# Inventory Par-Level Tracking Template

**Version:** 2.0
**Date:** 2026-08-20
**Supersedes:** v1.0 (2026-06-15), which gave the formula with no denominator problem.
**Type:** Method, with the counting error it was rebuilt from

---

## Why this version is about the denominator

Version 1.0 gave the par formula and a worked example with illustrative numbers.
The formula was right. It was also the easy half.

Every par level is a rate multiplied by a count. Getting the rate wrong makes a
par slightly off. **Getting the count wrong makes every par on every floor wrong
in the same direction at once, silently, for as long as nobody re-derives it.**
That is what happened at **Westmark Fairbanks**, and this version is written
around it.

---

## 1. The formula

```
Par = (units served x consumption per unit x cycle length) + safety stock
```

- **Units served** — how many of the thing the par is *for*. This is the
  denominator, and section 2 is entirely about getting it right.
- **Consumption per unit** — measured over a representative period, not one day.
- **Cycle length** — days between deliveries or laundry returns.
- **Safety stock** — buffer for spikes and late deliveries. 20–30% of the cycle
  quantity is a common starting point.

When on-hand stock drops below par, reorder back up to par.

## 2. The denominator, which is where pars go wrong

**Par on floors 2–8 had been built on 323 rooms. Those floors hold 356.**

323 was never a room count. It was the number of rows on a **housekeeping status
report** from one morning. A status report lists only the rooms that carried a
status that day — it is a record of work, not a description of the building.

The proof is exact. The status report's floor-by-floor row counts were
66 / 67 / 58 / 30 / 34 / 35 / 33 — precisely the numbers printed on the old
worksheet. A work list had been copied into an inventory.

| Floor | Old sheet | Actual | Short by |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| 2 | 66 | 71 | 5 |
| 3 | 67 | 71 | 4 |
| 4 | 58 | 71 | **13** |
| 5 | 30 | 36 | 6 |
| 6 | 34 | 36 | 2 |
| 7 | 35 | 36 | 1 |
| 8 | 33 | 35 | 2 |
| **Total** | **323** | **356** | **33** |

> **Rule 1 — never build a par off a status report. Build it off the room list.**

A status report answers *what happened this morning*. A room list answers *what is
the building*. Only one of them is a denominator, and the two are easy to confuse
because both arrive as a list of rooms with the same column headings.

## 3. The second error, which was larger

The room count was only half of it. **The old sheet also counted a queen room as
one bed.**

A queen room at this property has two beds and therefore two sets of sheets, and
**156 of the 356 rooms on those floors are queen rooms.** The worksheet was blind
to 156 beds.

Look at what that produced on one floor. Floor 2, old sheet: **21 sheet sets for
66 rooms** — one set per three rooms. Floor 2 bath towels: **62 towels for 66
rooms** — under one towel per room. Those numbers were never going to stock a
floor, and nobody had to be told; the floor simply ran out and someone walked.

> **Rule 2 — count the thing the linen actually serves. For linen that is beds,
> not rooms. For terry it is occupants. For amenities it is arrivals.**

Each consumable has its own denominator, and using "rooms" for all of them is the
most common way a par sheet is wrong while looking complete.

## 4. Choosing the denominator

| Consumable | Denominator | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sheets, cases, protectors | **beds**, by type | a two-queen room is two sets |
| Bath and hand towels | **occupants** | two guests use two, in a room of either type |
| Bath mats | rooms occupied | one per bathroom regardless of party size |
| Soap, shampoo, paper | **arrivals** | consumption tracks turnover, not nights |
| Chemicals, liners, cloths | rooms cleaned | tracks the labour, not the guest |

Build the room list once, with bed type per room, and every one of these
denominators becomes a query rather than a decision.

## 5. Keeping the count alive after the person leaves

The failure in section 2 was not incompetence. Someone reasonable opened a report
that listed rooms, used it, and left. The sheet then survived them, because a
number in a spreadsheet has no memory of where it came from.

- **Write the source on the sheet.** Every denominator carries the name of the
  file or table it came from, and the date. A number with no provenance is a
  number nobody can check.
- **Re-derive on a schedule, not on suspicion.** Once a year, and after any
  renovation that changes room count or bed type.
- **State the count in two places that must agree.** The par sheet says 356 and
  the room list says 356; when a renovation moves one, the disagreement is the
  alarm.
- **Handover is a document, not a conversation.** The count cadence by item class,
  who does it, and what they open to do it.

## 6. Transfer, and the advantage of a property that has not opened

Everything above is a recovery: the par was wrong, the count was wrong, both were
found late. That is the common case, because most properties already have a
worksheet somebody trusts.

A pre-opening property has an advantage it will never have again. **The room list
exists before any status report does.** There is no work history to mistake for an
inventory, no legacy sheet to inherit, and no habit to unlearn. The rules in this
document can be made structural rather than remembered: build the room list with
bed type per room, point every par at it, and the entire class of error in section
2 has nowhere to enter from.

**The honest limit.** The denominators in section 4 are the ones this property
needed. A property with different service standards — daily linen change, a
different amenity programme — will have different ones. What transfers is the
question, not the table: *what is the thing this consumable actually serves, and
where is the list of those things?*

---

*Version 2.0. Superseded versions stay listed rather than disappearing. Counts are
operational; no guest or staff information appears in this document.*