Catering: Product Prep Info (Weights and Packs)

Overview

Product Prep Info lets catering admins assign per-unit measurements to products, such as "2 lb" or "32 oz", so kitchen teams know the exact quantities to prep for each item on an order.

When Prep Info is enabled for a product and that product appears on a catering order, the prep sheet automatically calculates and displays the total prep quantity (order item quantity × prep quantity per unit). This removes guesswork from kitchen prep and supports accurate scaling for large catered events.

When a customer adds a note to an item during checkout, such as "no onions" or "keep separate," that note appears on the prep sheet directly below that item's name. Kitchen teams see the special request next to the item it applies to, without having to look up the order separately.

Prerequisites

1. PAR Catering enabled: The brand must be on PAR Catering.
2. Management Center Access: A catering admin with product edit permission in the brand's menu.
3. Menu-managed products: Prep Info is available on menu-managed products only. Products managed by your POS cannot have Prep Info set from Management Center.
4. Allow item comments: Your brand must have this setting turned on for customers to enter notes at checkout. Go to Management Center > All Stores > Configurations > Menu > Allow item comments to enable it.

How It Works

Prep Info is configured per product in Management Center. Each product supports:

• Prep Info toggle: Controls whether prep quantities appear on prep sheets at all. It must be on for any values to display.
• Primary quantity and unit (for example, 2 lb): The main per-unit measurement.
• Secondary quantity and unit (for example, 32 oz): An optional second measurement, useful for cross-referencing weight and volume.

When a catering order is placed, the prep sheet multiplies each configured quantity by the number of that item ordered. For example, a product set to 2 lb per unit and ordered 5 times shows 10 lb on the prep sheet. If a secondary measurement of 32 oz is also set, the prep sheet shows 10 lb / 160 oz. The primary and secondary quantities scale with order quantity independently.

Where It Appears in Management Center

Path: Menu Builder > Products > [select a product] > General tab

The Prep Info section appears in the product's general settings form, behind a toggle labeled Prep Info. When the toggle is on, the primary and secondary quantity and unit fields appear below it.

How to Configure

1. In Management Center, go to Menu Builder > Products.
2. Select the product you want to configure.
3. On the General tab, scroll to the Prep Info row.
4. Switch Prep Info to On.
5. Enter a Prep Quantity and select a Unit for the primary measurement.
6. (Optional) Enter a Secondary Prep Quantity and Unit for a second measurement.
7. Save the product.

Products without Prep Info toggled on do not show any prep quantity on the prep sheet, even if quantity values were previously saved.

How It Appears on Prep Sheets

When a catering prep sheet PDF is generated, products with Prep Info enabled show a calculated total quantity in the Prep Qty column:

• Primary unit only: order quantity × primary prep quantity, shown with the primary unit.
• Both primary and secondary: the calculated primary quantity and unit, followed by the calculated secondary quantity and unit (for example, 10 lb / 160 oz).
• Prep Info disabled: no prep quantity is shown for that item.

Customer Item Comments

When a customer adds a note to an item during checkout, such as "extra spicy" or "keep warm," that note appears directly below the item's name on the prep sheet PDF. This applies to main products and nested modifier or combo products. A note on a pizza topping appears under that topping's row, not under the pizza.

Item comments appear on prep sheets you download from Management Center and on prep-sheet emails sent to venue users. No additional configuration is needed. If a customer enters a note when placing their order, it appears on the prep sheet automatically. Your brand must have Allow item comments enabled for customers to see the note field at checkout. See Prerequisites above.

Items with a customer note show a short quoted line directly below the product name. Items with no note look exactly the same as before. No blank line or extra spacing is added for items without a comment.

Supported Units

Label	Unit Value
Ounces	oz
Pounds	lb
Grams	g
Kilograms	kg
Milliliters	ml
Liters	l
Cups	cups
Each	ea

Troubleshooting

Scenario	Expected Behavior
Prep Info on but no values entered	No quantity shown on the prep sheet. Empty quantity fields are skipped.
Prep Info disabled but quantities previously saved	No quantities shown on the prep sheet. The toggle must be on.
Invalid unit value submitted via API	The request is rejected (422 Unprocessable Entity). Accepted values: oz, lb, g, kg, ml, l, cups, ea.
Secondary unit set but secondary quantity not set	The secondary measurement is not shown on the prep sheet. Both the quantity and the unit must be present.
Customer added a note, but it isn't showing on the prep sheet	Check whether the item is a product-level item, not a modifier group. Group-level notes are not captured or displayed. If the item is a product, confirm that Allow item comments was enabled on the brand at the time the order was placed.
Brand turned off Allow item comments, but old orders still show notes	Expected behavior. The setting only controls whether new notes can be entered at checkout. Notes already stored on existing orders still appear on their prep sheets.
Item comment appears cut off or causes layout issues	Comments support up to 255 characters and wrap automatically. If the layout looks broken, note the order ID and contact PAR Support.