Counting stock by hand

The night

Sunday night. A clipboard, a walk-in with no signal, sixty lines to count, and a spreadsheet waiting after.

Thursday, behind the bar: eight bottles of merlot on the shelf, twelve came in last week, and the register says forty-five glasses. Nobody knows whether that adds up.

Seven in the morning at the back door: four cases of romaine on the invoice, two on the cart, and a driver holding out a pen.

What it costs, in published figures

Nobody publishes what a restaurant loses to waste, heavy pours or a short delivery. No source exists, so there is no figure. Not an amount and not a food-cost percent.

What is published is the rent on the software that does the counting today:

• $249 a month on one inventory maker's first plan. A year: $2,988.
• $350 a location a month on another. A year: $4,200.
• And a connection fee. That second maker's own page says a restaurant on one register also pays the register's maker $50 a location a month for the link between them.

What we build for it

It is the part named Deliveries and Inventory, by Voice, which is quoted in writing.

The count

• The count is said out loud, walking the shelf, in any order: "two cases, three bottles and one about half full". The card reads back what it heard before anything is saved.
• Cases, boxes, bottles and partials are all handled. The system does the sums.
• The walk-in has no signal, so the shelf list is kept on the phone. An item nobody counted is "not counted this week", never zero.
• The same count is always there to tap in.

What the count shows

• Each week: what the recipes say was used, beside what left the shelf, and what the gap cost. Ten gone, nine sold, one to find.
• A gap comes with its possible readings: heavy pours, glasses not rung, a broken bottle, a miscount, a short delivery. It accuses nobody.
• What to order and what to cut back, with the numbers behind it. The chef or the owner approves the list. Nothing is ordered by itself.

The back door

• Whoever meets the truck checks it in on a phone, line by line: here, short, extra, damaged, swapped. The owner signs for what came, not for what the invoice says.
• A picture of the invoice is read and set beside what was ordered and what was checked in.
• What was charged and not accepted is listed as a credit to claim until it is settled. A person sends the note.

Runs today, or built for you

• Built for you: the spoken count, cases and partials, the invoice picture, expected against real, the order list. How well a spoken count and an invoice picture are read is measured in a trial before either ships.
• Runs today, under it: at our co-founder's store, stock that cannot oversell, and a stock record where every count, restock and loss carries a reason, a name and a time. It counts whole things on a shop's shelf, not cases, bottles and partials.
• On the walkthrough now: both are one tap deeper. "Merlot, eight." is the count. "Romaine: two cases here, not four." is the back door.

Where each figure was read

Each on the maker's own page, on October 8, 2026. A published price changes without notice.

• $249 a month: MarketMan, Starter plan, marketman.com/pricing.
• $350 a location a month, and $50 a location a month for the connection to one register: MarginEdge, marginedge.com/pricing.