Venheim
A staff member checks the open fridge and taps on a tablet

Inventory · Stocktake · Ordering

Inventory management for hospitality: stock on the phone

The team records deliveries, waste and counts on their own phones; the manager approves, reorders per supplier with one email and sees the cost-of-goods ratio in the financial cockpit. For small hospitality businesses in Austria and Germany.

Start free

Try Premium for 30 days, no payment details. After that your business carries on free on the Start plan; records stay readable and exportable.

The sign-up form is in German for now. Inside the app, everyone picks their own language — nine languages, English included.

In short

Inventory management in hospitality means: the team records deliveries, outgoings and stocktake counts on their own phones, and the stock only calculates with bookings the manager has approved. Consumption produces an order suggestion, and from it a finished order per supplier, email included — best-before batches are created automatically at goods receipt.

How it worksthree routes into stock

Inventory management in hospitality: what changes the stock in kitchen and bar

Three routes change the stock, and all three run through the same phone that is in your pocket anyway. Only bookings the manager has approved are counted — more on that in a moment.

Receipts from deliveries

The delivery is booked on the phone at goods receipt — item, quantity, best-before date. With the manager's approval the receipt enters the stock, the best-before batch along with it.

Outgoings from the business

Whatever leaves the business is recorded as an outgoing — waste always with reason and quantity, so it stays traceable what disappeared where, instead of silently missing from the stock.

Stocktake counts

Counting happens on the phone, item by item. A count sets the stock to the counted value — differences from the expected figure become visible instead of adding up over months.

The stock as counts and approvals make it — whatever falls below the minimum is at the top with “urgent first”.Demo data from the sample business Cafe Sunshine, app shown in German
Four eyesmanager approval

Four eyes before a number may enter the stock

The team's bookings and counts first land as “pending” and only take effect when the manager approves them. A mistyped carton with 100 instead of 10 pieces, a delivery booked twice, a count on the wrong item — all of that shows up in the approval before it distorts the stock.

  • The rule sits in the database, not just in the interface — a detour around the app changes nothing
  • The manager sees person, time and quantity of every pending booking
  • Typos and shrinkage become visible while they can still be corrected

And if something does slip through: the manager reverses a wrongly recorded delivery on the same day, with a reason, instead of sitting it out. It is not deleted — it stays in the history as voided, with reason, person and time, and the stock calculates without it from then on. The receipt mirrored into the daily count is reversed with it; otherwise consumption at the end of the month would no longer be right.

Why that makes the difference

A stock you can trust is the whole point of inventory management. Where every entry counts immediately, a single typo is carried along for weeks — here a second pair of eyes checks before anything is calculated. The approval itself is one tap in the approvals centre, not a paper process.

Best-before and receiptbatch and photo

Best-before under control, receipt included

Best-before & batches

At goods receipt the batch is created with its best-before date. Stock is taken on the principle “first expiring, first out” — and waste is always booked with reason and quantity, never as a silent correction.

Delivery note photographed, receipt filed

At goods receipt the delivery note or invoice is photographed with the phone. The photo goes into the receipt archive, grouped by month — nothing is ever deleted; a wrong receipt is voided with a reason and stays traceable.

Every batch with expiry date and traffic light — what expires first is at the top, and every row comes with a decision: used, discarded or corrected.Demo data from the sample business Cafe Sunshine, app shown in German
Reorderingone email per supplier

Reordering: from consumption, one email per supplier

The order suggestion comes from consumption — whatever is running low shows up on the radar. From the selection, Venheim makes a finished order per standard supplier, which goes out as an order email directly from the app.

  • Order email directly from the app — the supplier's reply goes to the manager
  • One order per standard supplier instead of a combined list to sort apart
  • On arrival the delivery is booked against the order — with best-before date and receipt

The suggestion remains a suggestion

Nothing is ordered until the manager checks the order and sends it. Venheim never orders on its own — it saves the manager the gathering, not the decision.

Cost of goodsrecipes and till

From purchase price to cost-of-goods ratio

Costing through recipes

Every item carries its purchase price; through the recipes this becomes the cost of goods per portion. The cost-of-goods ratio is in the financial cockpit — with the data coverage shown: only complete costings count, no polished figures.

Till against count

The cash register (German guide) remains the record; Venheim only reads it: helloCash and ready2order deliver their daily revenue automatically, any other till comes in by CSV or through the open interface. This revenue stands next to the app's counts — a discrepancy shows up within the month, not only when the tax advisor asks.

The till delivers its daily revenue by itself, so nobody types it in — and every day stands next to the business's own count, deviation included.Demo data from the sample business Cafe Sunshine, app shown in German
Appointmentsin every plan

Whatever has a date belongs in a calendar — and it costs nothing

A batch that expires next week, an order due on Thursday, the dishwasher's maintenance, the hygiene training in March: that is four slips in four places — or one list with a traffic light for overdue, due soon and planned. The appointment calendar gathers these due dates from the modules in which they arise anyway, and reminds by itself.

Things are ticked off where they belong: a best-before batch is closed on the best-before page, not in the calendar — otherwise there would be two ways to change the same record row. And an overdue appointment never rolls on silently; it stays until someone really ticks it off.

This module is included in every plan, including the Start plan, which is free for good. Keeping track of deadlines is a duty — and a duty does not go behind a paywall.

The month with a traffic light — overdue, due soon, planned. An overdue appointment stays until it is ticked off.Demo data from the sample business Cafe Sunshine, app shown in German
Sales modebar, vending, shop

Sales mode for bar, vending machine — and the small shop

Where items are sold individually, one tile per product counts: a tap counts the sale, the price is frozen when counting — later price changes do not distort old statistics. The stock only changes with “container empty” and the manager's approval.

