Restaurant inventory and ordering across locations: transfers and pars

This is part 6 of 7 in our series Running a multi-location restaurant group. Earlier: the owner's job, standards, sharing staff, general managers and comparing stores.

With one store, inventory is a loop: count, order to par, receive, use, count again. With two, every step has a second question: is this decided once for the group, or by each store? And a new step appears that one store never needed: moving stock from one store to the other.

This post covers who should order, what has to be the same at every store, how to handle transfers so both stores' numbers stay honest, and what to check before one store starts prepping food for another. For the single-store basics, start with par levels, counts and ordering.

Central, local or split ordering

	Central ordering	Local ordering	Split
Who orders	One person for every store	Each store's manager	The group sets items, vendors and prices; each store orders its own quantities
Works well when	Stores are close, share vendors and the orderer knows both	Stores are far apart or use different vendors	Stores share most vendors but sell at different rates
Strengths	One relationship per vendor; consistent items	The person who sees the shelf orders	Consistency where it matters, local judgment where it helps
Risks	The orderer can't see each store's shelf; one sick day stops everything	Stores drift to different products and prices	Needs a written order guide that everyone follows

The split model follows part 1 of this series: what you buy is a group decision, how much each store buys is a local one. In practice, that means one order guide for the group, with the approved item, vendor and pack size for each line, and each store ordering against its own pars.

What has to be the same at every store

One item list. The same name, the same count unit and the same pack size for each item everywhere. "Oat milk, carton (64 fl oz)" at both stores, not "milk" at one store and "oat case" at the other. Otherwise you can't compare usage, costs or counts.
The main ingredients. Part 2 covered why: a different milk or a different bean is a different drink.
The count. The same day and time (Sunday after close, say), and the same sheet, laid out in the order you walk the store (weekly count sheet).
The cutoffs for invoices, so a delivery on Sunday night lands in the same week at both stores.

What should differ: pars

Each store sets its own pars from its own usage. A store that sells twice as many lattes needs twice the milk, and a store with a small walk-in needs more frequent deliveries, not the same par. Use the same formula at every store (usage until the next delivery, plus a buffer), with each store's own numbers.

Vendors that serve several stores

Ask each vendor how they count. Is the price per account, per store or for the group? Is the minimum order per delivery or per account? Do delivery fees apply per stop? The answers decide whether one account for the group is worth it.
Set delivery days and cutoffs per store. The same vendor may deliver to one store on Monday and Thursday and to the other on Tuesday and Friday.
Keep one price list. If one store pays more for the same item, find out why before the invoices drift apart. Our post on vendor terms covers what's reasonable to ask a supplier for.

Transfers between stores

Transfers fix a short today. Routine transfers usually mean a par is wrong. Either way, every transfer has to be recorded on both sides, or both stores' food cost is wrong (part 5 of this series has the arithmetic).

The rules:

Record it the same day, before the product leaves.
Value it at cost, using one rule for every transfer, so neither store makes a profit off the other.
The receiving store checks it in, the way it would check in a delivery.
Review transfers every month. The same item moving the same way every week is a par to fix.

A transfer log you can copy:

Date	From	To	Item	Qty	Unit	Unit cost	Total	Sent by	Received by

When one store preps for another

Some groups make soups, sauces, pastries or cold brew at one store and send them to the others. Before you do, talk to your health department, because a kitchen that supplies other stores can be treated differently from one that only serves its own guests. The FDA Food Code, which states adopt in their own versions, includes in its definition of a food establishment "a central preparation facility that supplies a vending location or satellite feeding location," unless the location it supplies has its own permit from the regulator (FDA Food Code 2026, definition of "Food establishment").

Two date-marking rules travel with the food:

Ready-to-eat, time/temperature control for safety food held cold for more than 24 hours is date-marked for a maximum of seven days, and "The day of preparation shall be counted as Day 1" (§3-501.17(A)). Send the prep date on the label, and don't re-label it when it arrives.
When a prepped item is combined with other ingredients, the result "shall retain the date marking of the earliest-prepared or first-prepared ingredient" (§3-501.17(C)).

Keep it cold on the way, label every container, and decide how you'll price what you send: at the cost of its ingredients is the simplest rule.

Where Mays fits

One item list. Admins can tick Corporate item (shared to all locations) on an item to make it available at every store; other items belong to one location. See Inventory items.
Pars per store. Each location sets its own Par (reorder point) for each item under Inventory → Stock, including for shared items. See Stock on hand.
Vendors for several stores. A vendor is set up once, with each location's delivery days, cutoff, minimum, rep and order email. A price can apply to all locations, or to one with Price only for this location. See Vendors and vendor catalogs.
Orders per store. Inventory → Orders builds orders from that store's pars with Order to par, one draft per vendor, and emails the vendor a PDF. Each order belongs to one location. See Placing purchase orders.
Transfers. Inventory → Transfers moves stock from the store picked in the sidebar to another: on hand goes down at one and up at the other when you post it, and each side is valued at its own store's cost for the item. Admins, and managers who work at both stores, can post them. See Transfers between locations.

What Mays doesn't do: there's no single order for several stores, so central ordering means placing one order per store. A posted transfer moves the stock at once, with no step where the receiving store checks it in, so keep that check on paper or in the store's logbook. And there's no central kitchen feature: prepped food sent between stores is a transfer like any other item.

Your ordering and inventory checklist

A decision on central, local or split ordering, written down
One item list, with the same names, units and pack sizes everywhere
One order guide for the group, and pars set by each store
The same count day, time and sheet at every store
Each vendor asked about pricing, minimums and fees across stores
Every transfer recorded on both sides, at cost, and reviewed monthly
The health department consulted before one store preps for another

Keep every store stocked, and every transfer counted

Share your item list, set pars per store, and post transfers that show up on both sides.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Or book a walkthrough and we'll set up your shared items and vendors with you.