From midnight spreadsheets to a live inventory dashboard

The business

Picture a busy neighborhood restaurant — one owner, open six days a week. After close, the owner sits in the office with a beer and the inventory spreadsheet, counting what's left and guessing what to order before the supplier cutoff.

The problem

Ordering runs on tired guesswork. Too much produce gets ordered and wilts; the popular special dies on Friday night because a key ingredient ran out; and the owner's day ends at 1 a.m. because the spreadsheet can't update itself.

What gets built

• Usage tracked from sales

  The dashboard reads each day's sales from the register system and works out what actually got used — no more counting every shelf every night.

• Draft orders, ready to send

  Before each supplier's cutoff, a draft order is waiting: based on real usage, the coming week, and what's already in the walk-in. The owner adjusts and approves it in minutes.

• Early warnings

  When the numbers say Friday will run the kitchen out of a key ingredient, the dashboard says so on Tuesday — while there's still time to do something about it.

The payoff

• Ordering takes minutes over morning coffee instead of an hour at midnight.

• Less food bought twice and thrown out once — over-ordering is where restaurant money quietly dies.

• The Friday special stops running out on Friday.