Today
Stock systems die because nobody has time to keep them updated.
With Inventory Management
There is almost nothing to keep updated. Catalogue once; a purchase is four numbers; usage is marking a sack done. Everything else is derived, not typed.
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Inventory Management
Know what runs out, before it runs out.
Stock software usually fails for one reason: it asks somebody to keep it updated. This one is built around how a kitchen actually buys — the same twenty-odd things, over and over. You enter the catalogue once. After that a purchase is picking the item and typing four numbers, and consumption is “that sack is finished”. From only that, it works out the date each item runs out, warns you before it bites, and tells you what this month actually cost.
4
numbers to record a purchase
12
items in the starter catalogue
10
categories, grain to gas
0
stock-take evenings
Who it is for
You will recognise yourself in at least one of these.
- ▸
Mess and canteen kitchens buying in sacks, crates, tins and cylinders
- ▸
Hostel and college kitchens with a monthly budget to answer for
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Owners who find out the rice is finished when the cook tells them
- ▸
Anyone whose stock system is a photo of a diary page
What it removes
The four things that actually cost you.
Today
You find out an item is finished when the kitchen has already stopped.
With Inventory Management
Each item carries a projected run-out date based on how fast the last lots actually went. Low stock warns you while you can still do something about it.
Today
Nobody can say what the kitchen cost this month, or why it went up.
With Inventory Management
Cost per pack, cost per kilo, and month spend by category — from the purchases you were already recording.
Today
A sack of rice lasts “about a week”, which is not a number you can plan on.
With Inventory Management
It becomes a real number. Each lot records when it was opened and when it was finished, so how long a sack lasts stops being folklore.
Inside
Everything it does.
A catalogue you enter once
Tur dal, sold in 30 kg sacks. Milk, in 20 litre cans. Set it up once and stop describing it.
- ·Starter catalogue so you are not staring at an empty list
- ·Ten categories from grain to gas
- ·Your own pack labels — sack, crate, tin, cylinder
A purchase is four numbers
Pick the item, enter packs, cost, date and when you expect it to finish. That is the whole entry.
- ·Every lot kept separately
- ·Cost per pack and per unit computed
- ·No supplier onboarding, no PO workflow
Run-out dates, not guesses
A projected finish date for every item, from how the previous lots actually behaved.
- ·Low-stock warnings before it bites
- ·Days of cover per item
- ·Sorted by what needs attention first
What the month cost
Spend by category and by item, without a spreadsheet in the middle.
- ·Month-on-month movement
- ·Cost per sack over time
- ·Export to a sheet when you need to
Consumption as it happens
“Two sacks done” is the whole interaction, recorded against the lot it came from.
- ·Usage history per lot
- ·Real shelf life per item
- ·No stock-take evening
Wired into the mess
It ships inside MessMate, so the kitchen that feeds 300 students and the stock that feeds the kitchen are one system.
- ·Same login, same roles
- ·Owner, rector and college admin access
- ·Works standalone too
Getting started
Running in an afternoon, not a quarter.
1
Load the catalogue
Start from the twelve items every kitchen buys, then add your own. Five minutes, once.
2
Record purchases as they arrive
Item, packs, cost, date. The lot is now tracked and costed.
3
Mark things finished
That is the only ongoing habit. From it, everything else — run-out dates, real shelf life, monthly cost — falls out.
Questions
The ones people actually ask.
Is this a separate app?+
It ships as a module inside MessMate today, under the same login and the same roles. If you want it on its own for a kitchen that does not run a mess, that is a conversation worth having — talk to us.
Do I have to weigh things?+
No. It is built around packs — sacks, crates, tins, cylinders — because that is how kitchens actually buy. Per-unit cost is worked out from the pack size you set once.
What if I forget to mark a sack finished?+
The projection quietly gets less accurate; nothing breaks. Mark it when you remember and the history corrects itself.
Can I get the data out?+
Yes. Exports are part of the product, not a paid add-on.
Something not covered here?
Ready to stop running this on memory?
Tell us what you run and what the worst part of your month is. We set it up with you — your structure, your formats, your logins.