Restaurant inventory software with built-in recipe costing
Good inventory control connects three things: what is on the shelf, what each dish uses, and what you reorder. Epidom links them and works out the cost of every dish, so food cost tracking happens as you sell.
Where restaurant stock quietly leaks
In a lot of kitchens, inventory lives in a notebook and in the chef's head. Counts happen once a week, orders go in by feel, and the margin problem shows up at month end. Three leaks come up again and again: portions that drift, waste nobody writes down, and supplier prices that rise while menu prices stay put.
Recipe costing: the foundation of food cost
A recipe lists the ingredients in a dish with exact quantities. Combine that with what you pay for each ingredient and you get the plate cost: what the dish costs in ingredients before anyone cooks it.
Example: a burger uses a 150 g patty at $9.00 per lb of ground beef ($2.98), a $0.60 bun, 30 g of cheese ($0.45), lettuce and tomato ($0.40) and sauce ($0.25). Plate cost = $2.98 + 0.60 + 0.45 + 0.40 + 0.25 = $4.68. Sold at $14.00, food cost is about 33% and the gross margin is $9.32.
As a common rule of thumb, many restaurants aim for food cost somewhere between 25% and 35% of the menu price. It is a reference, not a law; a steakhouse and a sandwich shop sit in different places. What matters is knowing your own number, dish by dish.
What Epidom does with it
Stock and recipes are part of the Operations plan. Here is what you get:
- An ingredient catalog with the current stock level of each item
- Recipes with quantities, and an automatic cost per dish
- Stock deducted when orders complete, with no manual entry
- Low-stock alerts so you reorder before you run out
- A movement history covering deliveries, sales, adjustments and waste
- Suppliers and supplier orders: receiving an order updates stock
Waste is recorded with a reason and shows up in Finance next to revenue and margin, so you can see what spoilage and mistakes cost you over a period.
Setting up your restaurant inventory
- List your ingredients — Add each raw item with its unit and purchase price. Start with the ten items that make up most of your spend.
- Build your recipes — Enter the quantity per portion for each dish. The cost per dish appears as soon as you save.
- Link the menu to recipes — Menu items tied to a recipe take their ingredients out of stock as they sell.
- Run a first count — Count what is on the shelf and correct the levels. Bulk adjust fixes many items at once.
- Order and receive — Create the supplier order, send it by email or WhatsApp, then mark it Received on delivery to add the items to stock.
Supplier orders in two steps
A supplier order has two steps. You create it with the supplier, the items, the quantities and the expected day. When the delivery arrives you mark it Received, and only then does stock go up. If it never comes, cancel it and nothing is added.
When to revisit your menu prices
Ingredient prices move, and so does plate cost. When the price of beef or coffee goes up, update the purchase price and every recipe that uses it is recalculated. From there you can decide whether to raise the menu price slightly, trim a portion or swap an ingredient, before the margin quietly shrinks.
What software can't do for you
Stock in the app is the stock your sales say you should have, and it will always drift a little from the walk-in. Keep counting on a schedule: the gap between the two is what exposes over-portioning and loss.
Questions
What is recipe costing?
Recipe costing adds up the cost of every ingredient in one portion of a dish. Divide that by the menu price and you get food cost as a percentage. Epidom calculates it inside the recipe from your ingredient prices.
Does stock go down automatically when I sell?
Yes, for menu items linked to a recipe or product. Their ingredients are deducted when the order completes. Items that are not linked do not affect stock.
Can I track waste?
Yes. Record waste with a reason and it appears in the stock movement history and in Finance, so you can see what it costs over the period.
Can I order from suppliers inside the app?
Yes. Create a supplier order, send it by email or WhatsApp or print it, and mark it Received when the delivery arrives. Receiving updates your stock.
How much does inventory management cost?
It is part of the Operations plan at $29.99 per month ($24.99 per month billed yearly), before tax. That plan also covers finance reports, staff and up to 3 outlets.