How do I structure my inventory management?

Management perspective: Why inventory management is a matter for top management

Experience shows that measurable discrepancies arise in businesses where goods and cash are simultaneously in the hands of employees. These are not necessarily criminally motivated – they often arise from a lack of structure, unclear responsibilities or simply human habit.

If goods are not clearly assigned to a specific area of responsibility, losses are automatically distributed across the entire system. The individual advantage remains with the beneficiary – the disadvantage with the company.

Structured inventory management is therefore not an instrument of mistrust, but rather a management tool. It creates transparency, protects honest employees and ensures that automation, purchasing and costing function reliably.

Those who do not define responsibility cannot analyse deviations – and those who cannot analyse deviations cannot improve their operations.

Best practice: Inventory management with clear areas of responsibility

Many businesses carry out stocktaking, but only a few engage in genuine inventory management. The difference is crucial.

If you simply count "everything in the business" – without separating it into main warehouse, bar, kitchen or sales outlets – you get a global total value, which seems straightforward but has one major disadvantage:

There is no responsibility. If everyone can take goods from anywhere and leave them anywhere, losses are distributed among everyone – while the benefits remain with the individual. Shortages are obscured in the overall result. The causes remain unclear. Discussions replace analysis. Effective inventory management therefore requires structure.

Getting started: A defined control cycle

All inventory management begins with a clearly defined starting stock.

Example:

10 bottles of water on 1 June 2025.

These physically existing, countable units form the starting point.

From this moment on, the controller calculates the theoretical consumption based on the cash register data.

Later, this theoretical inventory will be reconciled with a new count.

This creates a continuous control cycle consisting of:

initial stock

theoretical consumption

control count

variance analysis

We deliberately refer to this as control recording (it is not a legally formalised inventory, but rather a business assessment of the situation between theory and practice).

Option 1 – Global total inventory (simple, but imprecise)

All holdings are combined and considered as a total value.

Advantages:

  • simple setup

  • no internal rebooking

  • low demands on staff

  • suitable for very small structures

Disadvantages:

  • no assignment of responsibility

  • no root cause analysis possible

  • Automation only usable to a limited extent

  • Manipulations or errors remain hidden within the system

This option is convenient – but economically blind.

Best practice: Keep storage and sales areas separate

The professional solution maps the actual goods routes in your business:

  • main warehouse

  • bar

  • kitchen

  • beverage dispensing

  • other points of sale

A defined target stock level is stored for each point of sale. From this moment on, the controller can:

  • Calculate consumption per point of sale

  • Automate transfers from the main warehouse

  • Generate order proposals

  • Assign deviations to a specific location

And this is precisely where the crucial difference arises: missing quantities are no longer "somewhere"; they can be assigned. This creates clarity – not mistrust.

Why this is so important

  • Without clearly defined areas of responsibility, inventory management will not work in the long term.

  • Mistakes are put into perspective.

  • Arguments overshadow facts.

  • Causes are postponed.

With clearly defined areas, on the other hand:

  • deviations can be localised

  • processes can be improved in a targeted manner

  • stable automation processes are created

  • stock management remains permanently resilient

Only when theory and practice are regularly compared for each area of responsibility can genuine control be achieved, and only then can automation work without disruption.

Setting up the controller – practice before theory

Set up the controller in the same way as the goods are actually moved. If your bar is restocked daily from the main warehouse, this movement must be reflected in the system. If your kitchen keeps its own stock, it needs its own sales outlet.

  • The target stock level in the main warehouse automatically determines the order requirement in comparison to the actual stock level.

  • The target stock level at the point of sale determines internal replenishment.

If consumption estimates and storage capacities are set up correctly, the following is possible:

  • rebookings

  • assemblies

  • Order suggestions

be fully automated.

The goal: not control for control's sake, but rather:

  • Transparency

  • Automation

  • clear responsibilities

  • transparent processes

  • sustainable improvement

Inventory management is not an administrative task; it is a management tool.

