Food & Beverage Inventory, Powered by AI
For restaurant groups ordering for several kitchens: an agent that compares each morning count with par and the week's sales mix, then drafts every vendor order before its cutoff for the chef to approve.
3 kitchens counted this morning, 5 vendor orders drafted. Eastside produce, due by 2 PM:
How can restaurants automate inventory and ordering across locations?
Restaurants automate inventory by letting an agent do the arithmetic between the count, the par sheet and the POS.
- 01
Trigger fires
A kitchen submits its morning count, ahead of the day's first vendor cutoff.
- 02
Compare each count with par for the next delivery
- 03
Adjust for the week's sales mix from the POS
- 04
Round shortfalls to vendor pack sizes
- 05
You approve
Anything under your confidence bar waits for a human.
Once a kitchen submits its count, the agent compares each item's on-hand quantity with par for the next delivery day, adjusts for what the Toast or Square sales mix says was used, and converts the shortfall into the vendor's pack size, so a need for 16 lb of shallots becomes one 10 lb bag plus a transfer from a sister kitchen. It drafts each vendor's order and sends it to the chef ahead of the cutoff. Counts that don't fit recent usage, such as protein vanishing with no waste entry, wait for the kitchen manager.
How you tell it what to do
Built in plain English.
You write the rule the way you'd describe it to a teammate. The agent reads the rule, breaks it into the actions it'll take, and confirms the apps it'll touch — before it does anything.
- 1Compare each count with par for the next delivery
- 2Adjust for the week's sales mix from the POS
- 3Round shortfalls to vendor pack sizes
- 4Draft each order and send it to the chef
Chatbot vs agent
One asks. The other finishes.
What you get back when you hand inventory management to a chat window, versus to an agent wired into your Food & Beverage stack.
When you ask
Work out what each of our kitchens needs to order today.
A general AI chatbot
“Set par levels for each item from average usage between deliveries, count on-hand stock, then order the difference rounded to case sizes. Review pars weekly against sales and adjust for events or menu changes.”
DeskFerry
- Compare each count with par for the next delivery
- Adjust for the week's sales mix from the POS
- Round shortfalls to vendor pack sizes
- Draft each order and send it to the chef
Vendor orders drafted for every kitchen in pack sizes, each waiting on the chef's one-word reply.
What it handles
What the agent takes off your desk
The Inventory Management work that runs without you once the rule is set.
Orders in before cutoff
Each vendor's cutoff is part of the rule, so the produce order is drafted and approved while the rep is still taking orders for tomorrow's truck.
Pars that follow the menu
Usage comes from the POS sales mix, so a weekend special that moves short rib pulls the next order up without anyone rewriting the par sheet.
Spare stock moves first
Before ordering, the agent checks whether a sister kitchen is over par on the same item and suggests a transfer instead of a new case.
Missing product gets asked about
When on-hand drops faster than sales and logged waste explain, the item is held and the kitchen manager hears about it the same day.
Reads counts in any format
Count sheets in Google Sheets, exports from an inventory app, or a photo of a clipboard count sent in by the sous chef.
Knows pack sizes
Turns need into cases, bags and each units from the vendor's order guide, including items sold only by the full case.
Orders to the delivery day
Covers the gap until the next truck, not just tomorrow, so a Monday seafood order carries the kitchen until Thursday's delivery.
Tracks vendor substitutions
Reads vendor emails about shorts and offered substitutes, and flags the menu items that depend on the missing product.
Context
Why restaurant inventory drifts between kitchens
Restaurant inventory is a moving target that spoils.
- Toast
- Square for Restaurants
- MarketMan
- Google Sheets
ClaudeChatGPTbuilt in
- Sysco Shop
- US Foods ordering
- Gmail
- Slack
The walk-in holds product with a few days of life, pars are set for a menu that changes with the season, and every vendor has its own delivery days, pack sizes and order cutoff, often early afternoon the day before.
