cookbooks via computers, phones, and internet-connected tablets, or you can print hard copies. The cookbook is an excellent feature for ensuring consistency across multiple locations and creating accurate training materials for your staff.

MarketMan is a powerful, easy-to-use tool. But it currently cannot auto-86 items in your POS as you sell out of them. For that, you’ll need a POS-built system like Lightspeed U-Series or Revel.

The Lightspeed U-Series inventory tools are only available on the LightSpeed U-Series POS. So you’ll need to budget for the full POS cost along with the cost of the inventory tools. The U-Series pricing is in two parts: a baseline monthly software fee plus a monthly per-terminal fee. The inventory module is included in the Pro and Pro Plus tiers; Core subscribers will need to get a custom-quoted fee for the inventory tools.

These inventory tools are only available on the Lightspeed Restaurant U-Series POS. Contact Lightspeed for more information.

Visit Lightspeed

• One-click reordering: As you sell items throughout the day, the Lightspeed Restaurant U-Series depletes your on-hand inventory count. As supplies dwindle, your POS sends low stock alerts and generates suggested orders from your suppliers. You can review these orders, then submit them all with one click in your back-office dashboard. The Lightspeed Restaurant U-Series is the only tool on this list with a one-click reordering feature.
• Smartphone scanning: You can download the Upserve Inventory App from the App Store and Google Play and transform your smartphone camera into a barcode scanner to receive and count inventory items.
• Color-coded order alerts: Orders change color in your inventory dashboard, so you can see at a glance when a vendor order has been submitted, received by the vendor, delivered, and completed. You’ll see your order status change in real-time as suppliers open and read your order emails and text messages.
• Offline functionality: We all know there is zero internet connection in the walk-in cooler. Lightspeed leverages the POS system’s robust offline functionality to support inventory counts on mobile devices. The system saves updated item quantities in your mobile device’s local cache when you lose internet connection. When you regain internet access, a simple refresh syncs your changes with the cloud. You’ll know your data is updated when the “Changes Saved” banner appears at the top of the screen.
• Comprehensive reporting: Since Lightspeed U-Series inventory software directly integrates with the POS, the reporting features are highly detailed. You can see dynamic food cost and usage reports as well as menu optimization reports that draw your attention to high-cost, slow-selling menu items that drag your menu down.
• Auto-86’ing: Since the inventory tools are built into the POS, the Lightspeed U-Series can automatically 86 menu items that you sell out of. Many freestanding inventory tools like MarketMan lack this feature.

The features in the Lightspeed U-Series are robust, but they only work on a single POS system. If you need an inventory tool that integrates with a POS you already have, look at freestanding tools like MarketMan, CrunchTime!, or Yellow Dog. They all integrate with multiple popular POS systems.

CrunchTime! provides custom price quotes to prospective customers. You’ll need to contact the CrunchTime! sales team directly.

CrunchTime! integrates with more than 1,000 different platforms. Currently, it lists the following POS integrations:

• Agilysys
• Franpos
• Heartland XPIENT
• Maitre’D
• Mashgin
• MICROS
• Aloha POS
• NEXTEP Systems
• NorthStar
• Par
• POSitouch
• QuickService
• SICOM
• SpeedLine
• SpotOn
• TASK
• Toast
• Vista

If you don’t see your system listed, reach out to CrunchTime!. It may have an integration in development.

• Detailed analytics: You can customize your CrunchTime! dashboard and alerts to track which data you see. POS integration allows you to track profit and loss (P&L) in real time, so you can make critical business decisions in time to impact your bottom line.
• CrunchTime! Impact: This attached mobile reporting app shows you up to 50 KPI metrics on any mobile device. You can set custom alerts and view data from multiple locations from a single dashboard. Impact works on Android and iOS devices, including Apple Watches.
• Physical count on mobile devices: Your staff can count inventory on any Wi-Fi-enabled device by logging into the CrunchTime! site. You can also download the Counter app from the Apple App Store or Google’s Play store to process physical inventory counts.
• Task-specific apps for team management: You can extend your restaurant’s efficiency with custom-designed smartphone apps for each area of your restaurant. In addition to the traditional counting app, CrunchTime!’s Line Check app helps your kitchen and management team perform quality control checks. Kitchen Sync generates detailed prep lists and syncs with your inventory to track products as they are prepared. You can further expand your CrunchTime! system with employee scheduling and team messaging through the TeamWorx app.
• Order automation and forecasts: Your CrunchTime! system can generate suggested orders based on your par levels and historical use. The system will also use your actual sales data to forecast future needs. Detailed forecasts tell your kitchen team how much food to prepare to meet expected traffic levels, preventing waste and spoilage.

