Best Restaurant Inventory Management Software for 2023

Monthly Software Fee:

• Operator (includes 20 invoice scans): $179
• Professional (includes 100 invoice scans): $249
• Ultimate (includes 300 invoice scans): $399

One-time Installation Fee: For month-to-month users, there is a $500 one-time installation fee. None for annual subscribers.

MarketMan integrates with many 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

• 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 configured faster. This allows the busiest of restaurant operators to set up the integral software with ease.
• 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. This, along with ingredient-level costing, also allows you to pinpoint ingredients you can attack for lower pricing when communicating with your vendor.
• 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 10 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. MarketMan will even alert you if you overpaid on a vendor invoice and help you set up a crest request to send to the vendor.
• 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.

Getting Lightspeed’s inventory tools requires first subscribing to the Lightspeed Restaurant POS. The inventory tools described above are only available in Lightspeed’s higher-level subscription tiers. The Starter subscription has much simpler inventory tracking tools and a lower monthly cost, though Essentials users can add advanced inventory management for a custom-quoted fee.

Currently, Lightspeed offers four subscription tiers:

Monthly POS Software Fee:

• Starter: $69 (advanced inventory is extra and custom-quoted)
• Essential: $189 (inventory included)
• Premium: $399 (inventory included)
• Enterprise: Custom-quoted

One-time Installation Fee: Optional, custom quote needed

Most Lightspeed users self-install this iPad-based POS system. But if you have a complex building or simply want some help, you can get a Lightspeed technician to assist you onsite for a custom-quoted fee.

Lightspeed Inventory only integrates with its own Lightspeed POS system. Contact Lightspeed for more information.

• One-click reordering: As you sell items throughout the day, Lightspeed Restaurant 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 and then submit them all with one click in your back-office dashboard. Lightspeed Restaurant 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. This helps avoid customers who will order items and then be told they are no longer available, a major pain point in restaurant operations.

To get Xtrachef by Toast, you’ll first need to sign up for the Toast POS. Pricing for the Toast POS starts at $0 per month for small restaurants that only need up to two terminals. Currently, Toast offers four POS subscription tiers.

Monthly Software POS Fee:

• Quick Start Bundle: $0 (Pay-as-you-go)
• Core: $69
• Growth: $165
• Custom Pricing: Custom quote needed

You can typically self-install a simple Toast POS system following Toast’s excellent online tutorials and guides. For more complex installations, you’ll need on-site assistance, which requires a custom quote from Toast.

Currently, adding xtraChef by Toast to your POS requires a custom quote. You’ll need to talk to a Toast sales representative to get a complete idea of your total costs.

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. Though xtraChef by Toast does integrate with several accounting tools, including QuickBooks (both desktop and online versions), Sage, Ctuit, Restaurant365, and more.

• 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 of misreading 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.
• Accounts payable automation: Anyone who has run a restaurant knows the difficulty of finding an old, physical invoice you need. Lost invoices can cost businesses money, and not being able to find one is an anxiety-inducing problem to have. xtraCHEF digitizes invoices in the cloud, where they can be easily searched on desktop and mobile devices.

Crunchtime doesn’t list pricing publicly; you’ll need to contact them for a custom quote. The drawback is, of course, that every custom quote takes time and it can be hard to tell if you are getting a good deal. On the other hand, a custom quote lets you customize your software and only pay for the tools you’ll actually use.

Monthly Software Fee: Custom quote needed
One-time Installation Fees: Custom quote needed

Crunchtime integrates with more than 1,000 different software platforms. Currently, it lists the following restaurant 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 what 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. This then leads into the detailed inventory Crunchtime offers, allowing you to attack losses on items in a reliably quick manner.
• 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 and even integrates with Apple Watches so information can be relayed immediately to those who need it most.
• Counter: This app is available on different app stores for mobile download and is a great tool for in-depth inventory management. You can utilize this app to have multiple users take inventory on the same count sheet, reducing time spent in total. You can sync with all accounts to get real-time data, and a database of named items and UPC make this app very user-friendly.
• 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. This reduces mistakes, which in turn reduces food waste.
• 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.

Monthly Software Fee: Custom quote needed
One-time Installation Fees: Custom quote needed

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

• Agilysys
• Aireus
• Arryved
• Book4Time
• Clover
• Coretech (coming soon)
• ForeTees
• foreUP
• Gateway
• Infor POS
• Jonas Club Software
• KMIT
• Maestro POS
• NCR Aloha Essentials
• NCR Aloha Cloud
• Northstar-2 Way (coming soon)
• MICROS
• POSitouch
• ResortSuite
• Revel
• ROLLER (coming soon)
• SalesVU
• Shopify
• Silverware
• SpotOn
• Springer Miller
• Square
• Squirrel
• Vivaticket

One-way Interface Integrations

• Brink
• Club Caddie
• Clubessential
• Club Prophet
• GoTab (coming soon)
• Heartland Restaurant
• Jonas Encore
• Lightspeed
• Mashgin
• Ready Theatre Systems
• RPOWER
• Future POS
• POSitouch
• Restaurant Manager
• SkyTab
• Siriusware
• SMS Teres
• Toast
• Truffle

• 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.

Monthly Software Fee: Custom quote needed
One-time Installation Fee: Custom quote needed

• 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 to update your counts when you regain connectivity.
• Flexible vendor payments: Craftable’s Payments module lets you set up automated payments to your vendors. You connect a bank account and 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.

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.