Inventory and Invoices modules
Restaurant inventory management software
Restaurant inventory management software tracks what is on the shelf, what you bought, and what you used, so food cost becomes a number you can act on instead of a month-end surprise. Smooth Ops covers it with the Inventory module at $25 a month per location, and it pairs naturally with the Invoices module, which keeps purchase prices current from the invoices you already receive. Built by operators with 14+ years of operations across 20+ locations. Try it for 30 days free, no credit card.
What inventory software has to get right
An inventory system earns its keep in two moments: the count and the order. If counting is slow, it stops happening, and every number downstream goes stale. If ordering is guesswork, the walk-in fills up with money. The Inventory module is built around those two moments.
- Count by shelf area on your device, no clipboard math. You walk the shelf in the order the shelf is stocked, not in the order a spreadsheet lists items.
- Par levels build your reorder list per vendor. Count what is there, and the app turns the gap between on-hand and par into an order list for each vendor.
- Share a count link so anyone on the team can help count items. Splitting the walk-in, the dry storage, and the line across three people turns a two-hour count into twenty minutes each.
- On Square, sales, cash, and inventory import automatically through the Square integration, so counts and sales live in the same app.
The count is the input. Usage is the answer.
Here is the month-end math a clean count unlocks. All figures are example figures for a single-location restaurant, used for illustration. Your own numbers will differ, which is the point.
| Line item | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Beginning inventory | Example figure: count on the first of the month | $8,200 |
| Plus purchases | Example figure: every vendor invoice received during the month | $11,400 |
| Minus ending inventory | Example figure: count on the last day of the month | $7,900 |
| Usage (cost of food used) | $8,200 + $11,400 - $7,900 | $11,700 |
Against $38,000 of food sales for the same month, $11,700 of usage is a 30.8% food cost. That sits inside the healthy 28% to 35% range Toast cites, but the range is wide on purpose: where you land inside it is worth real money. Every two points of food cost on $38,000 of monthly sales is $760 a month, about $9,120 a year. So if your recipes say the food you sold should have cost around 28.8% and your counts say you actually used 30.8%, that two-point gap between theoretical and actual is $760 a month walking out the door as waste, over-portioning, or theft. Set against the roughly 5% pre-tax margin the National Restaurant Association reports for a typical restaurant, that gap is often the difference between a good month and a flat one.
Want to run the recipe side of that math first? The free food cost calculator costs a dish and suggests a target menu price in a couple of minutes. Ready to see your own usage instead of an example? Start now: 30 days free, no credit card.
Counting cadence, and why invoices decide whether counts are honest
Most independent restaurants land on a full count weekly or monthly, with high-value items like proteins and liquor counted more often. Cadence matters less than consistency: a monthly count you always do beats a weekly count you skip half the time, because usage math needs a clean beginning and ending number. The fastest way to make counts consistent is to make them short, which is what counting by shelf area and sharing a count link with the team are for.
The quieter problem is pricing. A count values every item on the shelf, and if those values come from last quarter's price list, the usage number is fiction even when the quantities are perfect. That is why the Inventory module pairs naturally with the Invoices module: snap a photo of each invoice, the AI reads every line, matches it to your catalog, and flags any price that moved since last time. You approve every price change before it updates, and the original invoice photo is saved and easy to search. Your purchases total comes straight from the invoices themselves, at the prices you actually paid.
Put the two together and the usage formula runs on real numbers on both ends: counts that happen because they are fast, and purchase values that are current because they come off this week's invoices. That is how you find out whether your 30.8% is really 30.8%.
Built for one location or twenty
Smooth Ops is priced per location, so it scales down to a single independent and up to a group of 2 to 20 locations without a sales call. Inventory is $25 a month per location, everything is $99 a month per location, and the details are on the pricing page. Month to month, no contract, cancel anytime.
For groups, the useful part is sameness: every location counts the same shelf areas against the same par levels, so numbers are comparable across sites instead of depending on whoever built each location's spreadsheet. There is no implementation project. Connect Square where you run it, and sales, cash, and inventory import automatically. Set up shelf areas and pars, and the first count can happen this week. Running more than one site? The guide to food cost software for restaurant groups covers the multi-location picture in detail.
One app, nine modules, start with one
Smooth Ops is one back-office app with nine modules: Food Cost, Invoices, Sourcing, Payments, Cash, Inventory, Tips, and Tasks. Each module is $25 a month per location, everything together is $99 a month per location, and Sourcing comes free with Food Cost and Invoices. Start with one module, add more later. The QuickBooks P&L import ties usage and margins back to the books. Here is how the modules around inventory fit together.
Inventory
Count by shelf area, let par levels build the reorder list per vendor, and share a count link with the team. Details on the Inventory module page.
Invoices
Snap a photo, the AI reads every line and flags any price that moved, and you approve changes before they update. More on the Invoices module page.
Food Cost
Recipes and plate costs, so you have a theoretical number to hold your counted usage against. The guide to recipe costing software covers that side.
On Square?
Sales, cash, and inventory import from Square automatically. There is a whole page on food cost software for Square restaurants if that is your setup.
Restaurant inventory management, answered
How often should a restaurant count inventory?+
Most independent restaurants do a full count weekly or monthly and count high-value or fast-moving items more often. The right cadence is the one your team will actually keep, which is why Smooth Ops lets you count by shelf area on your phone and share a count link so anyone on the team can help. Shorter, more frequent counts beat one heroic quarterly count every time.
Does Smooth Ops inventory work with Square?+
Yes. Sales, cash, and inventory import from Square automatically, so your counts and your sales live in the same app and the usage math does not require exports or spreadsheets.
How much does restaurant inventory management software cost?+
Smooth Ops is $25 a month per module per location, so the Inventory module is $25 a month for a single location. Everything together is $99 a month per location, and Sourcing comes free with Food Cost and Invoices. Month to month, no contract, cancel anytime. 30 days free, no credit card.
Can I run Smooth Ops inventory across multiple locations?+
Yes. Pricing is per location, so a group of 2 to 20 locations pays $25 a month per location for Inventory, or $99 a month per location for everything. Each location runs the same count process on the same par levels, and there is no implementation project: connect Square, set up shelf areas and pars, and start counting.
What is the difference between inventory management software and recipe costing software?+
Inventory management software tracks what is on the shelf, what you bought, and what you used between counts. Recipe costing software tracks what each dish should cost from its ingredients. You need both to compare actual usage against theoretical usage, which is why Smooth Ops sells them as modules in one app: Inventory for counts and reorder lists, Food Cost for recipes and plate costs.
Sources and notes
Every benchmark on this page comes from the sources below and is reviewed quarterly. The usage example is built from example figures marked as such, not from a real customer. If anything here is out of date, tell us at team@smoothopsapp.com and we will fix it.
- A healthy restaurant food cost percentage typically falls between 28% and 35%. Source: Toast, How to Calculate Food Cost Percentage, as of July 2026.
- Food and labor each account for approximately 33 cents of every dollar in restaurant sales, and the typical restaurant's pre-tax profit margin is roughly 5%. Source: National Restaurant Association, Bottom line impact of rising costs for restaurants, as of July 2026.
Know your real usage this month
Count the shelf this week, snap the invoices behind it, and see what you actually used against what you sold. Start with one module at $25 a month per location. Month to month, no contract.
30 days free, no credit card