If you’re not wrangling a staff of 40 or more or juggling multiple locations, you’ll probably be happier with inventory software that’s built into your POS, such as Lightspeed Restaurant U-Series or Revel Systems.

This inventory tool currently only integrates with the Toast POS. Although you could use xtraCHEF without POS integration, you’ll get the most benefit from using it with the POS. The pricing below is for the Toast POS. The xtraCHEF inventory module is offered at custom-quoted rates, so you’ll need to contact xtraCHEF for pricing information.

The only POS integration that xtraCHEF publicly lists is with the top-ranked restaurant POS Toast. With a free Starter POS subscription and pay-as-you-go hardware available at no upfront cost, it is a low-cost way to add a POS with excellent inventory management tools to your restaurant operation.

• Rebate program: xtraCHEF includes a unique tool that none of the others on this list offer—a manufacturer’s rebate program. Your xtraCHEF system will check your orders against manufacturers’ rebates available on the Buyer’s Edge platform. These rebates help ensure you’ve gotten the best price on absolutely everything and earn some cash back whenever possible.
• Visual interface: xtraCHEF’s dashboard is designed to be visual first. Reports condense complex cost analysis into easy-to-read charts, so there is no chance to misread your metrics. Recipe entry and order count screens are similarly pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate.
• Invoice scanning: Like MarketMan, xtraCHEF includes invoice scanning tools for easy invoice entry. Unlike MarketMan, however, with xtraCHEF there is no limit to how many invoices you scan each month. The more you scan, the more intelligent your xtraCHEF system becomes. Scanned invoices also provide the basis for building your ingredient inventory, speeding your setup time.
• EDI functions: Like MarketMan, CrunchTime!, and Yellow Dog, xtraCHEF includes a full EDI connection to place orders and place payments with suppliers directly from your xtraCHEF dashboard.

Like Lightspeed U-Series and Revel, xtraCHEF by Toast only integrates with one POS system. In this case, it is Toast, which frequently tops our annual ranking of the best restaurant POS systems. But if you are not in the market for a POS and only want inventory tools that integrate with your existing POS, then try MarketMan, CrunchTime!, or Yellow Dog.

To get Revel’s inventory tools requires getting the Revel Systems POS. Pricing for the POS starts at $99 per terminal monthly, with a two-terminal minimum. The system also requires a three-year contract. But inventory management is included in the baseline system. So, depending on your needs, the Revel POS could be less expensive than Lightspeed U-Series or Toast.

This inventory module only integrates with the Revel Systems POS. For full pricing and more information, visit Revel Systems.

Visit Revel

• Customizable user permissions: Revel Systems supports highly customizable user permissions. You can give individual users access to specific functions like inventory counting without giving them access to every report or managerial function. So, you can assign weekly liquor counts to bartenders and dry goods counts to line cooks without compromising overall information security.
• Blind inventory counts: You can choose to block the “expected count” column on inventory counting worksheets to prevent your team from copying and pasting old counts. This function is also a great way to prevent fudging numbers to hide theft and breakage.
• PO and vendor management: You can create POs in Revel Systems’ management dashboard and email them directly to suppliers. Revel’s PO interface is slightly less automated than Upserve’s. You can generate POs from low stock alerts in Revel, but the system doesn’t do it automatically. But like Upserve, receiving a PO in Revel’s back-office dashboard allows you to update your on-hand quantities as you receive new products.
• Shelf-to-sheet counts: Revel Systems allows you to create physical count sheets that reflect the layout of your restaurant’s storage areas. You can drag-and-drop listed products to arrange them in the same order they appear on your shelves to speed up your physical inventory counts.
• Smartphone counting app: Revel’s Stocktake smartphone app allows your team to take physical inventory counts on iPhones. Divide your restaurant into manageable, easily counted sections, and assign specific count sheets to any trusted employee. Via the Management Console, you can view counts while they are in progress, so you know when you can begin month-end or other accounting procedures.

