Par level

A par level (from par as in a set baseline) is the amount of a given item you want on hand at a fixed point in the week. When actual stock falls toward the par, you reorder up to it. You set a par per ingredient based on how fast you go through it and how often deliveries come, so the number is really a standing answer to when do I reorder and how much. Get it right and the kitchen never runs out mid-service, the usual cause of having to 86 a dish, without burying cash and cooler space in stock that ages out.

Pars are the dial between two expensive failures. Too low and you 86 the dish or make an emergency supplier run at a premium price. Too high and product spoils into Food waste and your Food cost percentage climbs on food you paid for but never sold, a real problem when food and non-alcohol beverage cost already runs a median of 32.0% / 32.4% of sales. Suppliers also move prices between orders, so a par set once and never revisited quietly overstocks the wrong things as your menu and sales mix shift.

Inventory and invoice platforms (MarginEdge, Restaurant365, Apicbase) track what you actually use against what you actually sell and suggest pars that move with real demand, instead of a number taped inside the walk-in door two years ago. Demand forecasting sharpens the same decision day to day so ordering tracks the covers you will genuinely do. See inventory and food cost.