Inventory Configuration and Management Step-by-Step Guide

All Inventory configuration and edits are conducted through Clover Sport Manager (manager.bypassmobile.com). Complete all of the steps in this guide in order to successfully launch and manage your inventory using Clover Sport Manager.

Clover Sport inventory can be broken into two stages; Configuring Inventory and Managing  Inventory. Configuring inventory is what you need to do to get the Inventory system up and running when you start using Clover point of sale devices. Managing inventory is all of the steps that are ongoing throughout the year to ensure that your inventory counts and reporting data are accurate.

It is important to understand that Clover Sport Manager is designed to conduct both Perpetual Inventory and Audited Inventory. 

Perpetual inventory makes use of recipes. Recipes are a collection of stock items attached to a menu item. Each time a sale is made at the register (button push of menu item), stock items are depleted from inventory and the cost of goods out of stock is updated. 

Audited inventory does not make use of recipes. Stock items tracked in Audited Inventory are not attached to recipes. Instead, these stock items are only counted in a monthly audit. The monthly counts are then compared to the sales made of that item during the month to measure the variance. 

All items can be counted in a monthly audit, regardless if they were in a recipe or not. 

If your inventory has not been configured or you want a refresher on how to configure new inventory visit the Configure Inventory section of this article, which includes the steps to follow to launch inventory for the first time. If your Inventory is already configured visit the Manage Inventory Section.



Configure Inventory + Launch Inventory for the First Time

1. Create Menu Items
2. Create Stock Items & Configure Units of Measure
3. Create Recipes
4. Create Warehouses
5. Create Suppliers
6. Create Your First Purchase Order
7. Perform Your First Transfers into Stands
8. Connect Recipes to Menu Items
9. Create an Event Template and Event Type (optional)
10. Create Your First Event
11. Verify Your First Event's Standsheets
12. Analyze Your First Event's Reports

Manage Inventory

• Create Purchase Orders
• Perform Transfers into Stands
• Create Events
• Verify and Manage Your Standsheets
• Create New Menu Items, Stock Items, and Recipes as Needed
• Perform Monthly Audits

Configure Inventory

1. Create Menu Items

Menu Items - Clover Sport Help Center

Items in Clover Sport Manager represent what you sell on the point of sale. Creating your Menu Items is the first step to managing inventory with Clover Sport. Menu items will connect to Stock Items through a Recipe so that you can track the Stock Items that leave your stand as you sell Menu Items.

2. Create Stock Items & Configure Units of Measure

Stock Items - Clover Sport Help Center

Stock Items represent the physical goods at your venue that can be counted in the Clover Sport inventory system. Before you can effectively track inventory, you need to create the foundation for how items are used in your venue by assigning the appropriate Units of Measure to each stock item. 

Understanding Units of Measure – Clover Sport Help Center

Units of Measure are the breakdown of units of stock items. In Clover Sport, Units of Measure (UOM) can be set as the default for several different inventory actions. Three key questions we ask when setting up the Units of Measure are:

1. What unit do we sell on a menu? If we don't sell the item, what is the lowest unit we count it by?

• Base - The smallest amount an item can be measured in (as an example, liquids can be measured in ounces or hot dog buns are measured a single bun). Typically this is how the item is sold. 
• The Quantity of Base is always 1. 

2. What unit do we purchase from our supplier?

• Purchasing -  Displays this unit of measurement when purchasing this item.  

3. What unit do we transfer to our stands?

• Transferring - Displays this unit of measurement when transferring inventory.

3. Create Recipes

Recipes – Clover Sport Help Center

Recipes are groups of one or more Stock Items. Recipes are attached to menu items to track the depletion of inventory when that item is sold or to track the movement of inventory when that item is transferred to a new location. Instead of thinking of a cheeseburger as a menu item, a recipe sees a cheeseburger as a bun, a patty, and cheese.

You will create Recipes for every Menu Item that you would like to track using Perpetual Inventory. Items that you don't want to be auto-depleted from your inventory counts will not be included in a recipe. Those items can be audited monthly so you can gather the current counts and value of that item that you have on hand at the end of the month. 

4. Create Warehouses

Creating and Editing Warehouses – Clover Sport Help Center

To manage and receive inventory in Clover Sport, you will need a place to store incoming inventory that has been purchased from your suppliers. A Warehouse will act as the digital place incoming inventory is stored before you transfer it into your Locations (stands). You cannot purchase stock items and receive them directly into your stands. They must be purchased into a Warehouse first. 