If you want a POS-built inventory system that is more automated, look at Lightspeed U-Series. If you want additional cost-saving tools in a restaurant POS, then xtraCHEF by Toast is a good option. And if you need an inventory app that integrates with your existing POS, look at MarketMan, CrunchTime!, or Craftable.

Yellow Dog’s pricing is custom quoted. You’ll need to contact Yellow Dog for more information.

Yellow Dog supports two-way interfaces with some POS systems, but only one-way interfaces with others. The main difference is that a two-way interface supports auto-86’ing in your POS, while a one-way interface does not.

Two-way interface integrations include:

• Agilysys
• Aireus
• Arryved
• Book4Time
• Clover
• Concept
• ForeTees
• foreUP
• Gateway
• Gilbarco
• GoTab
• Infor POS
• Jonas Club Software
• KMIT
• Maestro POS
• MM Hayes
• Quickcharge
• Aloha
• Nextep
• MICROS
• POSitouch
• ResortSuite
• Revel
• SalesVU
• Shopify
• Silverware
• SpotOn
• Springer Miller
• Square
• Squirrel
• VenueNext
• Vivaticket

One-way interface integrations

• Brink
• Brunswick
• Club Caddie
• Clubessential
• Club Prophet
• Focus
• Digital Dining
• Dinerware
• Heartland Restaurant
• Jonas Encore
• Lightspeed
• Mashgin
• Northstar
• Ready Theatre Systems
• Rezku
• RPOWER
• Future POS
• POSitouch
• Restaurant Manager
• SkyTab
• Siriusware
• SMS Teres
• Toast
• Total Touch
• Truffle
• Volnate

• Connect to suppliers via EDI: Like xtraCHEF, CrunchTime!, and MarketMan, Yellow Dog Inventory integrates directly with most popular restaurant suppliers via EDI. This integration downloads your vendor invoices automatically and adds them to your inventory system. Set up invoices to be processed automatically or require manager approval before posting. Any new products are added automatically to your Yellow Dog system. It will also send you an email to alert you to cost fluctuations.
  Rugged hardware: You don’t have to rely on smartphones for mobile inventory counting. Yellow Dog sells inventory counting devices that are as user-friendly as smartphones but much more secure and drop-resistant. If you don’t want to spend the money, though, you’ll find Yellow Dog’s inventory counting and reporting apps available on both iOS and Android devices.
• Detailed barcode label printing: Yellow Dog’s barcode printing system supports design templates for an unlimited number of barcode label types. You choose what information to include, from ingredients and price to nutrition information, expiration date, and graphics. Print detailed sales labels for grab-and-go items or shelf labels for your storerooms to speed inventory counting.
• Commissary kitchen support:
  If you supply multiple locations with prepped food from a central kitchen—commonly called a commissary kitchen—you have unique product tracking needs. Yellow Dog allows you to create internal transfers of prepared items like fresh juice blends that deplete your commissary inventory based on the attached ingredients. The recipient location, however, will be internally invoiced for the final, prepped item.
• Freepour integration: Yellow Dog is the only system on this list that integrates with Freepour, an app that counts liquor with barcode scans and an integrated scale. Because of this, there is no chance that your liquor counts will be off. You can know exactly how much wine, beer, and spirits you have served, down to the last drop. The scan and scale combination also speeds bar inventory counts since your staff won’t have to second-guess how many ounces each open bottle contains.

Yellow Dog is a positively massive tool that supports restaurants, hospitals, and stadiums. So, it may be more machine than your restaurant needs. If you want something smaller and just as functional, check out MarketMan. If you want full POS integration—similar to Yellow Dogs’ two-way integrations—you’ll be better off with a POS-based system like Lightspeed Restaurant U-Series, xtraCHEF by Toast, or Revel. Revel comes the closest to matching Yellow Dog’s functionality.

