Founder, ampeli
Every kitchen has that one Friday. You're halfway through the rush, someone yells "last bag of mozz," and you're doing math in your head about whether you can make it to close. Or it's the other way around: the walk-in is so packed with produce you over-ordered on a hunch that half of it heads to the trash by Tuesday.
Par levels fix both of those problems. They aren't fancy, they don't need software, and you can set your first ones this week with a clipboard and an honest look at your shelves. This guide walks through what a par level is, how to calculate par levels with a simple formula, a worked example from a pizzeria, and a par sheet you can copy.
What is a par level?
A par level is the amount of an item you want on hand right after a delivery so you can get through to the next one without running out. That's it. It's your "full" line.
When order day comes around, you count what you have, compare it to par, and order the difference. You stop ordering by gut feeling, by what the rep suggests, or by what you ran out of last time and are still mad about.
Par levels work for anything you stock: proteins, cheese, produce, dry goods, paper, to-go boxes, even cleaning supplies. They also work for prep. A prep par tells the morning crew how many dough balls, quarts of sauce or pans of sliced onions should be ready before service.
Why par levels matter in a small kitchen
Big chains have whole teams for purchasing. In a mom-and-pop spot, ordering usually lives in one person's head, and that person is often also running the line, fixing the dish machine and covering a no-show. Par levels take the order out of your head and put it on paper, which helps in a few ways:
Fewer 86s. You're less likely to run out of something mid-service.
Less waste. You stop buying "just in case" amounts that spoil.
Less cash sitting on shelves. Money tied up in a crowded walk-in is money you can't use elsewhere.
Someone else can place the order. When pars are written down, a trusted cook or manager can count and order without calling you on your day off.
The par level formula
Here's the simple version of the par level formula:
Par level = (usage per day × days between deliveries) + safety buffer
Let's break that down.
Usage per day
How much of the item you actually go through on a typical day. The best way to find it is to count. Count the item at the start of a few days, add what came in, subtract what's left, and you have usage. A week or two of counts beats any guess.
Days between deliveries
How many days a delivery has to last. If your cheese comes Monday and Thursday, the Monday order has to cover three days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) and the Thursday order has to cover four (Thursday through Sunday). Those two orders may need different pars, which we'll get to.
Safety buffer
A cushion for the things you can't control: a surprise catering order, a busy rainy night, a truck that shows up late or short. Many operators start with something like 10% to 25% of the usage figure and adjust from there. Perishables with a short shelf life get a smaller buffer. Shelf-stable stuff can take a bigger one.
Order amount
Once you have par, the order is simple:
Order amount = par level − what's on hand
A worked example: a small pizzeria
The numbers below are made-up examples to show the math. They aren't benchmarks, and your numbers will be different. Use your own counts.
Picture a neighborhood pizzeria open six days a week, with cheese and produce delivered twice a week.
Example 1: Shredded mozzarella
Example usage: about 20 lb per day on a regular weekday
Example delivery schedule: Monday and Thursday, so the Monday order covers 3 days
Example safety buffer: 20%
Math:
20 lb × 3 days = 60 lb
20% buffer = 12 lb
Example par for the Monday order: 72 lb
On Monday morning you count 18 lb in the walk-in. 72 − 18 = 54 lb. If it comes in 5 lb bags, round up to 55 lb, or 11 bags.
Example 2: Dough balls (a prep par)
Dough is made in-house, so this par is about prep, not ordering. The idea is the same.
Example usage: about 80 dough balls on a weeknight
Example buffer: 15 extra, since dough needs time to proof and you can't make more mid-rush
Example prep par: 95 dough balls ready before open.
If the closing crew leaves 30 usable balls, the morning crew knows to make 65. Nobody has to ask, and nobody has to guess.
The order follows from the par
That's the whole trick. Once the par is written down, ordering becomes counting and subtracting. You can teach it to anyone in five minutes.
How to adjust par levels for weekends and seasons
One par per item is a good start, but most restaurants don't run the same volume every day.
Weekends
If Friday and Saturday do double what Tuesday does, a single par will leave you short on the weekend or swimming in product midweek. The easy fix is two pars per item: a weekday par and a weekend par. In our example pizzeria, the Thursday order covers Thursday through Sunday, the busiest stretch, so it gets its own, higher par based on weekend usage.
Seasons and events
Patio season, the holidays, football Sundays, the week the college lets out. Every neighborhood has its own rhythm. When your volume changes for more than a week or two, recount usage and reset pars. A good habit is to look at your pars at the start of each season and after any menu change.
New menu items
A new special pulls from the same cheese, sauce and toppings as everything else. Bump the pars on shared ingredients for the first couple of weeks, then recount once you know how it's selling.
Common par level mistakes
Setting pars by gut feeling
"We usually need about a case" is how most pars start, and it's fine as a first draft. But count real usage for a week or two and update. Your gut is probably close on some items and way off on others.
Setting it and forgetting it
Pars go stale. Prices change, menus change, the neighborhood changes. If nobody has touched the par sheet since it was laminated, it's probably wrong.
Ignoring shelf life
A big buffer on fresh basil just means you're composting more basil. Keep buffers tight on short-life items and order them more often if your vendor allows.
Ignoring case sizes and minimums
If your par math says 54 lb but the cheese comes in 5 lb bags, you're ordering 55. If the vendor has a minimum, plan around it. Write case sizes right on the par sheet so nobody has to look them up.
Only one person knows the pars
If the pars live in your head, they aren't pars. They're a guess you make while tired. Write them down where the whole team can see them.
Not counting the same way every time
Partial cases, open bags, product in the reach-in and the walk-in. Decide how you count (by the pound, by the case, by the bag) and have everyone do it the same way. Inconsistent counts make every par wrong.
A simple par sheet you can copy
You don't need a fancy restaurant par sheet template. A clipboard, a spreadsheet or a sheet of paper taped to the walk-in door works. Here's a layout you can copy:
| Item | Unit | Vendor | Case size | Weekday par | Weekend par | On hand | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shredded mozzarella | lb | your vendor | 5 lb bag | 72 example | yours | ||
| Crushed tomatoes | #10 can | your vendor | 6 cans/case | yours | yours | ||
| Pepperoni | lb | your vendor | yours | yours | yours | ||
| Flour | 50 lb bag | your vendor | 1 bag | yours | yours | ||
| To-go pizza boxes | each | your vendor | yours | yours | yours |
How to use it:
Fill in the first six columns once. Update them when your menu or volume changes.
On order day, walk the shelves and fill in On hand.
Order = par − on hand, rounded up to the case size.
Keep the old sheets for a few weeks. They're the easiest way to spot items you always over- or under-order.
Organize the rows in the same order as your storage, walk-in first, then dry storage, then paper. Counting goes faster when the sheet follows your feet.
For prep, make a separate sheet with the item, the prep par, what's left from last night and how much to make.
Keeping it consistent
Pars only work when everyone follows them the same way, every shift. That's the idea behind ampeli, which we're building to help independent restaurants keep recipes, prep lists and par ordering organized and consistent in one place. It launches January 2027 at $99 a month per location. You can see pricing here.
But you don't need any app to start. Pick your ten most-used items, count them for a week, do the math above and tape the sheet up. You'll feel the difference by the second order.
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