What is delivery note control for in your restaurant?

Comparing the delivery note with the original order at the moment of delivery is the only way to spot a shortfall before you're missing product mid-service.

Nothing costs more than realising mid-service that something is missing because the supplier failed you and never said so. Checking the delivery note against the order while the boxes are still at the door saves you rushing to the corner shop to pay triple for something you'd already paid for once.

Weighing the goods against what the delivery note says is the only way to know whether you're being charged for product that never arrived.

Weigh everything you can: produce crates, sacks, bottles, the lot. You'll get more than one surprise, and those surprises almost always go against you, never in your favour. A kilo short here, a unit that never arrived there, and by month's end that's several hundred euros paid for product that never entered your kitchen. If you never weigh anything, you'll never know: the supplier won't call to tell you they overcharged you.

Reviewing delivery notes regularly is what lets you spot a price rise before it damages your menu margin.

If you review delivery notes habitually, it's far easier to catch when a supplier raises a price without telling you. That half euro extra per kilo, multiplied by the kilos you buy each month, eats your margin without you noticing it in the till.

Doing it in your head, product by product and supplier by supplier, is impossible. And dumping it all into a spreadsheet isn't a plan for anyone who has to stay behind the pass. For this, better lean on market tools that do it for you.

Having orderly delivery notes is what lets you demand a supplier fix a poorly handled return, instead of paying for it without noticing.

Whoever controls their delivery notes controls what they owe each supplier, not a euro more. Then it turns out supplier systems «always fail» and they end up overcharging you because a return was never handled properly. With the delivery note in hand, you win that conversation, not them.

Delivery note control is the foundation of the most important figure on your P&L: real food cost.

If you control every supplier, you control your food cost. And that is the number that decides whether your business is giving you what you deserve for the effort of every day, or whether someone is eating it along the way without you noticing. It doesn't have to be a month-end shock: with the right control, you have that figure clear every day, not when it's too late. It fits with knowing how to build a recipe costing and calculate the food cost and gross margin of each dish.

If doing all this by hand, with tweezers, a scale and memory, isn't for you (and it doesn't have to be; you've got enough on your plate getting service out), try Tipi. You'll thank yourself.