Free download
UK restaurant stocktake template
A stocktake sheet that actually does the maths. Closing stock value, cost of sales, gross profit and variance are all live formulas — enter your counts and the numbers move.
Built for UK venues, so VAT is handled the way it actually works here: costs ex-VAT, sales stripped back from your VAT-inclusive takings. No email address, no signup, no watermark.
What’s in it
Stocktake
Your item list with opening, purchased and closing quantities. Used quantity, cost of use and closing value calculate themselves.
Gross profit
Reads closing stock straight from the stocktake tab, strips VAT out of your sales properly, and gives you cost of sales and GP as cash and percentage.
Variance
What you expected to have against what you actually counted, with the thresholds worth acting on and the order to investigate in.
Read me
How to run the count so the numbers mean something — the same order, the same moment, ex-VAT costs throughout.
Getting a count that means something
Count at the same moment every time. After close, before any delivery. A count taken mid-delivery tells you nothing, and one taken at a different point each week cannot be compared with the last one.
Walk the room the same way. Dry store, fridge, freezer, bar. Consistency catches more errors than accuracy does — if you always count in the same order, a missed shelf shows up as an obvious gap rather than a plausible number.
Use ex-VAT costs throughout. Your supplier invoices are ex-VAT and your menu prices are inclusive. Mixing the two overstates your margin by a fifth, and it is the most common reason a stocktake disagrees with the accounts.
Investigate variance in order. Wastage log first, then deliveries against invoices, then portion sizes, and only then theft. Most variance is recording, not stealing — and assuming otherwise costs you a good chef.
What a spreadsheet can’t do
It can’t read your invoices. Every price change, every new product, every pack size has to be typed in by hand — and that is where the hours actually go, not the counting. It also won’t tell you when a supplier quietly puts a price up; you find that out months later, if at all.
FoxEra does that part. Photograph a supplier invoice and every line goes into your stock, recipes re-cost themselves, and a price rise shows up the day it happens. It’s free — no card, no contract.
Common questions
- How do I do a stocktake in a restaurant?
- Count after close and before any delivery, so nothing moves mid-count. Walk the room the same way every time — dry store, fridge, freezer, then bar. Record quantities against a fixed item list, value them at your latest cost excluding VAT, then compare what you used against what you sold.
- How do you calculate closing stock value?
- Multiply the counted quantity of each item by its unit cost excluding VAT, then add them up. Use ex-VAT costs throughout: mixing VAT-inclusive and VAT-exclusive figures is the single most common reason a stocktake comes out wrong.
- How do you work out cost of sales from a stocktake?
- Cost of sales = opening stock + purchases − closing stock, all excluding VAT. Divide that by your net sales (menu takings ÷ 1.2 in the UK) to get cost of sales as a percentage. Gross profit is what's left.
- How much stock variance is normal?
- Under 1–2% across most items is within normal counting tolerance. Over 3% on one item, or the same item drifting every week, needs investigating. Check in this order: the wastage log, deliveries against invoices, portion sizes, then theft.
- Is this stocktake template really free?
- Yes. No email address, no signup, no watermark. Download it, change it, share it with your team. There is no catch and nothing to unsubscribe from.