Coffee Shop Inventory Management in Saudi Arabia

coffee-inventory-variance-missing-beans-cover

Coffee Shop Inventory Management in Saudi Arabia

Your sales report shows 10,000 SAR in coffee sold this week.
The cash is safely in your bank account.

But when you check your coffee shop inventory, you are missing 10 kg of coffee beans.

So where did they go?

Was it staff theft?
Grinder wastage?
A delivery shortage from the supplier?

If you cannot confidently answer this, your business is quietly losing money. In the restaurant industry, this problem is called variance.

Variance is the gap between what your POS system thinks you have in stock and what is actually on your shelves.

And if you don’t control it, that gap will slowly drain your cash flow—without you ever noticing.

Here’s how to stop the bleeding before it hurts your profit.

Table of Contents

Quick Comparison: The “Lazy” Way vs. The “Pro” Way

How successful cafes track their stock.

Feature	The “Lazy” Owner	The Profitable Owner
Receiving	Signs invoice without looking	Counts every item before signing
Recipes	Set once and forgotten	Audited weekly (Grinder vs. POS)
Open Bottles	“Looks like half full”	Weighed on a scale
Staff Drinks	“Just make one”	Rung into POS (100% Discount)
Wastage	Hidden (Fear of trouble)	Recorded (No-punishment policy)
Variance Limit	Unknown	< 2% is the goal

1. The “Recipe Drift” (18g vs. 20g)

Your inventory system is only as good as your recipe data.

The Scenario: You told Foodics that 1 Double Espresso = 18g of beans.
The Reality: Your barista dialed in the grinder this morning and upped the dose to 20g to get a better flavor profile.
The Result: You are using 2g more per cup than the system knows. Over a busy month (3,000 cups), you will show a variance of 6kg of coffee.
The Fix: Every Monday, check the grinder setting. Update the “Consumption Recipe” in your POS to match reality.

2. The “Blind Receiving” Trap

Suppliers are busy. Drivers make mistakes.

The Trap: It’s 7:00 AM. The Nada truck arrives. The driver drops 5 crates of milk. Your barista is busy setting up, so he signs the invoice without checking.
The Loss: One crate was empty. You just paid for 12 liters of milk you didn’t get.
The Rule: “Count, Then Sign.” Never let a driver leave until you have physically verified the quantity. If there is a shortage, write it on the invoice and sign that.

3. The “Eyeball” Method (Stop Guessing)

When doing your Sunday night stocktake, do not guess.

The Problem: Looking at a bottle of Monin Vanilla and writing “0.4” (40%) is inaccurate.
The Solution: Use a digital kitchen scale.
1. Weigh the open bottle (e.g., 800g).
2. Subtract the empty bottle weight (Tare ~400g).
3. Result: You have 400g of syrup. Enter that into your spreadsheet.
Pro Tip: Create a cheat sheet of “Empty Bottle Weights” for all your brands.

4. The Wastage Sheet: A “Safe Zone”

Why do baristas hide their mistakes? Fear.

The Psychology: If a barista spills a pitcher of milk and thinks you will deduct it from his salary, he will wipe it up and say nothing. Your inventory will be short, and you won’t know why.
The Policy: Tell your team: “I don’t care about mistakes. I care about unrecorded mistakes. If you burn a shot, write it on the Wastage Sheet. You will never be punished for honesty.”
The Data: This sheet tells you if your team needs training (e.g., if Ahmed wastes 5 liters of milk a week steaming).

5. Staff Drinks: “If It’s Not in the POS, It’s Theft”

You give your staff free coffee. That’s good culture.

But you must track it.

The Procedure: Create a button on the POS called “Staff Meal” or “Staff Drink”.
The Logic: When they ring it in, the price is 0 SAR, but the system deducts the inventory (Beans + Milk + Cup).
The Audit: If you see a barista drinking a cup that wasn’t rung in, that is a disciplinary strike. It messes up your numbers.

6. The Consequence: When to Punish?

You cannot punish normal variance.

Acceptable Variance: 1-2%. (Beans stuck in the grinder, minor spills). This is the cost of doing business.
Unacceptable Variance: >4%.
The Action: If the variance hits 5% and there is no Wastage Sheet explanation, it implies theft or gross negligence.
- Step 1: Team Meeting / Warning.
- Step 2: If it continues, the cost of the missing stock is deducted from the Tip Pool (Shared Liability).
- Watch how fast the team starts watching each other.

The Verdict: Sunday Night is Sacred

Pick one time every week (e.g., Sunday after closing) for a Full Stocktake.

Two people must do it together (The “Four Eyes” principle).

Input the numbers into Foodics/Odoo immediately.

If you control your inventory, you control your profit.

Know More : – Improve Marketing and Operations of coffee shop