Par = daily usage × (lead time + days between deliveries) + safety buffer. Reorder point = daily usage × lead time + safety buffer. Run both in the par level calculator.
A par level is the stock you want on hand when the next delivery is late and the next service is full. The reorder point is the moment you place the order so you arrive back at that par. Both numbers come from that branch’s usage. A number someone typed because the shelf “looks right” is a preference, and it will not match the count.
Usage is not purchases
Purchases are what arrived. Usage is what left: the recipes you sold, the waste you logged, and transfers out to another branch. If you set the par from purchases alone, a week you over-ordered becomes the new normal. If you ignore logged waste, the par never covers the spoilage that is already happening. Waste categories are in how to track kitchen waste. They are an input to usage, not a substitute for it.
A worked example
This is an illustration, not a customer and not a recommended stock cover. A branch used 70 kg of a single item over 14 ordinary days. Daily usage is 5 kg. Deliveries are 4 days apart, and the supplier delivers three days after the order. The outlet chooses a safety buffer of one extra day, 5 kg, because the Friday truck is often late. Par = 5 × (3 + 4) + 5 = 40 kg. Reorder point = 5 × 3 + 5 = 20 kg. When the count hits 20 kg, order enough to return to 40 kg, in the pack size the supplier sells.
If the item is sold in a second branch at half the volume, that branch’s par is not 40 kg. Copying the cell copies the wrong kitchen. The count and the reorder point stay on the branch that holds the stock in restaurant inventory management software.
What Excel does to a par
A sheet can hold 40 kg. The failure is the next edit: someone overwrites the formula with a typed number, a second branch’s file never receives the change, and the purchase order is raised from memory on the day of the truck. There is no goods-received note tying the order to what arrived, so a short delivery still looks like the kitchen. That receiving step is purchasing and goods received. The workbook comparison is AKLI versus Excel-only inventory.
What this page will not give you
There is no correct number of days of cover for a restaurant. A seafood item and a dry store do not share one buffer. AKLI can hold a reorder point per item and per branch, and it can raise the purchase order from that point. It does not publish an ideal par, and it does not promise that a new par reduces waste by any percentage. Measure usage again after the menu or the supplier changes. The numbered steps at the end of this page are the method.
Set a par level from usage
Turn recent usage, days between deliveries, and supplier lead time into a par and a reorder point a branch can order against. The safety buffer is a choice you write down, not an industry rate.
- Choose the item and the unit. Use the same unit as inventory and as the purchase order. A par in cases and a count in kilograms will not reorder the right amount.
- Measure usage over a real period. Usage is what left stock: sales depletion from recipes, plus waste you logged, plus transfers out, minus transfers in you should not treat as local use. A guess, or last month’s purchases with no count, is not usage.
- Turn usage into a daily rate. Divide usage by the number of days in the period you measured. Do not divide a festival week into an ordinary Wednesday.
- Write down the lead time. Lead time is days from order to the delivery you can actually put away. Days between deliveries is the gap until the truck after that. Both are the supplier’s habit for that branch, not a number copied from another city.
- Add a buffer you can explain. Par = daily usage × (lead time + days between deliveries) + safety buffer. The safety buffer covers a late truck or a busy service. Write it in days or in units. Do not borrow a percentage from another restaurant and call it a standard.
- Set the reorder point. Reorder point = daily usage × lead time + safety buffer. Usage times lead time plus the safety buffer is the reorder point, not the par. When on-hand stock falls to that point, order enough to return to par. Order the pack size you can receive, not a fraction of a case the supplier will not send.
- Review when the invoice or the mix moves. A par set in a quiet month over-orders in that month and under-orders when the menu changes. Revisit it when usage moves, not on a fixed slogan. A par that never changes is a guess that got old.
Questions operators ask
What is the par level formula?
Par = daily usage × (lead time + days between deliveries) + safety buffer. Reorder point = daily usage × lead time + safety buffer. Usage times lead time plus the safety buffer is the reorder point, not the par.
Is usage the same as purchases?
No. Purchases are what arrived. Usage is what left: the recipes you sold, the waste you logged, and transfers out to another branch. Setting the par from purchases alone makes a week you over-ordered the new normal.
Should a second branch copy the same par?
No. If the item is sold in a second branch at half the volume, that branch’s par is not the first branch’s figure. Copying the cell copies the wrong kitchen. The count and the reorder point stay on the branch that holds the stock.