Further topics:

Best practice: Different place of consumption for goods

Directory: Best Practice

The internal transport

The controller can fully automate internal goods movements - as if an internal logistician were coordinating your company.

Firstly, you define:

  • Target stocks of the main warehouse,

  • Packaging units, purchase prices and suppliers.

On this basis, the controller takes over the automatic supplier orders.

For the best practice method with separate points of sale, set up the corresponding items and target stock levels for each point of sale.

The replenishment function allows the MRP monitor to create transfer postings and work lists so that your staff can deliver the items internally.

There are several options for booking goods at points of sale during operation:

  • Order by routing slip or by telephone in the warehouse (manual booking in the controller)

  • Order directly from the checkout mode, with automatic printout and rebooking

  • Fully automatic control by the scheduling monitor based on current demand

Best practice: Automatic refilling - at exactly the right moment

In a well-organised business, your team can concentrate on the essentials: the guest.

A typical evening at the bar:

The gin and tonic is on - a full outdoor area, satisfied guests, high throughput. The waitress starts to sweat because the chilled tonic water is running out. In earlier times, this would have meant looking for a bottle, interrupting the cooling process and losing time. But today everything is different:

Even before the bottleneck becomes noticeable, a colleague appears with a tray of fresh, perfectly chilled tonics.

The controller has analysed the target stock based on the time of day and sales figures and automatically ordered the transfer posting. A colleague brings the pre-cooled tonics in good time. The operator can relax - and the guest gets his drink in the best possible time.

Our tip:

Link your points of sale intelligently with target stocks that change according to time and demand. This creates a logic that thinks for itself - even with spontaneous peaks.

Further topics: Directory: Best Practice

Transition to the next chapter

In the next section, you will learn how the controller works with the cash register entries to calculate consumption, target stocks and orders in real time.

What does the cash register do with the controller?

Each cash posting contains information about a sale at a specific time and at a defined price. This data - the sales data - forms the basis for all merchandise management calculations in the controller.

The controller links this sales data with the basic items that make up a sales item. This ratio is defined in the item master via the stock parts list and is defined in units such as pieces, portions, grams or litres.

Calculation of the theoretical consumption of goods

The controller calculates the theoretical consumption of the base item concerned from each cash register entry. As the withdrawal is not physically posted individually, this calculation is performed retrospectively on the basis of sales. The cash register entries thus generate the theoretical goods movements from which the controller determines the target stock in real time. This calculation is carried out automatically by the inventory service: it permanently processes all sales data and records the consumption history chronologically.

Formulated items and products

A sales item that is made up of several base items is referred to as a recipe item. It contains information on the basic items (purchase articles) of which it consists and the quantity ratio.

If you produce your own items, you can manage them in the system as products. The associated instructions - i.e. the link between the stock parts list and production steps - can be stored in the controller as production instructions.

Internal needs

Once you have set up your stock structure (warehouse, points of sale, target stock levels), the next step is to determine how requirements planning works.

The controller supports you in two ways:

Variant 1 - Automatic ordering from suppliers

The disposition monitor continuously monitors stock levels. As soon as an item falls below the defined minimum stock level, the controller determines the required demand. Order proposals are generated on this basis and processed in the ordering programme.

You can use the replenishment function to have certain items reordered fully automatically - but only if you actively request this. This allows you to retain control and still benefit from automated processes.

Variant 2 - Internal transfers and automatic scheduling

This variant also includes automatic goods distribution between warehouse and sales outlets. For this purpose, the disposition monitor creates work instructions that can be displayed or automatically printed out at the respective point of sale. These instructions concern, for example

  • internal deliveries or collections of basic items,

  • the manufacture of our own products,

  • or the replenishment of debit stocks.

If a planned delivery is no longer suitable in terms of time, you can adjust the demand times or quantities to the current situation with just a few clicks.

Sales outlets without their own warehouse

If a sales outlet (e.g. restaurant) sells recipe items whose base items are stored in another sales outlet (e.g. kitchen), the controller automatically adjusts the stock at the stored storage location. Example:

  • The restaurant sells drinks whose storage location is the "main warehouse".