Craftable supports two platforms for counting food (Foodager) and for counting bar supplies (Bevager). You can use only one or both, though the apps are priced separately and prices are custom-quoted. Each is offered at four different subscription tiers, which include slightly different functions:

In addition to the foundational inventory tools, you can add more features at a la carte prices:

• Square
• SpotOn
• Lightspeed
• Aloha
• Cake
• Clover
• Digital Dining
• Dinerware
• Heartland
• Lavu
• 2TouchPOS
• Maitre’D
• MICROS
• MobileBytes
• Ordyx
• PAR
• POSitouch
• Restaurant Manager
• Revel
• HungerRush (formerly Revention)
• Rezku
• Salido
• Squirrel Systems
• Tevalis
• Toast
• TouchBistro
• Union
• WineDirect
• Agilysys
• Boom
• Aireus
• Brigade Society
• SmartTab POS
• Jonas Club Software
• Tabit
• Shopify
• Silverware POS

• Robust accounting integrations: Craftable integrates with the widest range of accounting software of any system on this list. You can choose from Acumatica, Aptech, Bill, Compeat, CYMA Accounting, Epicor, Sage Intacct, M3, Microsoft Dynamics, QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online, Realtime, Restaurant 365, InfoSync, Oracle NetSuite, Northstar, or Data Plus.
• Bar and food inventory tools: Craftable supports two separate—and popular—inventory platforms; Foodager and Bevager. Foodager includes tools for managing food inventory and Bevager has specialized tools for bar operations. You can use both together or only use one, so only pay for the tools you need.
• A la carte pricing: With add-in pricing for invoice processing, POS and accounting integration, and digital payments, users can control their subscription costs with Craftable. If you have a tight month, you can save on your subscription fees by inputting your invoices manually and printing your own checks. If you would prefer to automate these tasks in Craftable, you’ll only pay for what you use.
• Offline functionality: You can take physical inventory counts on any web-enabled device from a tablet to a laptop or smartphone. You can run counts by logging into your account on the Foodager or Bevager websites or using the iOS and Android smartphone apps. If you lose internet connectivity during a count, a “sync” button will appear on your counting screen.
• Flexible vendor payments: Craftable’s Payments module lets you set up automated payments to your vendors. You connect a bank account, then you can pay your suppliers via ACH payment, which takes three to four business days, paper check—subject to mail delays, or electronic check, which is immediate. With this module, it is virtually impossible to miss a payment.

Craftable has lots of great tools. But you have to put them together yourself. If you want more of an all-in-one solution, we recommend POS-built inventory management software like Lightspeed Restaurant U-Series, xtraCHEF by Toast, or Revel Systems. If you aren’t in the market for a full-in POS, though, try MarketMan instead; it integrates with several popular restaurant POS systems.

Restaurant inventory lists are typically based on your restaurant’s recipes. So, the best place to start creating a restaurant inventory list is to write out all of your food and beverage recipes. From there, list all the ingredients in each recipe. Forecast how much of each item you think you will sell in a week and use this total to generate your order pars.

You can also use your restaurant inventory list to count your physical inventory. To make your counts faster, list your ingredients in the order they are stocked in your storage rooms and walk-in refrigerators. To make your counts even faster, use an inventory app like the ones ranked in the article above.

The best system for measuring your restaurant stock is a weekly physical inventory count combined with real-time inventory tracking in your POS. Weekly physical counts, combined with real-time ingredient-level inventory tracking lets you see discrepancies between what you ordered and what you’re selling immediately. By tracking your stock so closely, you’ll be able to identify waste, theft, and breakage in enough time to impact your bottom line. For real-time inventory tracking, our top recommendation is MarketMan.

Every restaurant needs an inventory management system, whether that system is a monthly count tracked on a spreadsheet, or a full-spectrum inventory management app. You will never be able to control your costs successfully without some type of inventory tracking. You need to know how much of the food and beverage you buy is getting sold before it spoils. The only way to know that is to count it.

A restaurant inventory management system tracks incoming and outgoing food, beverage, and paper products in a restaurant. This tracking helps restaurant managers and owners see their actual costs for individual ingredient types and make adjustments to their restaurant operations that can increase profit margins. A restaurant inventory management system can show you how much food is wasted due to spoilage, what ingredients cost you the most money, and where you need to raise prices to cover your costs.