# Inventory at a glance

Inventory tracks what you stock, what it costs and what you use, from items and vendors to counts, orders, invoices and waste. It's part of the Pro plan.

For: Admins, Managers · On: Web, iOS, Android · [Help Center](https://www.mays.app/help) › [Inventory](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory) · Last updated October 10, 2026 · Mays Team

Inventory tracks what you stock, what it costs and what you use: items, vendors, recipes, counts, orders, invoices and waste. It's part of the Pro plan.

**Who can use it:**

- **Plan:** Inventory is in the **Pro** plan and the 30-day free trial. On Basic, the Inventory menu shows a lock. See [Plans, the free trial and locked modules](https://www.mays.app/help/account-billing/plans-and-free-trial).
- **Admins** can do everything, at every location.
- **Managers** run inventory at the locations they're assigned to. Their role has **View inventory** and **Manage inventory** by default (**Locations & Users → Roles**).
- **Employees** don't use Inventory. They can still count a short list in a checklist task. See [Inventory-count and restock tasks](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/inventory-count-tasks).

## Where everything is

On the web, open **Inventory** in the sidebar. The pages are in three groups, and they all follow the location picked in the sidebar's location switcher.

![The web sidebar with Inventory open: Setup has Items, Recipes, Menu Lists, Modifiers, Vendors and Shelves; Daily has Counts, Orders, Receiving, Invoices, Prep, Waste and Transfers; Analysis has Stock, Theoretical, POS, Reports and Import. The Items page is open for the South location](https://mays-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/site/help__inventory-overview__01-inventory-menu.9f478d0f9f.png)

| Group | Page | What it's for |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Setup** | **Items** | What you stock, its units and its vendor prices. See [Inventory items](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/inventory-items). |
|  | **Recipes**, **Menu Lists**, **Modifiers** | What goes into each menu item, and what it costs. See [Recipes and plate costing](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/recipes-and-costing) and [Menu lists and modifiers](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/menu-lists-and-modifiers). |
|  | **Vendors** | Your suppliers, delivery days, cutoffs and minimums. See [Vendors and vendor catalogs](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/vendors-and-vendor-catalogs). |
|  | **Shelves** | Zones and shelves for counting shelf by shelf in the app. See [Shelves and storage areas](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/shelves-and-storage-areas). |
| **Daily** | **Counts** | Stock counts. See [Running stock counts](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/stock-counts). |
|  | **Orders** | Purchase orders. See [Placing purchase orders](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/purchase-orders). |
|  | **Invoices** | What vendors delivered and charged. See [Vendor invoices](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/vendor-invoices). |
|  | **Waste** | What you threw away and why. See [Logging waste](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/waste-log). |
|  | **Receiving**, **Prep**, **Transfers** | Deliveries by day, daily prep lists, and moving stock between your locations. See [Receiving deliveries](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/receiving-deliveries), [Prep sheets](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/prep-sheets) and [Transfers between locations](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/transfers-between-locations). |
| **Analysis** | **Stock** | On hand and par levels for each item. See [Stock on hand](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/stock-on-hand). |
|  | **Theoretical** | What sales say you used, next to deliveries and waste. See [Theoretical vs actual usage](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/theoretical-vs-actual-usage). |
|  | **POS** | Linking what you sell to recipes. See [POS mapping and automatic depletion](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/pos-mapping-and-depletion). |
|  | **Reports**, **Import** | COGS and on-hand value, and importing from Craftable. See [Inventory reports](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/inventory-reports) and [Importing from Craftable](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/import-from-craftable). |

**In the app:** managers and admins count stock from the box icon at the top of the screen. The rest of Inventory is on the web. See [Counting inventory in the app](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/count-inventory-on-mobile).

## Set it up in this order

1. **Add your items.** Start with the 20 to 40 items that cost the most or run out most often. Give each one the unit you count it in and how many come in a case.
2. **Add your vendors** and each item's price from each vendor.
3. **Add shelves** if you want to count shelf by shelf in the app (**Inventory → Shelves**), and give items a **Home shelf**.
4. **Run your first count.** Submitting it sets what's on hand.
5. **Set par levels** on **Inventory → Stock**. Orders are built from them.
6. **Build recipes** for your best sellers to see each plate's cost.
7. **Map your POS items to recipes** if the location sells through Square or Union, so sales take ingredients out of stock.
8. **Then the daily routine:** count, order, post invoices when deliveries arrive and log waste.

