Restaurant purchasing is one loop, run weekly (or daily), across every vendor you buy from: know what you need, order it per vendor before each cutoff, receive what actually arrives, reconcile what it actually cost, and let that feed the next order. Most restaurants run pieces of this loop well and other pieces from memory — and food cost drifts in the gaps between the pieces.
This is the hub for the whole loop. Each section gives you the working version in a few paragraphs, then links the deep guide, the template, and the tool for that step. Read it straight through if you're setting up purchasing from scratch; jump to the broken step if you're here to fix one thing.
Step 1: Know your vendors and how ordering actually works
The structure of restaurant supply: a broadline distributor for 40–70% of purchases, plus produce, protein, bread, dairy, and beverage specialists — each with its own cutoff, delivery days, minimum, and ordering channel. Every vendor is its own workflow, and nothing about your Sysco account helps you order from the produce house.
- Deep guide: How Restaurants Order from Food Distributors — accounts, terms, pricing basis, portals, credits
- Choosing software for this step: Restaurant Vendor Ordering Software — the closed-loop vs form-filler test
Step 2: Build one order guide per vendor
The order guide is the load-bearing document: every item you buy from that vendor, in shelf order, with pack size, last price, and par. Someone walks the walk-in with it before the cutoff, and par minus on-hand — rounded to whole packs — is the order.