The best inventory management tools for wine shops and restaurants

Updated on December 6, 2022

Managing inventory is never easy for a restaurant owner or wine merchant: keeping track of what's coming in and going out, knowing when to recommend without running out of stock... Whether it's for wine or for the products needed for the menu, it is essential to keep track of your stocks to ensure a complete offer to your customers and avoid frustration.

Use specialized software for inventory management

By equipping yourself with the right tools, you can ensure that nothing is missed and that you correctly manage your inventory. Monitoring via an excel spreadsheet or even a sheet of paper quickly leaves room for errors and oversights. With digital tools, there are faster and more reliable solutions to control all the bottles coming in and out of stock and to know the right moments to recommend.

Digital tools allow you to gain in reliability and also to save a lot of time since many tasks are automated or even eliminated. Saving time on your administrative tasks means more time to devote to the quality of your service, your product selections and your cooking. We have selected a few tools from the wide range of digital inventory management solutions available.

For wine inventory management

For wine inventory management, there is the toolSomm'itwhich is a digital sommelier that helps you build a wine list, select wines, monitor the performance of wine sales and, above all, control your cellar stocks.

The advantage of this tool is that it allows you to monitor your wine sales, while alerting you when there is a need to recommend. It is specific for wine and is therefore adapted to the management of your cellar. This advantage is also its disadvantage since it will not allow you to follow the stocks of the other products of your restaurant, those necessary for your menus, your other drinks, etc...

For global inventory management

If you need a more global inventory management tool (management of all products), we recommendThe Addition. L'Addition is a cash register system that goes far beyond inventory management. This tool also includes the order taking, the cashing, a reservation system. The fact that it is so complete makes it easy to use and manage for its inventory management functionality. With one click, you can register the quantity entries as well as their price. You will also have a reference quantity to define which corresponds to the quantity from which you need to replenish your stocks. You can also indicate the outgoing stock corresponding to breakage or expired products, etc... Finally, the fact that this tool is also linked to the order taking tool allows the waiter to know directly when taking the order if a dish is available in the kitchen or not.

In the same genre, there is also the Easilys tool, which also allows to easily manage the entry and exit of stock. This tool is not a cash register but it is also complete since it allows the management of menus and recipes in the restaurant, which is also very important for the management of stocks to know the quantities of each product.

Some basic rules of stock management

So you have an idea of the digital tools that exist to manage stocks and their functionalities. In spite of this automation, you still have to follow some basic rules for your stock management:

regularly check if the real stock is the one indicated on the tool. It can always happen that you forget to manually enter or remove stock.
follow the "first in, first out" rule to avoid certain products from going out of date and to succeed in selling off your stocks, especially when you want to renew your card
anticipate your reference quantities: it is possible that the reference quantity varies for similar products if the suppliers are different and their delivery speed can vary according to the supplier. It is therefore necessary to define them taking into account all these factors and potential hazards.
For products subject to seasonality, indicate it on the card so as not to raise false hopes in your customers.

You have all the cards in hand to have a good management of your stocks and avoid wasting too much time. To avoid wasting time on other management tasks, there are many other tools that are indispensable to restaurant ownersfor the management of recruitment, reservation, supply, etc...

For example, to supply you with wine,Les Grappes Prooffers restaurant professionals direct access to a selection of wine growers, while providing them with advice onhow to create a wine list and how to make a wine selection.