Inventory Restaurants: Reopening Sites after Temporary Closure

Overview

After a site has been closed for a period a time there are some checks and amendments that may need to be made within Inventory to ensure the site is ready to be used again. This article outlines these checks, and shows how to update where required.

Preparing Sites in Inventory

Updating Stock Period Dates

If the stock period for a site requires updating then an updated stock period end date can be set within the ‘Stock Period Maintenance’ section.

• Within the Stock Management tab select All Options and then Stock Period Maintenance

Fig.1 - Selecting Stock Period Maintenance

• From the Stock Period Maintenance screen select the required Unit from the drop-down menu and then select the current stock period

 
Fig.2 - Selecting a unit and the current stock period

• Within the current stock period the End Date of the period can be adjusted
• Once the new date has been set, Save any changes made

Fig.3 - Adjusting the End Date of the current stock period

If there are multiple stock locations (sites) within a Unit then this date change will apply to all.

Upon approval of the extended stock period, Inventory will default to the standard stock period length set against the site e.g 7 days, Monthly, 4/4/5.

If the site reopens on a day that is not in sync with the normal stock periods then the above process can be used to align the newly generated period. For example if the site reopens on a Wednesday and therefore carries out their first count that day but has weekly Monday-Sunday stock periods as standard, the newly generated period following the initial count will show as Thursday-Wednesday. Use the above process to update the period to show as Thursday-Sunday.

Ensure Orders can be Placed

If you had applied settings to prevent orders being sent from sites to suppliers during the period the site was closed, these will need to be reversed. There are 2 options of preventing order being sent within Inventory either against the site or against a specific supplier(s)

Enabling Orders Against a Site

A setting can be applied to enable orders to be sent from a site to all suppliers.

• Within the Setup tab select All Options, then Organisation Hierarchy

Fig.4 - Selecting Organisation Hierarchy

• Expand the hierarchy using the + icons until reaching the lowest level (Sites)
• Select Edit and a pop-up window will open

Fig.5 - Expanding the hierarchy

• Scroll down and within the Site configuration, untick  Do NOT send off orders from this site and select Save

Fig.6 - Site Configuration

Enabling Orders Against a Supplier

• To ensure sites are able to place an order with specific suppliers, within the Setup tab select All Options and then Browse Suppliers

 
Fig.7 - Setup > Browse Suppliers

This will return a list of all the suppliers assigned within the Organisation.

• Select the supplier from the list that requires the ability to be ordered from

Fig.8 - List of suppliers

• Within the supplier select the Edit Details tab, tick Can Create Order and Save

Fig.9 - Editing supplier details

This will ensure the supplier shows in the drop-down list when a user creates an order by supplier from the Purchasing tab within Inventory. 

Restrict Products for Ordering

Upon reopening it may be the case that customers will be offered a reduced menu. This may mean that ordering of certain products by sites is restricted. This can be achieved across all locations or on a location-by-location basis.

Restrict Product Ordering by all Locations

• Within the Recipe & Menu Engineering module (Star Chef) search for the product to prevent from being ordered and navigate to the Internal Spec tab
• Select Edit and this will allow the updating of the Date 1st delivery to warehouse field

Fig.10 - Editing a product in Recipe & Menu Engineering

• Setting this to a future date will prevent sites from being able to order the product until that date
• Consider using a flag against the updated items so that they are easily identifiable when wanting to revert
• Please do not use a red flag, as this will move the product to the archive ingredient set
• Once a new date is applied,  select Save and then using the FnB Actions drop-down list, select Update Ingredient to Stock to apply the change to the site in Inventory

Fig.11 - Using the FnB Actions drop-down - Update Ingredient to Stock

 Within the order screen in Inventory the product will then have a No Entry symbol, it from being included in an order.

Fig.12 - No Entry symbol against a product

 Restrict Product Ordering by Specific Locations

• To restrict the ordering of products on a site-by-site basis, this can be achieved via the Update Bin# to sites option in the FnB Actions drop-down list against a product within the Recipe & Menu Engineering module (Star Chef)

Fig.13 - Using the FnB Actions drop-down - Update Bin# to sites

After selecting this option, a pop-up window will appear.

• From the hierarchy, select the sites to restrict the ordering of the product from, and select Next

Fig.14 - Restricting ordering of a product from sites

• Using the Order and Transfer boxes highlighted in Fig.15, select the required option
• Unticking the box means ordering will be unavailable at site
• Then select Update All to apply to all selected sites
• Then select Save to apply to the selected sites

Fig.15 - Order and Transfer options

Within the order screen in Inventory the product will then have a No Entry symbol, preventing that product from being ordered.

Fig.16 - No Entry symbol against a product

Dealing with Existing Stock on Site

Upon reopening a site there may be perishable stock that needs to be returned, transferred to another site to be used or discarded. The options below detail how to handle each scenario

Supplier Returns

Any stock that has a short shelf life or the supplier is willing to take back should be recorded in Inventory as a supplier return, to ensure the accuracy of the first stock result upon reopening.
The following article details the process for recording a supplier return - Inventory | Restaurants - Recording a Supplier Return

Site Transfers

If sites are reopening at different times there may be a requirement to move stock from one location to another. The following article details how to carry out a site transfer in Inventory - Inventory | Restaurants - Creating a Site Transfer

Record Wastage

If products have past their expiry date upon reopening then they will need to be recorded as wastage to ensure an accurate stock result. The following article shows how to carry out recording wastage in Inventory - Inventory | Restaurants - Creating a Wastage Transfer

Update Supplier Delivery Days/Cut-off Time

Have suppliers changed their delivery schedule/order times? Inventory should be updated to reflect this to ensure sites order for the correct delivery date. Information on how to manage this will be published soon (as of 03/06/2020).

Recipe GP Analysis

If looking to review offerings to ensure the dishes on the menu yield a good profit, then the Menu functionality within the Recipe and Menu Engineering module allows forecasting for the overall profit margin of a menu. The below link details how to create a Menu within Recipe and Menu Engineering.
P2P&I - Recipe and Menu Engineering: Menus

Explore what additional functionality is available on Inventory Management and all of the Inventory Editions that are available from Fourth!