Via the product category “Retail”, the same stock and the same sales mode also cover a small shop next to the restaurant — one system, one stock, one report.

No signal in the cold room? No problem.

Clocking in and out, temperatures, cleaning and maintenance ticks, stocktake counts and inspection dates work without a connection — the app can even be restarted with no signal. Every entry keeps the time it was tapped and is sent automatically later: time-clock entries for up to 3 days, everything else for up to 7 days. Nothing is thrown away. Approvals, orders, reports and chat need a connection — they depend on data only the server knows at the moment of the decision.

Honestly: Venheim is not a butchery or cutting ERP, has no scale connection and is not a cash register. The till stays the till and therefore the record — Venheim reads its daily revenue (helloCash and ready2order by themselves, any other by CSV or interface) and reconciles it with the counts.
A tap counts the sale; only “container empty” books the stock out, and that takes effect once the manager approves.Demo data from the sample business Cafe Sunshine, app shown in German
In the logbook

Inventory management is one building block of the digital operations logbook — together with HACCP records, roster and time tracking. To the operations logbook.

Price

One price per site, unlimited team

€39.90 Pro·€69.90 Premiumper site per month. Prices shown are final prices — as a small business under § 6 (1) no. 27 of the Austrian VAT Act (UStG), we do not charge VAT. The Start plan is free for good — with roster, time clock, chat and HACCP recording including Excel download.One-off €199.00 setup fee with monthly payment — waived with annual payment. All prices

Start free
Questions10 answers

Frequently asked questions

What does inventory management for food and drink need?
Food expires. That is why goods receipt creates a best-before batch with its expiry date for every delivery, stock is taken on the principle “first expiring, first out”, and waste is always booked with reason and quantity. Through the recipes, the purchase price becomes the cost of goods per portion, and the cost-of-goods ratio is in the financial cockpit. The team's bookings and counts only take effect after the manager approves them, so that a typo in the kitchen or at the bar does not silently distort the stock.
How does the opening stock get into the app?
Through the first stocktake count: add items, count stock — every count sets the item to the counted value, and from then on approved deliveries and outgoings keep the calculation going. An import from an old system is not needed; many businesses start with the most important items and add the rest bit by bit. If the team counts, the count waits as “pending” for the manager's approval — only then does it change the stock.
What happens with shrinkage?
Shrinkage shows up in two places: waste is always booked with a reason and quantity — so the manager sees what disappears where —, and the stocktake count reveals the difference between expected and counted stock. Because the team's bookings and counts only take effect after approval, not even a typo distorts the stock silently. Software cannot prevent shrinkage; it can make it visible.
What do we do if a delivery was booked wrongly?
The manager reverses it on the same day, with a reason. Nothing is deleted: the booking stays in the history as voided — with reason, person and time —, and the stock calculates without it from then on. The receipt mirrored into the daily count is reversed too, so that consumption is right at the end of the month. For older bookings this route is deliberately closed — there the correction goes through a stocktake count that sets the stock to the counted value and stays visible as a separate step. Quietly reversing last week's booking would be exactly what the approval is built against.
Does the team need training?
Not for recording: booking a delivery, entering waste and counting take a few taps on their own phones, and because the team's bookings and counts only take effect after approval, the manager catches a learner's mistake before it changes the stock. The manager needs a short introduction for approvals, item maintenance and ordering — the first goods receipt, gone through together, is enough for that.
Does it work with our cash register?
Yes: helloCash and ready2order are fetched automatically every day (plus “till today” every hour); any other till comes in as a CSV file or through the open interface. Venheim compares the daily revenue with the app's counts — a discrepancy between till revenue and counted sales shows up within the month, not only at the tax advisor's. Venheim itself is not a cash register; the receipt signature stays with the till system.
What is included in the free plan?
Inventory management — stock, stocktake, suppliers, ordering — belongs to the Pro plan. What is a legal duty stays free: recording best-before batches and waste also works on the Start plan, and viewing and exporting always remain possible, even after a subscription has expired. To try it out there are 30 days of Premium without payment details; after that the business continues on the Start plan.
Is Venheim a full inventory ERP?
No, and that is intentional: Venheim is the inventory management of a hospitality business, not a butchery or cutting ERP. There is no scale connection and no cash register — the till stays the till, Venheim reconciles its revenue with the counts. Anyone who cuts and weighs needs an industry ERP; anyone who wants to keep stock, best-before batches, orders and cost of goods for a hospitality business finds exactly that here.
How is the order suggestion created?
From consumption: the app sees what is running low and suggests the reorder. The selection becomes a finished order per standard supplier, which goes out as an order email directly from the app — the supplier's reply goes to the manager. The suggestion remains a suggestion: nothing is ordered until the manager checks it and sends it.
Does it also cover a small shop next to the restaurant?
Yes. The sales mode is the same: one tile per product, one tap counts the sale, the price is frozen when counting — the stock only changes with “container empty” and the manager's approval. Via the product category “Retail” the same stock covers a small shop or a vending machine as well; no second system is needed for that.

Inventory management without slips and gut feeling

Add items, do the first stocktake, invite the team — the first delivery is booked the same day, with receipt photo and best-before batch.

Start free

Try Premium for 30 days, no payment details. After that your business carries on free on the Start plan; records stay readable and exportable.

The sign-up form is in German for now. Inside the app, everyone picks their own language — nine languages, English included.