  • The sales are still automatically allocated correctly - the controller posts from the main warehouse in the background.

This means that merchandise management remains consistent and transparent at all times, even with multiple points of sale.

Control and inventory accuracy

Even the best system needs control. The aim is to regularly compare the theoretical target stock with the actual stock.

Define your control concept for this:

  • Which items should be checked?

  • At what intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, annually)?

  • Which sales outlets or warehouses are affected?

You can assign your base items to any control groups. This allows you to check only relevant product groups. The controller evaluates deviations according to your specifications and only reports the really critical differences. Responsible employees can confirm or comment on deviations directly - for example via multiple choice selection.

Evaluation and benefits of the control

If master data is maintained correctly and regular checks are carried out, all automation processes remain stable. This leads to:

  • Time savings thanks to clearly defined processes

  • Reduction of losses through precise control

  • Greater cost-effectiveness thanks to more predictable use of goods

  • More sales through quality management and reliable inventories

You decide whether you want to use the controller in its entirety right from the start or start gradually - for example with one supplier or one product group. In any case, you benefit from a system that reliably organises, reports and monitors.

Everything at the right time, in the right place - and it's already booked.

Orders to suppliers

The controller can trigger needs-based orders based on current consumption data. Various procedures with target stocks and percentage adjustments are available to optimise your processes.

Incoming goods

Correct goods receipt is crucial for reliable inventory management. Around 5% of all losses occur when goods are received - often unnoticed. The controller offers several options for recording:

Best practice - Efficient incoming goods: control instead of blind scanning

Time and again, we encounter the idea that an employee can "simply scan" the entire incoming goods department. In practice, however, this is neither realistic nor efficient - and above all, it does not lead to better quality results.

Why scanning in goods receiving hardly works

Suppliers often deliver partial or replacement quantities that do not correspond to the units ordered.

A large proportion of the products do not have a scan code at all that could be utilised.

Own labels from the Hypersoft system are not pre-labelled on the delivered goods.

That means:

Scanning would make neither faster nor more accurate - it only creates false expectations and additional effort.

Our approach: The goods receipt is the continuation of the order - not a "scanning process"

In fact, the scanning expectation often surprises us, because a professional incoming goods department is not a documentation process, but a quality process that builds on a good order. Hypersoft already generates precise, automated orders - it would therefore make sense for suppliers to fulfil precisely these orders.

But in reality:

  • what was ordered is not always delivered,

  • quantities are not correct,

  • deviating or incomplete delivery notes,

  • prices or container sizes do not match.

It therefore makes more sense to invest the time saved not in scanning, but in checking:

The three decisive questions in incoming goods

  • Has everything required for trouble-free operation been supplied?

  • Does the delivery note match the actual delivery?

  • Is the delivery note a correct basis for the subsequent invoice?

The goal is not the scanning of items - but the quality of the inspection.

How the controller optimally supports your work

The controller automatically generates an expected goods receipt from each order. This allows you to:

  • print or digitally check a clear, complete list,

  • systematically synchronise each delivery,

  • Record deviations directly,

  • Store comments - e.g. for later invoice verification, quantity errors or replacement deliveries.

The correctly confirmed goods are then automatically booked in. Transparency increases with each cycle - and the error rate decreases

Experience shows:

  • Suppliers improve their processes,

  • Deviations are recognised at an early stage,

  • Repeat orders are placed in good time,

  • responsibilities become clearer,

  • and the cost of goods sold stabilises.

Short:

A professional incoming goods department pays off immediately and measurably.

Conclusion on an efficient incoming goods department

The controller is your pacemaker for modern stock management. The controller turns your stock management into a self-regulating system:

  • Automated control and scheduling

  • Transparent warehouse and point of sale logic

  • Traceable goods movements

  • Reliable decision-making basis for purchasing, controlling and management

  • Precise, efficient and reliable - (almost) completely without scanning.

Further topics: Directory: Best Practice

Back to the overarching topic: Best practice for inventory management