5. Create Suppliers

Creating a Supplier – Clover Sport Help Center (bypassmobile.com)

When receiving Stock Items, your goods are delivered to your venue by Suppliers. You will need to create all of your Suppliers in order to create Purchase Orders.  

Launch Inventory for the First Time

6. Create Your First Purchase Order

How to Process Purchasing Orders – Clover Sport Help Center

To start with an accurate inventory count at each location, you will receive your current stock items into Clover Sport Manager through purchase orders.  Before you receive your items, you will need to count all of your current inventory on hand at your warehouses and your locations (Stands). Also, note any stock items that you may be missing from your Stock Items in Clover Sport Manager. These will need to be manually created before you create your first P.O. Note the price and the units of measure for these. 

• If you do not keep your purchase orders and transfers up to date, you may deplete your expected stock counts to negative values on the standsheet and on the inventory status page. 

7. Perform Your First Transfers into Stands

Inventory Transfers - Clover Sport Help Center

Before your first event, you will create transfers into your stands of your current counts on hand. That way, when you sell goods at your first event, you will have accurate counts instead of depleting your stands from 0 to the negatives. One way to make this easier for yourself is to:

1.  Decide what your par counts are for each stand. 

2. Count your current inventory at every stand and physically (in real life) transfer in the amounts you need to bring that location to par.

3. Create closed transfers from your warehouses to your stands according to the pars. 

4. Once you've completed a transfer, you can set the pars at every location listed in Inventory Status. That way, in the future you can use the Bring to par function which auto calculates the number of stock items you need to transfer to bring the stand back to 100%. 

8. Connect Recipes to Menu Items

How to Track Inventory for a Menu Item – Clover Sport Help Center

Once all of your Recipes are created and you've transferred all of your stock items into your stands, you will attach the Recipes to the Menu Items.

If you don't attach a recipe to a menu item, that menu item's stock items will not auto-deplete from the counts. Stock items that are not in a recipe can be tracked through your monthly audits. 

9. Create Event Templates and Event Types (optional)

How to Create an Event Template – Clover Sport Help Center

Event Templates allow you to set certain settings that never change for your events to speed up the process of creating Events in advance.

• Event Template Name - The name of the event template.
• Event Type - A filter that allows you to group events by Type in Reports. 
• Event Start and End time - Set the event time frame and select all locations that will be utilized during the event. 
  • Make sure to leave at least 30 minutes to an hour before and 2-4 hours after the actual door open/close times, which allows for any prep or closing to be recorded under the event.
  • If you are accepting cash payments, you may want to set up Cash Room. 
• Mobile Ordering Fulfillment Time - The window that allows mobile orders to be placed.
• Locations:
  • All Locations: Event utilizes all Locations.
  • Select Locations: Event utilizes only some Locations. 

How to Create an Event Type - Clover Sport Help Center

Event Types are an additional filter you can apply to your reports so that you can filter sales data from specific event types in your reports such as football games, concerts, etc.

10. Create Your First Event

How to Create an Event – Clover Sport Help Center

Creating Events is required for you to utilize Standsheets and Cash Room which allows you to track inventory per event and manage cash. Events are also the only way to get important reporting information during event times.

Under Events > Events, create your Event. Set the event time frame and select all locations utilized during the event.

• Make sure to leave 30-60 mins before and 2-6 hours after the actual event times, which allows for any prep or closing to be recorded under the event. Verify that all locations have menus, and all expected menu items are attached to that menu.

11. Verify Your First Event's Standsheets

How to Use Standsheets - Clover Sport Help Center

Standsheets help you keep track of any variance during an event at a specific location between your POS Sales and your GOS Sales (Goods Out of Stock). It is imperative to verify your standsheet has the correct stock items on it before your first event. Ideally, this is completed 1-2 days before your event. 

We recommend that you create a separate event used only to verify your standsheets because once a standsheet is created there are certain updates that cannot be made. 

Under Events > Standsheets, select the location that you would like to create a standsheet for and click Create. Then click Edit.

• Do not open the standsheet until you have verified the items are correct and there are no missing items. 

Under the Verify tab, verify that all desired stock items appear in standsheets. The easiest way to quickly identify missing stock items is looking for menu items that do not have a black caret next to them. 

• Verify stock items the day before an event. (Any changes made to standsheets mid-event cannot be retroactively tracked.)

Below is an example of menu items that do not have a recipe attached. This means that there are currently no stock items associated with that menu item to be counted on the standsheet.

