A lot of people ask if our systems have 'Inventory' and
                      all Foodman systems DO include Inventory. However, we
                      usually recommend that people don't bother using it since
                      there is a lot of work involved and the benefits are usually
                      not worth the effort! If you are operating multiple restaurants
                      and serving them via a central commissary, it might be worth it
                      but if you just have a single restaurant, pizzeria, etc., it isn't
                      worth the trouble.

                      On the other hand, if you have a retail store (like a 7-11)
                      or something, then the Inventory feature can be very useful.

                      The following comments, therefore, apply to a Food-Service operation.
  
                      Even a small restaurant may have a couple of hundred items
                      to inventory. If you decide to use inventory, then you would
                      need to count all those items and enter them into Foodman.
               
                      Although Foodman will reduce the inventory automatically, you
                      must be sure to make provisions for waste, items prepared but
                      rejected by the customer and discarded, pilferage, etc. otherwise
                      your inventory will not be accurate.
               
                      EVERY TIME you replenish your inventory, you must tell Foodman
                      how much of each item you just received. Again, if you have
                      a couple of hundred items you care about, it can be a time-consuming
                      daily procedure to keep the inventory up-to-date and accurate.
               
                      Another problem is with bulk supplies - like flour. If you have
                      a pizzeria you would have to estimate the number of portions
                      you can yield from a bag of flour - depending on the size of
                      the pizza.  
               
                      So, let's assume you set up your inventory and diligently
                      keep the inventory accurate for everything.  With Foodman,
                      you can print an inventory report at any time. What is the
                      report going to do for you?  It is going to tell you exactly
                      what it thinks you have in stock based on your input and sales.
                      To determine if this is accurate, you then have to go and
                      count each item to see if it is right. Another time-consuming
                      task - as if you didn't have enough to do already!
               
                      You could use the report to order things, but you probably
                      don't need the system to tell you when to order since your
                      suppliers are going to be on your case anyway.
               
                      You could use the report to tell you if pilferage has taken
                      place, but try proving it. And, an inventory system is NOT
                      going to prevent pilferage.
               
                      Foodman provides Sales reports for everything that you sell.
                      You can use these reports to spot-check your inventory. For
                      example, let's assume that you need to have 35 expensive steaks
                      available for sale every day. You know you bought 'x' steaks,
                      the sales report will tell you that you sold 'y' steaks.
                      You count them and see that you have 'z' steaks in stock.
                      Therefore, 'x' minus 'y' should equal 'z'. So, you can
                      monitor your inventory using the sales reports and this
                      will give you what you need to manage your supplies.
               
                      You can also, with Foodman, produce a sales report for JUST
                      those items which you want to watch carefully, like steaks
                      and expensive bottles of wine.  With this report, you can
                      spot-check those items to see if your sales correspond
                      to your actual stock.
               

                      Anyway, the choice is yours, Foodman does have inventory and
                      you can use it if you wish, but, we predict that you will
                      get tired of all the extra work and arrive at the conclusion
                      that it is just not worth the extra work.