Pantry Par Levels And Inventory Sheet For Smarter Shopping All Year

Inventory control is of paramount importance in any restaurant. Running out of ingredients causes delays and disappoints customers while excessive stock keeps cash locked up in items that go unused or expire over time.

A PAR level system offers the ideal compromise. Discover how you can utilize this straightforward system, saving both money and effort by only ordering what’s necessary.

1. Establish Par Levels

Par levels are the target quantities for ingredients or prep items you must have on hand for expected food sales, in order to prevent running out of key items during busy shifts and plan ahead for slow days. But finding out your exact par levels can be challenging: too high may mean overstocking and losing sales; too low and you may run out and risk sales altogether – finding what works takes time, data, and experience!

Single-level PAR inventory systems work well for businesses with predictable demand; however, most businesses experience more significant fluctuations in customer traffic patterns – busy days can necessitate more of one type of item than usual, while slow periods often bring with them an influx of other products.

Traditional PAR systems struggle to accommodate seasonal fluctuations. So if a Monday lunch service demands more of one product than usual, you might inflate your inventory beyond what is necessary and tie up cash in supplies that sit idle while perishable items potentially spoil.

A double-level PAR system offers an accurate and flexible way of managing inventory. It establishes two separate stock thresholds based on your normal and peak business levels – when one hits critical, you receive an alert, while when another peaks, another notification comes.

This system allows you to place orders only when necessary, reducing unnecessary purchases and the likelihood of an overage that can result in spoilage or wasted prep time. Furthermore, this method makes ordering easier as your team simply looks at their sheet to see what quantities they require for their respective tasks.

Start by locating each prep item on your inventory sheet and noting its par level – typically listed as kitchen-friendly units such as “3 pans of salad greens”). Subtract the quantity on hand from this number to arrive at an estimate for how many items need to be prepped; record this figure on the sheet so it can easily be checked and compared against similar tasks.

2. Make a List

No matter whether you use a digital template or pen and paper, creating your list should be clear and systematic. Your goal should be to keep stock levels high enough that essentials like toilet paper don’t run out while also avoiding overstocking; having too much of any item–whether perishable or nonperishable–represents waste: having extra tomatoes sitting around could spoil before you need them and bottles of vodka remain unsoldable in your bar.

First, determine how low you want your stock levels to go before creating your list. Next, categorize items on your list according to category or location – or even by their arrangement in your fridge/freezer.

Include columns such as Item Name, Category, Quantity on Hand, Par Level Unit Cost Supplier Purchase Date Expiry Date Supplier as the base metrics to track key metrics. Add data validation so staff cannot change spellings or formulae, protect header rows so nobody accidentally edits structure and include multilocation rollup function that opens all data from individual locations into one central dashboard for management review.

3. Make a Checklist

Establishing PAR levels and setting weekly purchase targets are effective strategies for avoiding over-ordering. But it’s still vitally important to monitor actual sales and purchases so as not to run out of an essential ingredient during an extremely busy day, which costs staff time, money and customers’ trust; having extra stock sit idle during slow periods risks spoilage as well as tieing up valuable cash or storage space – using a POS system with sales history data can make managing this process simpler without leaving anything up for guesswork.

4. Create an Inventory Sheet

Inventory sheets may seem like simple tools, but they’re vital tools in managing product inventory efficiently. Be sure that all staff have access to and understand how to use one; for maximum effectiveness use separate sheets for different categories or locations to track numbers more easily as well as calculate formulas (like prime cost, food cost or variance variance).

Starting out is easiest by downloading a spreadsheet template in the application of your choice: Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers or something entirely. Select one with fields dedicated to product numbering and data such as brand or name of products being tracked; format (liquor bottle sizes, beer keg sizes, wine bottle sizes; cases of wine); starting inventory levels received inventory ending inventory levels as well as cost of goods sold both individually as well as cumulatively.

Single-level PAR inventory works well for restaurants that experience predictable and consistent traffic patterns, like cafeterias in offices or breakfast diners that see regular morning crowds every day. Unfortunately, most restaurants experience many fluctuations between busy and quiet periods, holidays, special events, etc. that often call for different ingredients, thus using only a single reorder point can result in running out of ingredients at inconvenient times, or overstocking that causes perishables to spoil in storage while costing money in storage costs.

An inventory system that allows you to set reorder levels by item can help address this problem by ensuring you only order what is necessary. Double-level PAR inventory helps eliminate overstocking by enabling you to purchase small increments instead of the entire case at once, significantly lowering costs overall.