## What changes stock on hand

| When you… | On hand… |
| --- | --- |
| Submit a count | Is set to what you counted, for each item you counted |
| Post an invoice | Goes up by what was delivered |
| Log waste | Goes down by the amount wasted |
| Sell through Square or Union | Goes down overnight, by each mapped recipe's ingredients |
| Post a transfer | Goes down at one location and up at the other |
| Delete a submitted count or a posted invoice | Goes back, unless a later count has replaced it |

## Good to know

- **Inventory's AI features don't use AI credits.** Reading invoices, counting by voice or photo, drafting recipes and suggesting matches are included.
- **Counts can't be approved yet.** The **Approved** column on the Counts page stays empty, so the parts of Inventory that compare two approved counts (actual usage and variance) have nothing to show. See [Theoretical vs actual usage](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/theoretical-vs-actual-usage).
- **Mays doesn't track expiry dates or lots.** Keep date labels on the product and a "first in, first out" check on your checklist.
- **Sales come out of stock overnight**, and a count can happen at any time of day: sales made before a count aren't taken out again. See [Running stock counts](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/stock-counts).

## Related articles

- Inventory: [Inventory items](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/inventory-items) — Items are what you count, order and cost, like a carton of oat milk or a pound of espresso. Each has a count unit, other units such as a case, and vendor prices.
- Inventory: [Vendors and vendor catalogs](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/vendors-and-vendor-catalogs) — Vendors are the suppliers you buy from. Set how each one takes orders, which locations use it, and each location's delivery days, cutoff and minimum order.
- Inventory: [Recipes and plate costing](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/recipes-and-costing) — A recipe lists what goes into one menu item. Mays prices each ingredient from your vendor prices and shows the plate's cost, cost % and margin.
- Inventory: [Running stock counts](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/stock-counts) — A count records what's on your shelves. Submitting it sets each counted item's stock on hand and shows how far it was from what Mays expected.
- Inventory: [Counting inventory in the app](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/count-inventory-on-mobile) — Managers and admins can count stock in the Mays app, shelf by shelf or from one list, by tapping, typing, scanning barcodes or saying the count out loud.
- Inventory: [Placing purchase orders](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/purchase-orders) — Build orders from your par levels, send each vendor a PDF purchase order by email, and check what arrived against what you ordered.
- Inventory: [Vendor invoices](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/vendor-invoices) — Record what vendors delivered and charged. Scan or photograph an invoice, upload its PDF, share it from your phone or email it in, and the AI drafts it; check the lines next to the document, then post it to add the stock and update your prices.
- Inventory: [Logging waste](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/waste-log) — Log what you throw away and why. Each entry takes the item out of stock and adds its cost to your waste total, so shrink has an explanation.
- Inventory: [POS mapping and automatic depletion](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/pos-mapping-and-depletion) — Map each item you sell in Square or Union to a recipe, and every night Mays takes that recipe's ingredients out of stock for what you sold.
- Inventory: [Theoretical vs actual usage](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/theoretical-vs-actual-usage) — Compare what your sales say you used with what you actually used. The Theoretical page shows each ingredient's deliveries, waste, transfers and recipe use.
- Account & billing: [Plans, the free trial and locked modules](https://www.mays.app/help/account-billing/plans-and-free-trial) — Every organization starts with a 30-day free trial of all plan modules, then picks Basic or Pro (or your company's own package, if Mays set up custom pricing). What each plan includes, what the add-ons are, what a locked module means, and how each location's package decides its features.
- Inventory: [Stock on hand](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/stock-on-hand) — See what a location has on hand right now, set each item's par level and spot what's below par. Counts, deliveries, waste, sales and transfers keep it current.
- Inventory: [Menu lists and modifiers](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/menu-lists-and-modifiers) — Group recipes into menu lists, such as Drinks or Food, and compare each list's food cost % with a target. Modifiers cost the add-ons you sell, like an extra shot.
- Inventory: [Shelves and storage areas](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/shelves-and-storage-areas) — Set up each location's zones and shelves and give each item a home shelf, so your team can count shelf by shelf in the Mays app, in the order they walk the store.
- Inventory: [Receiving deliveries](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/receiving-deliveries) — See the week's deliveries day by day, the orders you're expecting and what actually arrived, and check each delivery against its order.
- Inventory: [Prep sheets](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/prep-sheets) — Build prep lists for each location, such as AM Prep, with a target for each line. Mays compares the targets with what's on hand and shows how much to prep today.
- Inventory: [Transfers between locations](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/transfers-between-locations) — Send stock from one of your locations to another, such as cups to a store that ran short. A transfer is a draft until you post it, and posting can't be undone.
- Inventory: [Inventory reports](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/inventory-reports) — Three reports for a location: theoretical COGS against your sales, what your stock is worth and how many days it lasts, and actual vs theoretical usage.
- Inventory: [Importing from Craftable](https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/import-from-craftable) — Moving from Craftable? Connect your Craftable store with an API token, and Mays brings in your items, vendors and prices, and Craftable's own usage history if you want it.

## Still need help?

Send us a support request and a real person on the Mays team will get back to you.

[Contact support](https://www.mays.app/contact?topic=support) · [Call +1 (561) 286-3939](tel:+15612863939)

Canonical: https://www.mays.app/help/inventory/inventory-overview