A restaurant's closing count of about 60 key items is checked against tomorrow's par levels in Google Sheets, and each of its 8 suppliers gets an order by email before its cutoff, rounded up to case sizes.
Typical results
≈4.5 hrs/wk
Chef time back across six services
8 of 8
Suppliers ordered before their cutoff
≈20%
Less produce thrown away
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
After a long service, the chef walks the cold room and dry store with a clipboard, then texts or calls eight suppliers with orders worked out in their head. Some orders miss a supplier's cutoff, quantities ignore case sizes, and the kitchen runs short of basics on busy days or overorders produce that ends up in the bin.
Before and after
Minutes spent ordering after service
−82%Orders that miss a supplier cutoff per month
−100%Produce thrown away per week
−20%The automation
At closing, the kitchen lead counts about 60 key items on a phone form grouped by produce, dairy, meat and dry goods. Each count is compared with the par level for tomorrow's day of the week in Google Sheets, so a Saturday par is higher than a Tuesday one. Orders are built per supplier and rounded up to case sizes. Each supplier receives its order by email before its 10 PM cutoff, and the chef gets a copy with totals.
How it works
- 01
Count at closing
The kitchen lead counts about 60 key items on a phone form grouped by produce, dairy, meat and dry goods.
- 02
Compared with par
Each count is checked against the par level for tomorrow's day of the week in Google Sheets.
- 03
Order list per supplier
Shortfalls become an order list for each supplier, with quantities rounded up to case sizes.
- 04
Emailed before cutoff
Each of the 8 suppliers receives its order by email before its 10 PM cutoff.
- 05
Chef's copy
The chef gets one email with every supplier's order and the totals.
Starts from
- Closing stock count form
- Par levels by weekday
Delivers
- Supplier orders by email
- Chef's copy with totals
- Stock for tomorrow's service
The impact
Ordering now takes only as long as the count itself, saving about 45 minutes every closing shift. Every supplier gets its order before cutoff, quantities match case sizes, and produce waste falls by about 20% because par levels follow the day of the week.
Questions about this automation
How are par levels set?
The chef sets a par level for each item and each day of the week in the Google Sheet, based on typical covers, such as a higher par for Saturday than for Tuesday. Pars can be changed at any time in the sheet, and the next night's orders use the new numbers.
What happens if an item is not counted?
The phone form highlights blank items before it can be submitted. If an item is still left blank, it is skipped and listed in the chef's copy rather than ordered blindly, so a forgotten count never triggers a double order. Items already well above par are skipped as well.
What does it take to set up?
A list of the key items with their supplier, unit, case size and par levels, plus each supplier's email address and cutoff time. That goes into one Google Sheet, and the phone form is built from it. Simple automations like this are usually live within days, and the item list can grow later.