5.1. Introduction to Inventory Management

In Ritapos, inventory management is built on raw materials and recipes. You define every item you buy as a raw material. You enter a recipe for every product you sell. When an order is completed, the recipe quantities are deducted from stock. This way stock, cost and profitability all come from the same data.

This lesson is the map of the course. It shows where the menu is, which unit stock quantities are kept in, and which topics you will learn step by step.

Screen labels are given in Turkish as they appear in the app, with an English explanation next to them.

Why stock and cost control matter

In a food and beverage business, cost starts with purchasing. Receiving, storage, preparation and sales follow. Losses can happen at every step of this chain. Academic research describes cost control as a process that runs from purchasing to revenue control (Çakır and Özgür Göde, 2025).

The same study notes that cost control rests on five basic standards:

  • Standard ingredient card: The unit, content and price of each ingredient are defined on one card. In Ritapos this card is the raw material.
  • Standard recipe: It sets how much of each ingredient goes into a product. In Ritapos you enter it as a recipe.
  • Standard yield: The share of an ingredient that is usable after cleaning and trimming.
  • Standard portion: The amount served to the guest is the same in every sale.
  • Standard food cost percentage: The target ratio of food cost to food sales.

This course covers these five standards together with the Ritapos screens. Theory is kept short and practice comes first.

The Stoklar & Reçeteler menu and the Stock Cockpit

All stock screens are in the left menu under YÖNETİM (Management), in the Stoklar & Reçeteler (Stocks & Recipes) section.

Stoklar & Reçeteler expanded under YÖNETİM in the side menu: Stok Kokpiti, Ham maddeler, Stoklar, Reçeteler, Üretim, Muhasebe
Stoklar & Reçeteler in the left menu

Clicking this section opens the Stok Kokpiti (Stock Cockpit). The cockpit groups all stock pages as cards. Use the Stok ve reçete ara (search stock and recipes) box at the top to reach a page quickly.

Stok Kokpiti with the Ham maddeler, Stoklar, Reçeteler, Üretim and Muhasebe cards and the Stok ve reçete ara search box
The Stok Kokpiti (Stock Cockpit)

The cockpit sections and their pages are:

  • Ham maddeler (Raw materials): Ham madde grupları and Ham maddeler. You define the items you buy here.
  • Stoklar (Stocks): Stoklar, Zayi ham maddeler (raw material waste) and Stok sayımları (stock counts). You manage quantities on hand, losses and counts here.
  • Reçeteler (Recipes): Reçeteler and Alt reçeteler (sub-recipes). You define what goes into each product here.
  • Üretim (Production): Üretim reçeteleri, Üretim reçetesine göre üretim yap and Ham maddeye dönüştür. Used to bring semi-finished or packed items into stock.
  • Muhasebe (Accounting): Tedarikçiler (suppliers) and Faturalar (invoices). You track purchase documents here. In some accounts this card also has Zirve, Taşıyıcılar (carriers) and Sürücüler (drivers) links.

Franchise businesses with the B2B package also see a Depo (B2B) (warehouse) card. It is covered in 5.4. Adding a Warehouse Order.

Cost analyses are in the left menu under RAPORLAR & ARAÇLAR (Reports & Tools), in the Araçlar (Tools) section. The food cost, prime cost and menu engineering tools are covered in the last three lessons. These tools need the premium package and a role with Raporlar: Detaylı (detailed reports) permission.

Which unit stock is kept in

Ritapos keeps stock in the smallest unit: grams, millilitres or pieces. Even if you define a raw material in kilograms, litres or cases, the system converts it to the smallest unit in the background. On screen, it still shows the unit you defined.

  • Kilograms and litres are multiplied by 1000. 2 kg of rice is stored as 2000 grams.
  • cl is multiplied by 10. 50 cl is stored as 500 ml.
  • For packed units such as case, pack, box, keg and bottle, the quantity is the number of packs times the pack content. Example: if 1 case = 12 bottles x 750 ml, 2 cases are stored as 18,000 ml.

This lets you work in grams in recipes and enter invoices in cases. Details are in 5.1.1. Raw Material Management.

Who uses which screens

In Ritapos, permissions come from roles. When you add a user, you choose a role such as Garson (waiter), Kasiyer (cashier), Mutfak (kitchen), Depo çalışanı (warehouse worker), Depo yöneticisi (warehouse manager) or İşletme yöneticisi (business manager). The steps are in 8.1. Adding Users.

The Varsayılan rol ve yetkiler (default roles and permissions) table shows what each role can do. The table is not in the new user form. It is on the Kullanıcılar (users) list page, below the user list. The columns related to this course are:

  • Raporlar (Reports): Detaylı and Günlük (detailed and daily). A role needs Detaylı to use the cost tools.
  • Reçete (Recipe): Reçeteleri değiştirebilir (can change recipes) and Reçete detaylarını görebilir (can view recipe details).
  • Ürün (Product): Düzenleyebilir (can edit) and Fiyatları değiştirebilir (can change prices).
Varsayılan rol ve yetkiler table on the users page with roles and the İşletme, Raporlar, Reçete and Ürün column groups
The Varsayılan rol ve yetkiler table

In the new user form, the Rol (role) field defaults to Özel (custom).

If you cannot see one of the stock screens in the menu, ask your business manager to check your role.

What you will learn in this course

The lessons follow the order in which a business sets up its stock system:

  1. 5.1.1. Raw Material Management: raw material groups, units and pack contents.
  2. 5.1.2. The Stock Screen and Critical Stock: stock value, minimum and ideal quantity, par stock.
  3. 5.1.3. Entering Inventory from an Invoice: incoming invoices, suppliers and weighted average cost.
  4. 5.1.4. Excel Operations: bulk upload, updates and table export.
  5. 5.1.5. Stock Count: blind counts, closing and applying a count.
  6. 5.1.6. Raw Material Waste: recording unexpected losses and their cost.
  7. 5.2. Adding and Editing Recipes: standard recipes, waste and yield.
  8. 5.3. Cost Calculation: moving recipe cost to the product and recipe analysis.
  9. 5.4. Adding a Warehouse Order: ordering raw materials from the franchise centre.
  10. 5.5. Production Module: production recipes, trim loss and batch cost, applying the production cost to the output raw material, and converting back to raw materials.
  11. 5.6. Food Cost Tool: actual versus target food cost.
  12. 5.7. Prime Cost Tool: food and staff cost together.
  13. 5.8. Menu Engineering Tool: classifying products by popularity and contribution.

To try the calculations before entering data, use the calculators on the free tools for businesses page. A general overview of stock and cost features is on the inventory and cost management page.

Sources

  • Çakır, Ş. and Özgür Göde, M. (2025). A systematic review of studies addressing the cost control process in food and beverage businesses. Journal of Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality, 7(1), 57-75. doi.org/10.48119/toleho.1643299