How to track consumables comes down to one habit: count what is left each week, and work out what was used. Usage is opening stock plus what you bought, minus what is left. That one figure tells you when to reorder, what each supply costs a month, and when something goes missing.
Consumables are the supplies a business uses up rather than sells. This guide gives five steps, worked for a café in Accra in Ghana cedis, and shows how to keep the same record in ArmPOS.
What counts as a consumable?
A consumable is anything your business uses up and buys again, as opposed to goods it sells or equipment it keeps for years. Investopedia describes consumables as goods "that individuals and businesses use up and regularly replace".
| Business | Consumables to track |
|---|---|
| Shop or mini-market | Carrier bags, till rolls, price labels, cleaning products |
| Café or restaurant | Takeaway cups and lids, napkins, cooking gas, dish soap |
| Salon | Foils, gloves, cotton wool, towels' washing powder |
| Workshop or garage | Gloves, grease, cutting discs, rags |
| Office | Printer paper, toner, pens |
Some of these count as inventory in the accounts: a salon's gloves and foils used on clients are one case. The accounting test is in inventory vs supplies; this page is about keeping track of the quantities.
Step 1: List the consumables that would stop work
Track the few consumables whose absence stops a sale or a service, and buy the rest when they run low. A café without cups can't sell takeaway; a café without spare pens loses nothing.
For each item on the list, record what you need to count it and reorder it:
- Name and unit, counted the way you use it: cups by the piece, napkins by the pack of 100.
- Where it is kept, so the count takes minutes.
- Cost per unit and the supplier.
- Lead time: how long the supplier takes to deliver.
- Reorder level, worked out in step 3.
- A barcode, if you use them. A barcode label on the shelf turns the count into a scan.
Start on paper or a spreadsheet. Move to inventory software when the list passes a dozen items or more than one location.
Step 2: Count on a fixed day and work out what was used
Count every listed item on the same day each week, and let the count do the tracking. Staff will not log every cup or roll they take, and with a weekly count they don't need to.
Used this week = last week's count + received this week − this week's count
For example, a café in Accra counts four items every Monday morning. The figures and prices are examples.
| Item | Unit | Last count | Received | This count | Used | Cost each | Cost of use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Takeaway cups | Cup | 220 | 1,500 | 1,160 | 560 | 0.80 | 448 |
| Till rolls | Roll | 12 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 30 |
| Napkins | Pack of 100 | 20 | 0 | 13 | 7 | 12 | 84 |
| Dish soap | 5-litre bottle | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 45 | 45 |
| Total | 607 |
The four items cost GHS 607 a week, about GHS 2,630 a month. Cups take GHS 448 of it, nearly three quarters, so cups are where waste costs most.
A weekly count of a few lines is a stock check, not a full stock take. The difference is in stock taking vs stock checking.
Step 3: Set a reorder level from usage and lead time
Reorder when the count falls to what you will use before the next delivery arrives, plus a buffer. The weekly usage from step 2 gives you the number.
Reorder level = weekly usage × lead time in weeks + buffer
The café keeps a buffer of half a week's usage, rounded up. Till rolls come from a wholesaler two weeks away, and everything else arrives within a week.
| Item | Used a week | Lead time | Buffer | Reorder level | This count | Order now? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Takeaway cups | 560 | 1 week | 280 | 840 | 1,160 | No |
| Till rolls | 5 | 2 weeks | 3 | 13 | 7 | Yes |
| Napkins | 7 | 1 week | 4 | 11 | 13 | No |
| Dish soap | 1 | 1 week | 1 | 2 | 3 | No |
Only the till rolls need ordering this Monday: 7 left against a reorder level of 13. Without the sheet, the café would find out when the printer runs dry in the lunch rush.
The same sum with a proper safety stock is in the reorder point formula. For the wider strategy, see how to avoid overstocking and stockouts.
Step 4: Give one person the store room
Make one person responsible for the supplies store and the weekly count. Supplies leak away where everyone has a key and nobody counts.
That person keeps the sheet, receives deliveries against it and raises the order when an item reaches its level. Everyone else learns one rule: open a new pack only when the old one is empty.
Step 5: Check usage against sales
Once a month, compare what your sales say a consumable's usage should be with what the count says was used. The gap is waste, staff use or theft, and it stays invisible until you put the two side by side.
For example, in the week above the café sold 520 takeaway drinks, and the count shows 560 cups used. That leaves 40 cups that no sale explains: 7.7% more cups than drinks.
At GHS 0.80 a cup, the gap costs GHS 32 a week, or GHS 1,664 a year. The cause may be spills, double cups for hot drinks or staff drinks. The owner can only look for it once the number exists.
Losses like these are a form of shrinkage; how to measure and cut it is in inventory shrinkage.
How to track consumables in ArmPOS
ArmPOS has no separate consumables feature. Supplies are kept as products that you count and adjust, and paid for as expenses, and each records something different.
- Add each consumable as a product. Give supplies their own category, such as Shop supplies, a unit and a Product Cost. The form also requires a Retail Price. Hide From Online Store under Options keeps the item out of your online shop (Add your first products).
- Set a Stock Alert on each. Use the reorder level from step 3. Items at or below it appear in Product Quantity Alerts. The bell, an email or a push to your phone can also tell you (Get alerts on your phone).
- Count with a sheet for that category. Count Stock with your warehouse and the Shop supplies category gives a sheet of the supplies alone (Count and adjust stock).
- Take off what was used. Create an adjustment, choose Subtraction for each item, and enter the quantity used with a Note such as "Used, week 42". The Stock Adjustment Report totals what was removed, with its cost (Stock reports).
- Record the money as an expense. Create an Expense Category such as Supplies, and record each payment for supplies under it. Profit and Loss takes expenses off your profit (Record an expense).
Profit and Loss counts expenses, not adjustments, so supplies taken off by an adjustment never reduce your profit: the expense does. Add delivered quantities with an Addition adjustment rather than a purchase, so the money is recorded once.
Expenses sit under Accounting, which comes with some plans only. Without it, record deliveries as purchases: you see the quantities and what you owe the supplier, but your net profit won't include the cost.
Each supply also counts as a product under your plan's limit, and the free Starter plan holds 50. Where your plan allows a second warehouse, keep supplies in one of their own. The till can't sell a product its warehouse doesn't hold, unless Allow Overselling is on.
Frequently asked questions
How do you keep track of consumables?
Count them on a fixed day each week and work out usage: last count plus received, minus this count. Reorder when the count falls to a week's usage times the lead time, plus a buffer.
What are examples of consumables?
Carrier bags, till rolls, cleaning products, takeaway cups, printer paper, gloves and cooking gas. A consumable is anything a business uses up and buys again, rather than sells or keeps for years.
Are consumables inventory or an expense?
Supplies that run the business are usually an expense, and AccountingTools notes a minor cost can be expensed when bought. Supplies used up in goods or services you sell are inventory under IFRS, as inventory vs supplies explains.
How often should consumables be counted?
Weekly for the few items that stop work when they run out, and monthly for the rest. A count once a year is too rare for items used up every week.
What is a consumables log?
A record of each item taken from the store, by whom and when. For most small businesses, a weekly count sheet does the same job with far less writing.
Start with the five consumables that would stop your business if they ran out, and count them next Monday. To keep the sheet, the alerts and the expenses in one place, create a free ArmPOS account.
