How do I Set Up my Inventory Count Sheets?

The Count Sheets page lets you create, organize, and manage your inventory count sheet templates and counting sessions. Navigate to Inventory > Count Sheets to access it.

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Page layout

At the top of the page you will find:

• Location dropdown to select which location you are managing
• Search to filter count sheets by name
• Import button to bring in count sheet data
• + New Count Sheet button (green) to create a new template

In Garde, “Count Sheets” are the customized lists of products and recipes you use when counting your inventory. To view, organize, or manage your count sheets, head to Inventory > Count Sheets. By default, two count sheets are created for you: “Food Inventory” and “Bar Inventory.” Feel free to rename them. These two might be all you need — if so, you’re good to go.

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Importing vs. Manually Creating Count Sheets

You can build count sheets in two ways. Import your count sheet structure from a file if you already have an organized list of products and sections — this is the fastest path when onboarding a location that has an existing inventory process. Alternatively, manually create sections and sub-sections directly in Garde by clicking ”+ Add Section” and organizing products into them. Either way, communicate with the client about how they want their products organized before building the sheets — every operation has its own preferences for grouping and ordering. If you want more granularity, you can split things up. For example, you might create separate sheets for Front of House and Back of House. Or add a weekly protein count sheet alongside your full inventory sheet. Some teams rename “Food Inventory” to “Kitchen Inventory,” remove the stored products, and then create a separate “Storage Inventory” sheet. Each count sheet also lets you specify which types of new products should be added automatically (more on that below).

When using multiple count sheets, if a product is counted on one sheet but not another, it will show a count of zero for dates where an entry is missing. Setting up your count sheets thoughtfully keeps your reporting accurate.

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Sub-tabs: Count Sessions and Sections

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Count Sessions

• To add a new count sheet, click the ”+ Add a Count Sheet” button (shown below). From there you can name it, choose how it’s organized, and add products or recipes. You can also set the yield unit for products during count sheet creation — no need to wait until after the sheet is saved to adjust it.

If no counts have been recorded yet, you will see the empty state message: “No counts recorded yet. Start your first count session to begin tracking inventory.” with a Start Counting button.

• To edit a count sheet, click on it to select it.

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Organizing methods

On the Edit Count Sheet page you can rename it, add or remove products, and (if you’re in “Sheet to Shelf” mode) add, edit, or delete sections.

• To remove a count sheet, select it, then scroll to the bottom right of the page. You’ll see two options: “Delete” and “Deactivate.”
  • Deactivate preserves all previous inventories taken with this count sheet but prevents new counts. It removes the sheet from the dropdown when entering a new count.
  • Delete fully removes the count sheet. This only works if no closed inventories have been taken with it.

You create and name your own sections to match physical locations in your restaurant (Walk-In, Front Bar, Liquor Room, etc.). New products are placed in a “New Products” section for you to move manually. This method gives you more control but requires more maintenance. Use the + Add Product and + Add Recipe buttons on the Edit Count Sheet page: Each count sheet can be organized one of two ways: “Auto by Category” — Products you add are automatically sorted into sections based on their categories, then alphabetized within each section. (Categories are used for reporting and accounting — things like Food, Beer, Wine, or more detailed groupings like Meat, Produce, Seafood, Dairy, etc.) “Sheet to Shelf” — You have full control. Create your own sections and organize products however makes sense for your operation. Most teams using this mode organize by physical location (Walk-In, Front Bar, Liquor Room, etc.). This gives you more control but takes more effort to maintain.

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Adding New Products to Count Sheets Automatically

You buy new products all the time — a new ingredient, a new beer, a different wine. Adding each one to your count sheets manually would be tedious. So Garde can add new products automatically. At the top of the Edit Count Sheet screen, you’ll see five checkboxes that control which types of new products get added to this count sheet: If you have a single count sheet for your full inventory, check every box. That way, each time you buy a new product that should be inventoried, it lands on the count sheet without extra work. Checking “Other” doesn’t mean everything you buy ends up on the inventory — it just means when something in an “Other” category gets flagged for inventory, it’ll be placed on this sheet.