Across several locations the drift compounds. One kitchen counts by the case and another by the pound, the same romaine sits on two order guides under different item codes, and a packed Saturday leaves one site short while another is over par on the same items. Theoretical usage from the POS sales mix rarely matches the count, and the gap is waste, staff meals, heavy portioning or theft, which nobody has time to chase during service. The agent runs the comparison on every count: on-hand against par, par against sales mix, shortfall against pack size. It asks about the gaps instead of quietly ordering around them.
Use cases
How teams put this to work
Scenario 01
Menu change week
A new fall menu adds braised short rib and drops the halibut. The agent reads the new items' sales mix as it comes in, raises the short rib par after the first weekend, and stops ordering halibut once the count reaches zero.
Scenario 02
Catering on top of service
A 120-person catering job is booked for Friday. The chef adds it to the sheet, and the agent adds the event quantities to Thursday's orders on top of regular pars, marking which cases belong to the event.
Scenario 03
Third location opening
A new site opens with no sales history. The agent uses the flagship's pars scaled to the new kitchen's covers for the first two weeks, then switches to its own sales mix once enough service days are recorded.
0 on hand, 8 lb received Tuesday, no waste entry, and the sales mix only accounts for 2 lb.
Midtown is 6 lb over par. Sending it to Eastside needs someone making the run before dinner service.
Vendor says halibut is short this week and offers cod. The halibut crudo on both menus depends on it.
Human in the loop
Approve before it sends.
Every draft lands in a review queue. You approve, edit, or reject — the agent never acts on its own unless you explicitly turn that on for a workflow you trust.
Governance
Every action, with the reasoning attached.
Each step the agent takes is logged with what it did, why it did it, and which app it touched. Audit-ready, so security and compliance can sign off without backfilling.
- Agent12:53 PM
Sent the Eastside produce order to Greenleaf Produce ahead of the 2 PM cutoff.
- Amara12:52 PM
Approved the Eastside produce order by replying "send".
- Agent9:14 AM
Left heirloom tomatoes off the Eastside order.
Reason: The count shows zero, but 8 lb arrived Tuesday and sales only explain 2 lb. Could be a miscount or unlogged waste.
- Agent9:12 AM
Cut Eastside shallots to one 10 lb bag and proposed a 6 lb transfer from Midtown.
- Agent9:10 AM
Compared Eastside's count with Thursday par and the last 7 days of Toast sales mix.
How it works
Get started in three steps
Step 01
Connect the POS, count sheet and order inbox
Link Toast or Square for sales mix, the sheet or inventory app where counts are entered, and the mailbox vendor orders go out from.
Step 02
Write down pars, vendors and cutoffs
List each vendor's delivery days, cutoff time and pack sizes, plus who approves orders at each kitchen.
Step 03
Answer the gaps
Counts that don't match usage, suggested transfers and vendor substitutions wait for the kitchen manager with the numbers laid out.
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does it place orders with vendors directly?
Only after the chef approves, unless you say otherwise. The default is draft, email the chef, send on reply. Some groups let staples like dairy and dry goods go out on their own when the draft matches par within a case, and keep produce and protein on approval because quality and cost move week to week.
What if our kitchens count at different times?
Each location runs on its own count. The agent drafts that kitchen's orders when its count arrives and looks at the other locations' latest counts only to suggest transfers. If a kitchen hasn't counted and a vendor cutoff is close, it tells the kitchen manager instead of ordering from yesterday's numbers.
How does it use POS data when dishes share ingredients?
Through the recipe mapping you give it. If a burger uses a bun, 6 oz of blend and two slices of cheddar, every burger in the Toast sales mix counts against those items. Without recipes it still compares counts over time, but theoretical usage and the waste gap depend on the mapping.
Can it handle items bought at a cash-and-carry?
Yes, as a shopping list. Items with no vendor order line go on a list sent to whoever does the run, and the receipt photo is matched back to the next count so on-hand stays right. The list is written to the audit log like any vendor order.
Does it see what we pay vendors?
It can if the order guide includes unit costs, and it will note when an item's cost moved since the last order. It doesn't negotiate or switch vendors. Those figures stay in your own sheets and inbox, and every order it drafts or sends is recorded in the audit log.
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