Non-Perishables Restocking Checklist

Print the current par sheet from MarketMan, R365, or your spreadsheet of record. Verify the par sheet matches the dry-storage layout — if the prep team reorganized the shelves last week, update the sheet before counting or numbers will not reconcile.

Count by case and unit — a partial case of #10 cans is recorded as 0.5, not 1. Walk the shelves in FIFO order so older stock is counted at the front. Chemicals (degreaser, sanitizer, dish detergent) get counted on the same pass but stored on a different shelf — never adjacent to food.

Key counts into MarketMan, R365, or Crunchtime same-day. Delayed entry creates a gap between physical and theoretical inventory and corrupts the variance report at week's end.

Any SKU under par goes on the reorder list. Cross-check against next week's reservations and special-event bookings — a 200-cover private party Saturday changes the par on canned tomatoes and to-go containers.

Pull the theoretical-usage report from R365 or MarketMan and compare line-by-line to physical count. Variances over 3% on any single SKU warrant investigation — most often the cause is a missing invoice, a miscount, or a recipe mis-spec rather than theft.

Walk the variance list with the executive chef or sous. Common causes: a vendor short-shipped without credit, a recipe yield is off, the line is over-portioning, or a count from the prior week was wrong. Document the cause for each line on the variance log.

Adjust quantities based on the 7-day forecast from the POS (Toast, Square, Aloha). Holiday weekends, private events, and seasonal menu changes all shift par. Avoid auto-reorder-to-par on dry goods that have a long shelf life — overbuying ties up cash and shelf space.

Compare Sysco, US Foods, PFG, and Restaurant Depot pricing on the top 20 SKUs by spend. Vendor reps quietly raise prices between bid cycles — without a weekly cross-check, food cost drifts up 1-2 points before anyone notices.

GM signs off on any PO over the standard weekly spend ceiling (commonly $2,500 for an independent FSR). Required check before the order is sent so a kitchen manager cannot quietly double-order a specialty item.

Open every case before signing. A driver signing for 24 when the case holds 22 is the most common quiet loss in a restaurant — no audit trail means it buries into food-cost percentage. Mark shorts, damages, and substitutions directly on the invoice in pen before the driver leaves.

Email the Sysco / US Foods / PFG rep same-day with photos of the short or damaged product and the invoice line annotated. Most distributors will not honor credit requests past 48 hours. Attach the credit memo number to the invoice in the AP folder so accounting can reconcile.

Reject any can with bulging, dents on the seam, or rust. Reject torn bags of flour or sugar — pest entry risk. Reject any case showing rodent gnaw marks, even if product looks intact. Health inspectors cite operators for accepting damaged packaging.

Pull existing stock forward, place new stock behind. Date-label every received case with the receive date using a Sharpie or dissolvable label. Skipping the date-label is how a case of canned tomatoes ends up 18 months back on the shelf.

FDA Food Code requires chemicals stored separately from food, below food storage, with original labels intact. Degreaser, sanitizer, dish detergent, and oven cleaner go on the bottom shelf of a dedicated chemical rack — never above or adjacent to food. Critical-violation territory on a health inspection.

Decanted product (flour, sugar, rice in Cambros) must carry the product name and receive date. Unlabeled white powder in a kitchen is an automatic violation. Cross-reference with allergen labels — gluten-containing flour stored near gluten-free flour is a cross-contact risk.

Scan or photograph the signed invoice into the AP folder (R365, MarginEdge, or shared drive). Note any credit memo numbers on the invoice itself. Accounting needs this same-week to close the period.

Match the PO to the received quantities in MarketMan or R365. Do not just auto-receive — the whole point of the line-by-line check at delivery was to flag discrepancies, and auto-receive erases that work.

Weekly debrief with the GM: total non-perishable spend, variance line items, vendor credits outstanding, and any par adjustments for next week. This is where pricing drift, over-ordering, and shrink get caught before they bury in the P&L.