Inventory & Waste

The Inventory & Waste section (found under Operations in the left-hand navigation) has three tabs: Stock, Requests, and Waste. What you can do on each tab depends on your role - Owners, Ops Managers, and Managers can add and fully manage items; Supervisors can record stock movements and log waste but can’t add new items or change thresholds; Employees can view stock and submit requests, but that’s it. The Requests tab shows a badge with the count of pending requests next to its tab label whenever there’s at least one.

Adding an inventory item

1. Go to Inventory & Waste (the Stock tab).
2. Click Add item (only visible to Owners, Ops Managers, and Managers).
3. Fill in the form:
   • Branch - which location the item belongs to.
   • Category - Ingredient, Packaging, Consumable, or Chemical.
   • Name of the item.
   • Current stock, a minimum stock threshold, and a unit (e.g. kg, boxes, bottles).
   • Optional supplier name and expiry date.
4. Click Add item to save it. It now appears in the item list.

Current stock and minimum stock only accept whole numbers - both fields are entered in whole-unit steps, and any value you type is rounded to the nearest integer before it’s saved. If you need fractional quantities (2.5 kg, for example), track them via the Requests tab instead, where quantities do accept decimals. Category and unit are stored and displayed exactly as entered - the category dropdown offers the four options above, but they’re saved and shown in the item table in lowercase (ingredient, packaging, consumable, chemical), and unit is a free-text field rather than a dropdown, so it’s worth agreeing on consistent unit names (kg vs kilograms) across your team.

The item list has no search box or sort control - items are always listed alphabetically by name, on both the Needs attention and All items tables. For a long list, your browser’s find-in-page search is the only way to jump straight to an item.

Recording stock movements

Anyone with stock permissions (Supervisor and above) can update an item’s quantity directly from the Stock tab:

1. Find the item in the All items table.
2. Enter a quantity in the adjust box, choose a type - Purchase, Use, Waste, or Adjust - and click Apply.
   • Purchase adds to stock (e.g. a new delivery arrived).
   • Use and Waste subtract from stock.
   • Adjust also subtracts stock, useful for correcting counts (e.g. after a stocktake).
3. The item’s stock level updates immediately, and the change is recorded as a transaction. Stock can never go below zero - if you subtract more than is currently on hand, it’s floored at 0 rather than going negative.

The adjust-quantity field only accepts whole numbers (minimum 1) - like the item’s stock fields, there’s no way to log a fractional movement (0.5 kg, for example) from here.

Items running low get their own Needs attention table at the top of the Stock tab, with quick + / − buttons (each a one-unit Adjust/Purchase) and a one-click Restock field - enter a quantity and click Restock to log a Purchase - so you don’t have to scroll to the full item list.

Every movement is logged as a transaction internally, but there’s no separate ledger or history page listing past transactions - the Stock tab only ever shows the item’s current quantity. For a record of why stock changed, log the movement through the Waste tab (for waste) so it shows up in the waste log described below; ordinary purchases and usage adjustments aren’t otherwise itemized anywhere.

Low-stock and out-of-stock alerts

The top of the Stock tab shows three live counters: Total items, Low stock, and Out of stock. An item is flagged as low stock once its current stock falls to or below its minimum stock threshold, and as out of stock once it hits zero. These two counters are mutually exclusive - an item at exactly 0 counts only toward Out of stock, not Low stock. The Needs attention table above the item list, however, shows both groups together (anything at or below its threshold, including items at 0), so an out-of-stock item still appears there even though it isn’t counted in the Low stock tile. Managers can adjust an item’s minimum stock threshold at any time by clicking the small pencil icon next to the threshold in the item table.

There’s no email or push notification for low stock - the counters and the Needs attention table are the only alerting, so someone with stock access needs to check the Stock tab to see them. If an item has an expiry date set, it’s shown under the item’s name in the All items table as “Expires on [date]”, but expiry doesn’t drive any alert or auto-waste - it’s informational only.

Inventory items can’t be deleted or archived once created - there’s no delete action on the Stock tab. If an item is discontinued, the closest options are setting its stock to 0 and its minimum threshold to 0, or simply leaving it in the list.

