Operations · 3 min read
Restaurant stock transfers: how to stop inventory walking between branches
Why stock disappears between restaurant locations, how a transfer document fixes it, and a daily commissary routine for diner chains.
Key takeaways
- Every movement between your own locations should be a transfer with a sender, receiver and status.
- Stock should arrive at the receiver only when the transfer is completed.
- A commissary is just another location that transfers out every day.
- Count four or five expensive items weekly; that’s where gaps show first.
“Just grab a case from Main Street” is the most expensive sentence in a diner chain. The bacon arrives, breakfast is saved, and nobody writes it down. A month later Main Street is short, downtown has a mystery surplus, and both managers are sure the other one is wrong.
Why does stock “walk” between locations?
Because movements between your own branches are informal. Purchases have invoices; sales have receipts; but a case moved in a manager’s car has nothing. The common leaks:
- Emergency borrowing during a rush, never recorded.
- Commissary deliveries recorded as “purchases” at the branch, or not at all.
- Returns to the commissary that are forgotten.
- Adjustments typed at one end but not the other.
None of this needs dishonesty to cost money. It just needs a busy Friday.
What does a proper transfer record?
A transfer is one document with two ends. At minimum:
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Sending location | Whose stock goes down |
| Receiving location | Whose stock goes up |
| Items and quantities | What moved |
| Date and reference | When, and how to find it later |
| Status | Pending / in transit / completed |
| Created by / completed by | Who sent it, who confirmed it |
| Shipping charge (optional) | If you track delivery cost |
The key rule: stock should leave the sender and arrive at the receiver only when the transfer is completed. Until then it is in transit, counted nowhere twice.
How should a commissary run transfers?
A central kitchen is just another location. Its day usually looks like this:
- Morning production. Batter, pie filling, soups and sauces are recorded as production batches, which use up raw ingredients and add finished goods to the commissary’s stock.
- Picking. Each branch’s order is picked and a transfer created per branch.
- In transit. The driver leaves; transfers show in transit.
- Receiving. Each branch manager checks the delivery and completes the transfer, correcting quantities if something is short.
- Report. The transfer report shows what each branch received, at cost.
Because the cost moves with the stock, each branch’s food cost reflects what it really used — see food cost per plate.
What about emergencies?
Emergencies will happen; make them easy to record. The branch that needs stock creates the transfer request from its phone; the sending manager confirms quantities; the receiver completes it on arrival. Two minutes, and the books balance.
How do you find gaps quickly?
Count fewer things, more often. Pick the four or five items that cost you most — bacon, beef, eggs, coffee, cheese — and count them weekly at every location. Then compare:
- opening count + purchases + transfers in − transfers out − sales (from recipes) = expected count;
- expected − actual = the gap.
If the gap is large at one location, check pending transfers first; a transfer never completed is the most common explanation.
Setting it up
In GetDinerPOS, stock transfers are included on the Chain and Group plans, with statuses, shipping charges, lot and expiry tracking, and a transfer report filtered by location. If you run a commissary, add it as a location during setup and transfer from day one.
For the step-by-step screen guide, see Transfer stock between locations in the help center.
Written by
GetDinerPOS Onboarding Desk
Menu imports and location setup
The team that imports menus, sets up locations and roles, and writes down what trips owners up during the switch.
Tags: stock transfers, inventory, commissary, multi-location