If you find that some menu items are missing a recipe, go to POS Manager > Menu Manager, search for the item, and attach the recipe to the menu item. 

Make sure that all countable and chargeable stock items appear correctly on standsheets.

• All items that are counted on the standsheet should have a green checkmark in the Countable column.
• Only one item per recipe should have a green checkmark in the Chargeable column.

Print standsheets to give to each stand so they can write down start counts (optional).

Open the standsheet.

• You will not be able to input counts into the standsheet until the event start time. 

Complete start counts of the stand to input into the standsheets.

• After the stands have finished the starting counts, they may input counts into the register (make sure to hit green “tap to save” before backing out of standsheet so the counts are reflected in Manager). All counts that are inputted and saved on the register will automatically fill in on the standsheet in Clover Sport Manager for that location.
• Alternatively, they may write it down on the paper only and submit all counts at the end of the night.

12. Analyze Your First Event's Reports

At the end of your event, this will be the time to analyze your Sales reports, Standsheet/Reconciliation reports, and Inventory reports. 

Reports - Clover Sport Help Center

• Close out reports:
  • • Reports on the Terminal:
      • Sales Report: Summary of sales at that concession
      • Terminal Sales Report: Summary of sales done on that terminal
      • Sold Products: List of products and quantity sold at that location
      • Local Terminal Report: A quick view of the total payments made on the terminal since login
• Key Sales Reports:
  • Totals Report
    • Reporting Group Sales
    • Broken down by Payment type
  • Tips Report by Order Taker: shows tips for individual cashiers or servers
  • Tips Report by Device: convenient for pooling tips
  • Menu Mix
    Filter by item to show you how individual menu items are doing, % of sales for that item
  • POS Item Sales by Location: if using modifiers, this is the report to view to see how add-ons are doing
• Inventory Reports: 
  • Transfer Summary: calculates the cost of transfers you make
  • Waste/Gratis: waste and gratis are calculated off the waste and gratis columns in the standsheet
  • Supplier Purchase Summary: a summary of purchase orders  
  • Inventory Detail Report: estimates of the value of the current count on hand based on the Inventory Status page (counts are based on your purchase orders and transfers to the stands)
• GOS Reports: these reports are all based off of your standsheet data. 
• Reconciliation Reports: these reports are based on cashroom and standsheets
  Cash over short summary is based on cash room, must use cash room to be able to get this report
  
  • POS to GOS to Receipts: POS to GOS should always be $0.00 (otherwise need to recount)
    GOS Reports: Waste and gratis comes from standsheets.
• Discount reports: can see the amount of discounts applied, can click on the # of discounts applied to pull up the order ID to see the order where the discount was applied and which discount it was
  Cannot see promotions on orders, no report to show us application of promos
• Location interval sales: by 30 mins and hour
  Shown in military time
  If no sales made in that hour, it will not appear on the report
• Finance: Sales tax summary
  Can break up tax rates so that when I look at that report, I can get the tax broken up by the individual taxes

Manage Inventory

Managing your inventory throughout the year requires you to do the following:

Create Purchase Orders

Every time you make a purchase order at one of your Supplier's websites, make it a habit to make the same purchase order in Clover Sport Manager. This keeps your Purchase Summary Report up to date, your cost queues up to date, and your current counts up to date in your Warehouses. 

Perform Transfers into Stands

Every time you physically transfer goods to a stand for an event, make it a habit to make the transfer in Clover Sport Manager. This keeps your current counts up to date at your Locations and is vital to the accuracy of the perpetual inventory system. 

Create Events

Create your Events in advance so that you can track your sales and Cost of Goods out of Stock for every event at your venue. 

Verify and Manage Your Standsheets

For every event, verify and manage your Standsheets in the same way you did for your first event.  

Create New Stock Items, Recipes, and Menu Items as Needed

Whenever you add new menu items that have new stock items, you will need to create those, receive them into your Warehouse through a purchase order, transfer them into your stands, and create and attach recipes for anything that needs to be on a standsheet or used in perpetual inventory. 

Perform Monthly Audits 

Perform Monthly Audits - Clover Sport Help Center

Performing your monthly audit is a time when you can count your inventory across your entire venue and update the counts across all of your Warehouses and Locations (stands). 

Perform your monthly audit to:

• To measure success of using perpetual inventory system
• To correct any mistakes realized during normal use of perpetual inventory
• To get an actual count on hand for ordering more product for the warehouse
• To get an actual count on hand multiplied by the average or last cost of an item to get a value of current inventory on hand (+ value of sold inventory)