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Restaurant Inventory Calculator

Last Updated: Jun 9, 2025

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Created by
Saqib Hanif
Saqib Hanif

Saqib Hanif is the CEO and founder of Calculator Value. He builds calculators and educational content across sports, math, and science, and supports a limited set of construction-related calculators. Read full profile

The Restaurant Inventory Calculator helps track inventory costs, food expenses, and waste in food service operations.

How It Works

This calculator uses these standard restaurant formulas:

  • COGS = Beginning Inventory + Purchases - Ending Inventory
  • Food Cost % = (COGS / Sales) × 100%
  • Inventory Turnover = COGS / Average Inventory
  • Waste % = (Waste Amount / Total Available) × 100%

Where Average Inventory = (Beginning + Ending) ÷ 2 and Total Available = Beginning Inventory + Purchases

Example Calculation

  • Beginning Inventory: 10,000 dollars
  • Purchases: 20,000 dollars
  • Ending Inventory: 8,000 dollars
  • Sales: 75,000 dollars
  • Waste Amount: 600 dollars

Results:

  • COGS = 10,000 + 20,000 - 8,000 = 22,000 dollars
  • Food Cost % = (22,000 / 75,000) × 100% = 29.3%
  • Inventory Turnover = 22,000 / ((10,000 + 8,000) ÷ 2) = 2.44
  • Waste % = (600 / (10,000 + 20,000)) × 100% = 2%

Industry Benchmarks

This example shows ideal metrics for a restaurant: food cost percentage around 30% (ideal range: 28-35%), inventory turnover above 2 (higher is better for freshness), and waste at 2% (under the 4% threshold). The calculator helps identify opportunities to reduce costs and minimize waste while maintaining adequate inventory levels.

  • Industry-Standard Formulas: The formulas and methods used in this calculator follow widely accepted standards in Financial.
  • Careful Verification: The calculator is tested to ensure it behaves correctly across a range of inputs.
  • Continuous Updates: The calculator is updated as needed to reflect better accuracy and usability.

Related Calculators

Food Cost Percentage→Restaurant VAT→Pour Cost→Food Cost Calculator for Recipes→

Inventory is considered crucial in a restaurant, and managing it efficiently can skyrocket your profit and minimize food waste. Our Restaurant Inventory Calculator is primarily designed for chefs, restaurant owners, and managers to calculate and analyze critical financial and operational metrics such as COGS (Cost of Goods Sold), food cost percentage, inventory turnover, and waste percentage.

Keep reading — we will break down the most important aspects of restaurant inventory, such as:

  • What does inventory mean in a restaurant?
  • What is a Restaurant Inventory Calculator?
  • How to use the Restaurant Inventory Calculator?
  • Restaurant Inventory Real-World Example
  • And the Most Important FAQs
A restaurant inventory stock

What does inventory mean in a restaurant?

In a restaurant, inventory refers to all the food, beverages, and materials that are available to sell or use. It includes:

  • Raw ingredients like vegetables, meat, grains, and dairy.
  • Beverages like soda, wine, beer, and spirits.
  • Supplies like napkins, takeout containers, and cleaning materials.

What is a Restaurant Inventory Calculator?

A Restaurant Inventory Calculator is an online tool that helps track and analyze inventory metrics. Our calculator is designed to be bidirectional, meaning it can also work in reverse if you fill in those fields:

How to use the Restaurant Inventory Calculator?

Inputs Fields:

  • Beginning Inventory — The value of all foods, beverages, and supplies you had at the start of the period, such as a week or month. For example, if you had 5000 dollars worth of food and drinks in stock on Monday, that 5,000 dollars is your beginning inventory.
  • Purchases — The total amount of newly bought inventory during the period. For example, you bought 3000 dollars worth of drinks, meat, and vegetables during the period.
  • Ending Inventory — The total value of inventory left at the end of the period. For example, on Sunday night, suppose your remaining inventory is worth 1,000 dollars.

Output:

  • COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) — The total cost of food and drinks that was used during the period, it shows you how much it cost you to serve the customers.
  • Inventory Turnover — This field shows how quickly you sell and replace inventory.

You can also calculate the food cost percentage and waste percentage by entering total sales, and waste amount.

Restaurant Inventory Real-World Example

Suppose you are managing food and beverages in a restaurant, and here’s the math:

  • Beginning Inventory: 5,000 dollars
  • Purchases: 12,000 dollars
  • Ending Inventory: 4,000 dollars
  • Sales: 35,000 dollars
  • Waste Amount: 1,000 dollars

The calculator will compute the values and will return result instantly:

  • COGS = 5,000 dollars + 12,000 dollars - 4,000 dollars = 13,000 dollars
  • Food Cost % = (13,000 dollars / 35,000 dollars) × 100 = 37.14%
  • Inventory Turnover Ratio = 13,000 dollars / ((5,000 dollars + 4,000 dollars) / 2) = 2.89
  • Waste % = (1,000 / 17,000) × 100 = 5.88%

Frequently Asked Questions

What is considered good food cost percentage in a restaurant

A good food cost percentage in a restaurant falls between 28% and 35% of sales. Lower than that indicates a good performance, while higher than that inidicate waste and pricing issues.

What is inventory turnover in restaurant?

Inventory turnover shows you how many times the inventory was used during the period. A high ratio indicates efficiency and fast turnover, while a low ratio suggests slow sales or overstocking.