1. Navigate to Inventory > Count Sheets and select the count sheet you want to use.
2. Go to the Count Sessions tab.
3. Click + New Count Session (or the Start Counting button if this is your first count).
4. Enter quantities for each item as you count.
5. When finished, close the count session to lock in the numbers.

Depends on how you organize your sheet: If your count sheet uses “Auto by Category”, Garde knows where to put new products. A new type of butter? It goes straight into the Dairy section, alphabetized. If your count sheet uses “Sheet to Shelf” mode, Garde doesn’t know where things belong. New products land in a section called “New Products,” and you can move them wherever they should go.

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Setting up the Count Sheets

How you set up your count sheet depends on which organizing method you chose.

• Setup a count sheet using “Auto by Category”
• Setup a count sheet using “Sheet to Shelf”

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Setup a count sheet using “Auto by Category”

Add products and recipes using the “+Add Product” and “+Add Recipe” buttons. They’ll be placed into sections based on their categories. With “+Add Product,” you can add items one at a time, or — when adding products from a category for the first time — add all products from that category at once. To add a single product, start typing part of the name in the Product dropdown. It filters as you type. In the example below, typing “cake” shows all products with “cake” in the name. Select the product and click Save. Once selected, the product is automatically placed in the section matching its category. Here’s an example of adding all products in a category at once. When you’re first setting up a count sheet, this is a huge time saver. You can add every product in a category in one step. The category dropdown shows all categories in Garde — if any product from a category is already on the count sheet, it shows “(on Inventory)” and can’t be selected again. To remove a product from the count sheet, click the red delete button on the right side of the row. This only removes it from the current count sheet, not any others. Important: Be sure to click “Save” after making changes to your count sheet.

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Setup a count sheet using “Sheet to Shelf”

In “Sheet to Shelf” mode, you create sections, add products and recipes to them, and reorder everything as needed. You can have the same product in multiple sections — handy when you stock the same item in more than one spot (like the same beer at the bar and in the walk-in). To set things up, use the “+Add Section,” “+Add Product,” and “+Add Recipe” buttons.

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Creating Sections

Hit the “+Add Section” button to create a new section. You’ll be taken to the “Add new section to count sheet” screen. Type the section name and click Save. New sections start empty — you’ll need to add products to them. Once you’ve created sections, you’ll see blue and red buttons next to each section name: Here’s what you can do with sections: - Edit the name: Type directly in the section name box. - Reorder sections: Use the arrow buttons to move a section up or down. - Alphabetize products: Click the AZ button to sort products within the section alphabetically. Super helpful after you’ve moved a bunch of products around. - Remove it: Click the red button to delete an entire section. You can also create a new section using the “Add all Products in a Category” option (see below), which creates a section named after the category (Dairy, Meat, Beer, etc.).

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Adding and Organizing Products

Once you have sections, use the “+Add Product” button to:

• Add products one at a time, or
• Add all products from a category at once, creating a new section with that name

Add products one at a time Click “+Add Product” and you’ll land on the “Add Product to Count Sheet” screen. Select “Add one Product,” then start typing the name in the dropdown. Once you pick the product, choose which section it should go in. (You can add a product to a section even if it’s already in a different section — useful when you stock the same beer at the bar and in the storeroom.) Click Save once you’ve made your selections. Once a product is on the count sheet, you’ll see buttons on the right side of each row: - Reorder: Use the arrow buttons, or just click and drag the row to a new position. - Change section: Click the crossed arrows button to move the product to a different section. - Remove it: Hit the red button to take the product off this section. Add all products in a category at once. This works for any category not already on the count sheet. If there are no “Fish” products on the sheet, you can add them all in one step. The category dropdown shows all categories — any with products already on the sheet display “(on Inventory)” and can’t be selected. If you are a Restaurant Admin, you can also click on the product name or the count-by unit to do additional setup, including changing the product name or the unit you count by.