Par levels & low-stock alerts
The single most important thing PrepTable does for a campus manager is tell you what's about to run out, before it runs out. This page covers how par levels work, how to set them, and how to read what PrepTable tells you.
What "par" means
Par is the quantity of an item that should be on hand at the start of a service period. It's the level that, if you dipped below it, would mean you don't have enough to serve the next full service.
- Par = 30 for whole onions at Harlingen means: at the start of each service period, there should be at least 30 whole onions on hand.
- If today's count is 22, you're below par. PrepTable surfaces that.
- The reorder threshold is the level at which you place a new order — typically a multiple of par (often 0.5× par, but it's your call). If par = 30 and reorder = 15, you order when stock drops to 15.
Par levels are per campus. The same onion SKU can have par 30 at Harlingen and par 50 at Waco. Use the values that match your kitchen, your menu, your volume — there's no system-wide default.
How to set a par level
- In the PrepTable app, switch to the campus you manage.
- Go to Inventory.
- Find the item (search by name or SKU).
- Click the item, then the Par / threshold form.
- Enter the par value and the reorder threshold. Save.
You'll do this in bulk the first week (your campus's par table is the migration away from a spreadsheet you may be maintaining today). Then it's one-off updates whenever you introduce a new item or your volume changes.
A few useful patterns:
- Set par by "coverage", not by feel. Walk the walk-in at the start of a representative service, count what's there, and use that number. Adjust over the next two weeks as you watch what runs out.
- Round up, not down. A par that's 10% too high costs you a little shelf space; a par that's 10% too low causes a service failure. Err on the high side.
- Per item, not per category. "Par for produce = 200" is not useful — your pars need to be per SKU so PrepTable can tell you which specific item is the one running out.
How the par-level loop works
Before the per-surface details, here is the cycle in one diagram. Every other section on this page is a part of this loop.
How PrepTable surfaces low stock
PrepTable computes low-stock status for every item on every campus whenever stock changes. There are three surfaces:
| Surface | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Low-stock dashboard | Every item across the campus currently below its reorder threshold, sorted by shortfall |
| Item detail view | Current count vs par vs reorder threshold, with the trend over the past 14 days |
| Kitchen display | A subtle "low stock" indicator on any line item whose ingredient is below threshold, so cooks know what's about to run out |
The kitchen-display indicator is intentionally not loud. It's a courtesy to the cook, not a stop-cooking signal — the right move for service continuity is to keep cooking while a manager arranges restock. The dashboard is what tells you to act.
Drafting a PO from low-stock
When the dashboard shows a shortfall, click Draft PO from shortfall. PrepTable does the following:
- For each low item, looks up the preferred vendor (the vendor whose pricing is set as the source of truth for that item's
unit_cost_cents). - Adds a line to the PO with the package size and the quantity to bring stock back to par (rounded up to whole packages).
- Pre-fills the PO header with the receiving campus and today's
- Leaves the PO in Draft status.
You then:
- Review the lines. Drop anything already on order, adjust quantities for current specials.
- Add a note, change the requested-by date if needed.
- Click Send to vendor. The PO moves to Sent and the vendor (in a real deployment) receives the order via email.
What to read on the page
A few subtle indicators on the low-stock dashboard that are worth knowing:
- Count vs par vs threshold — three numbers. Below par means "running short"; below threshold means "order today".
- Last received — when stock last came in. If it's recent, you're burning through it faster than your data expected (check the menu).
- Days since last movement — if an item has been still for weeks, your par is probably wrong (too high).
- Waste history — high waste on an item with a low par means your par is too low, not that the item has low demand. Use the waste report to recalibrate.
If you change an item's preferred vendor (admin-only), all recipes that use that item get repriced automatically — there's no need to re-enter vendor assignments per recipe.
Where to go next
- The menu-health check — what's about to break before service
- For Administrators → Roles & campus permissions — if you need broader scope