Take your first inventory count

Your first inventory count records what is on your shelves today, product by product, and becomes the baseline for burn rate, cost reports, low-stock alerts and order recommendations. Start a session on the Inventory Count page, count one storage area at a time, save as you go, and tap Complete session to lock it in.

Before you count

You need:

A few storage areas that match how you walk the kitchen (Walk-in, Freezer, Dry Storage, Bar).
The products that live in those storage areas, with the right default unit and case size.
Optional: suppliers linked so the order list knows where things come from.

If you skipped product setup, do that first. Product setup overview covers what each field means.

Starting a session

Go to Inventory Count.
Tap Start new session. Rinvy creates one active session for your restaurant — multiple people on your team can count in the same session simultaneously.
Pick a storage area. You'll see every product in that storage area in a count list. Storage areas appear in your kitchen's walk order, so counting follows the path you actually walk the kitchen.

Until a session is open, the count page shows a start screen with a single Start new session action (plus Recount auto-tracked items if you have auto-tracked products).

The inventory count start screen with a Ready to count heading and a persimmon Start new session button above a Recount auto-tracked items button

How do I count a product that comes in cases?

Enter full cases in Cases and the loose amount in the second field, and Rinvy adds them up into one total. The inputs depend on whether the product has a case size:

No case size: a single number input in the default unit (e.g. 12 lb).
With case size: two inputs side by side that add up automatically — Cases, then a second field labeled with the product's counting unit for whatever is loose on the shelf (e.g. 2 cases + 6 each with case size 25 = 56 each).

A count row with a single-unit input for Bottled Cola beside a Cases-plus-loose input for Cheddar Cheese that adds up to a running total of 15 lb

If a product has purchase options, the row shows a Count in selector so you can count in one of its packs (e.g. tubes) instead of cases — the total still saves in the product's own unit either way.

Because Rinvy does the pack math, nobody has to convert units on the walk-in floor. Mixed units are a known source of mistakes: NIST's Office of Weights and Measures warns on its unit conversion page that errors and mishaps may result when several measurement systems are used at the same time.

If the on-hand quantity is already correct, you can tap Confirm as-is to keep the prior value rather than retyping.

Counting status-tracked products

Three buttons: OK, LOW, OUT. No numbers required. Tap whichever matches what you see on the shelf.

A status-tracked Napkins row with an OK, LOW, and OUT button toggle and no quantity input

Saving counts vs. completing the session

Save counts saves what you've entered so far in that storage area. You can come back, edit, and re-save before completing the session.
Complete session locks in the counts of every storage area as the baseline. After completion, edits require either staying within the 24-hour staff self-edit window or a manager/owner override.
No signal? If you save counts while your phone is offline, Rinvy keeps them on the phone and sends them when you reconnect. Until they reach Rinvy, the button reads N saves waiting to sync and you cannot complete the session. Tap Retry sync once you have signal again.

The session screen showing a storage area progress bar reading 1 of 2, a Dry Storage card marked Completed next to an uncounted Walk-in Cooler, and the Complete session button in the top right

Products counted in more than one place

A product can have extra places, for example butter in the walk-in and in the bakery fridge. The product shows in the count list of each of its places. In each place, count only what is in front of you, and Rinvy adds the places up into one total. If you skip a place, Rinvy keeps its last count, so a partial count never makes stock look lower than it is.

For the full guide, see Count a product in more than one place.

Counting with your team

Multiple people can be in the same active session. The presence indicator on each storage area shows who's working where so two people don't count the same storage area independently and overwrite each other.

What changes after the first complete count

Current stock is populated for every counted product.
Low-stock alerts start firing.
Inventory Value and Spending reports work immediately for owners and managers (staff don't see reports).
Burn rate starts accumulating. Order list quality and prep-list recommendations get better with every subsequent count.
Food Cost, Waste, Counting, Product, Menu Item, and Variance reports become meaningful with two counts — they compare consecutive baselines.

In accounting terms, this first count is your beginning inventory. IRS Publication 334 builds cost of goods sold from beginning inventory, purchases and closing inventory, and Rinvy's Food Cost report uses the same layout between two counts. The second count closes the first period.

What the first week can look like

Counting the walk-in cooler first

Your team starts with the walk-in because that's where the highest-value perishables live. You set up 18 products (chicken, beef, dairy, produce) with correct units and case sizes, then run a count one morning before service.

Result: every walk-in product has a baseline. Low-stock alerts immediately flag two items below minimum stock. By the next count three days later, burn rate has started to make ordering recommendations.

Add dry storage and the bar in the following days.

Common mistakes

Trying to count the whole kitchen on day one

Start with one storage area, learn the workflow, then add the rest. A first count of 20 items is more useful than a half-finished count of 200.

Wrong case size

If a product's case size doesn't match the supplier pack, the case+loose math will be off. Fix the case size on the product before counting (or count in single units only).

Skipping products that look uncountable

For things like napkins or to-go boxes, switch the product to status-tracked before counting so OK/LOW/OUT is enough. See choose the right product type.

Counting without completing the session

Each count you save updates current stock right away, so the stock levels, low-stock alerts and the order list already use it. But some features wait for a completed session: the Food Cost report and inventory health only read completed counts. Complete the session before you walk away, or those features will still measure from your last completed count.