Requesting an item (Requests tab)

Any staff member can flag that something is missing or needs restocking, even if they can’t edit stock directly:

1. Go to the Requests tab.
2. Choose the item from the dropdown (or select Other to type in a custom item name), enter a quantity and unit, and pick a reason - Missing, Wasted, or Other.
3. Add an optional note for context, then click Submit request.

Picking an existing item from the dropdown auto-fills the unit field from that item’s stored unit (you can still edit it); picking Other lets you type a free-text item name and unit instead. Unlike stock adjustments, a request’s quantity accepts decimals (e.g. 2.5) - useful for requesting things measured by weight. If you submit a request with the unit field left blank, it’s saved as kg by default. Submitting a request doesn’t touch stock levels or create a transaction - it’s purely a message to managers that something is needed, separate from the actual Stock tab quantities.

The request appears in the list below with its status (Pending or Completed), who requested it and when. Owners, Ops Managers, and Managers can click Mark completed on a pending request once it’s been actioned; this records who completed it and when. The Requests tab in the navigation shows a badge with the number of pending requests so managers can spot outstanding ones at a glance. The list on the Requests tab itself only shows the 100 most recent requests (of any status) - older requests drop off the visible list, though the pending badge in the navigation is always based on the true total pending count, not just what’s shown. There’s no reject or delete option for a request - once submitted it stays as Pending until someone marks it Completed.

Logging waste (Waste tab)

The Waste tab is only visible to staff with stock permissions (Supervisor and above).

1. Go to the Waste tab and click Log waste.
2. Select the branch, and optionally pick a specific item (or leave it as “General” if it doesn’t map to one item).
3. Enter a reason for the waste (required), and optionally the weight in kg and a cost.
4. You can attach a photo of the waste as evidence.
5. Click Log waste to save it.

Weight accepts one decimal place (e.g. 1.5 kg); cost accepts two decimal places, matching regular currency amounts.

Each entry in the waste log shows the reason, item, weight, cost, who logged it, and when - giving managers a running record of waste for cost control. The log only displays the 50 most recent entries. The cost field is entered in your restaurant’s configured currency (shown as a currency symbol next to the field, defaulting to SEK if your restaurant hasn’t set one) and is a manual entry - logging waste here doesn’t automatically deduct the item’s quantity on the Stock tab. If you want the item’s stock count to reflect the waste too, also record a Waste-type stock movement for it from the Stock tab (see above); the two are tracked separately.

Logging a waste entry has no minimum required fields beyond branch and reason - weight, cost, item, and photo are all optional, so a quick “General” entry with just a reason is valid if you don’t have exact numbers yet.

SessionPilot OPS does not currently have a dedicated inventory temperature-logging feature. Temperature checks are handled separately as part of food-safety checklists - see the Checklists & Routines guide.

Frequently asked questions

Why can’t I add or edit an inventory item? Only Owners, Ops Managers, and Managers can add items or change minimum stock thresholds. Supervisors can adjust quantities and log waste but can’t create new items. Employees can only view stock and submit requests.

I adjusted stock but don’t see a log of what changed - where is it? There isn’t one. Stock adjustments (Purchase/Use/Waste/Adjust) update the item’s current quantity immediately but aren’t listed anywhere as a history. If you need a running record, use the Waste tab for waste specifically - it keeps a visible log with reason, weight, cost, and who logged it.

An item’s stock shows 0 but I know we still have some - what happened? Stock can’t go negative; if more was subtracted than was on hand, it’s floored at 0. Use Adjust with the correct quantity to correct it after a stocktake.

Can I remove a discontinued item from the list? No - there’s no delete action for inventory items. Set its current stock and minimum threshold to 0 instead.

Someone submitted a request for the wrong item or quantity - can I edit or delete it? No. Requests can only move from Pending to Completed; there’s no edit or delete action. Submit a new correct request and leave the old one to be marked completed (or ask the requester to add a note clarifying the mistake).

Can I enter a fractional quantity when adding or adjusting an item? Not for the item itself - current stock, minimum stock, and stock adjustment quantities are all whole numbers. If you need to track something in fractional amounts, use the Requests tab, which does accept decimal quantities.