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How do I track inventory?
Reviewed by Editorial Team

Inventory tracking is how you catch food cost drift before it eats your margin. The basic loop runs weekly: count what is on hand Sunday night, add the week invoices, subtract Sunday count, and you have weekly COGS. Divide by sales to get food cost percentage. For a small truck a Google Sheet works for the first six months — columns: item, unit, par, on-hand count, last invoice cost, extended value. Total it and compare to target (28-35% benchmark). When you outgrow the spreadsheet, MarketMan and MarginEdge integrate with major POS systems and pull invoices from suppliers automatically; $50-$200/month. Daily prep sheets are the second leg. Investigate any week where actual food cost is more than 2-3 points off target. Causes: theft, over-portioning, spoilage, supplier price hike, recipe creep.

Common mistakes
  • Counting "by feel" instead of with a scale and sheet.
  • Never reconciling invoices against deliveries — vendor short-shipments are real.
  • Letting one cook portion freehand; a $0.50 protein over-pour 100 times a day is $1,500/month.
Related FAQs
How do I price my menu?
Calculate plate cost (raw ingredients per serving), divide by your target food cost percentage (28-35% per FSR Magazine benchmarks), and round to a clean price point. Test against competitor menus in the same daypart. Reprice every quarter as ingredient costs move.
How much should I budget for first-year operating losses?
Plan for 3-6 months of operating losses while you build a customer base, refine the menu, and lock in catering pipeline. A working reserve of 3 months of fixed costs — typically $15,000-$30,000 for a small operation — keeps you from making panic decisions in month two.
What is a healthy food cost percentage?
Food cost percentage of 28-35% is the standard industry benchmark per FSR Magazine and National Restaurant Association reporting, with food trucks typically targeting 30-33%. Anything above 35% chronically signals a pricing, portioning, or waste problem.