Small Business & Freelance · Mobile + Web
PrepSheet: a restaurant prep list app for small kitchens
Pars, prep, and the 86 board on one sheet the whole line can read.
PrepSheet is a restaurant prep list app for kitchens under about forty seats, where one chef holds the pars in their head. PrepSheet builds the day's prep from par levels and on-hand counts, runs the 86 board, and hands the station over at shift change.
Waitlist Not built yet Updated 5 September 2026
What problem does PrepSheet solve?
Prep starts before the coffee. Someone opens the walk-in, counts what is left of yesterday, and writes a list on the back of a printed menu. The pars are not written anywhere. They live in the chef's head, and they move with the weather and the reservation book. When the chef has a day off, the list is guesswork, and the kitchen runs out of aioli at seven o'clock. The 86 board is worse. A cook notices the last portion of the braise going out on a ticket and shouts it across the pass. The server who was in the walk-in misses it, sells it twice, and the table waits for a dish that does not exist. At shift change, the handover is a fast conversation next to a hot pan: what is thawing, what got pulled, what has to be done by service. Half of it does not survive the walk to the locker room.
Daily prep sheet
One page per shift with stations, items, pars, what to prep, who has it, and the 86 column.
| Station | Item | Par | On hand | Prep needed | Done by | 86 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Free to use. No account. Nothing you type here is stored.
What would PrepSheet do?
PrepSheet would keep the pars where the whole kitchen can see them. Each item on each station carries a par for a weekday and a par for a Friday, and the sheet asks only for the on-hand count. The prep quantity is the subtraction, done for you, printed by station so the garde manger cook is not reading the grill cook's list. Tap an item to 86 it and the board updates on every screen and phone in the building, front of house included, with the time it went down. Shift handover becomes a short form: what is thawing, what is pulled, what did not get finished, and what the next cook should start first. Yesterday's sheet stays, so the pars you set in January get corrected by what actually hit the bin in March.
How would it work?
- 1Set a par for every item on every station, with a second number for busy nights.
- 2Count what is on hand at open, and the sheet subtracts and prints the prep list by station.
- 3Tap an item to 86 it so the line and the floor see it at the same moment.
- 4Fill the handover form at shift change with what is thawing, pulled, unfinished, and urgent.
Who is it for?
- A chef-owner of a thirty-seat room who writes the prep list at six every morning.
- A sous chef covering the chef's two days off without the pars in their head.
- A line cook taking over a station mid-service who needs the last hour in writing.
How do you build a kitchen prep sheet template and hand over a station without an app?
Give it one week and a clipboard. Every morning, before you touch anything, count each prepped item on each station and write the number down. Every night at close, count the same items again. Two numbers a day for seven days tells you what a Tuesday burns and what a Friday burns, and those are different kitchens. At the end of that week, set a par for each item: the closing amount you want to still have, plus the biggest single day of usage you saw. Write two pars, weekday and weekend, and write them on the container, not only on paper. A quart deli of pickled onions with a par written on the lid answers the question in the walk-in, where the question actually gets asked. Now the daily sheet is arithmetic instead of memory. Columns: station, item, par, on hand, prep needed, done by, and a box for 86. Photocopy fifty blanks. Whoever opens fills the on-hand column, subtracts, and the list writes itself. Post the 86 board where servers walk past, not where only the line can see it, and write the time next to each item, because that time tells you whether the par was wrong or the delivery was short. For handover, stop relying on the conversation, because the conversation happens next to a fryer. Keep one sheet on the pass with four lines per shift: thawing, pulled and where, unfinished prep, and start this first. The outgoing cook fills it before taking the apron off. The incoming cook reads it before touching a knife. Nobody has to find anybody.
What do people use today?
| Option | Good at | The gap |
|---|---|---|
| A whiteboard and a marker | Everyone sees it, it costs nothing, and it survives a wet hand and a power cut. | Wiped at close, so nothing carries over and nobody can compare last Friday to this one. |
| A printed prep list template | Same layout every day, and pars can be printed on it so a new cook can follow them. | Printed pars go stale, the 86 board stays on the wall, and yesterday's sheet ends up in the bin. |
| Restaurant inventory and ordering suites | Counts, invoices, food cost, and vendor ordering for kitchens that have an office and a manager. | Priced and shaped for multi-unit operations, with daily prep as a small feature inside a big system. |
| A group chat for the kitchen | Instant 86 calls that reach the servers and reach the chef at home on a day off. | Messages scroll away, nothing is a list, and no one can tell what still needs prepping. |
What would it cost?
Kitchen
$19/mo
- One kitchen with unlimited stations
- Pars, prep lists, and the 86 board
- Shift handover notes
- Printable sheets for the whole week
Group
$49/mo
- Up to five kitchens
- Shared items and pars across rooms
- Usage history by item and by day
Prices are proposed. Founding members lock in the lowest price if we build PrepSheet.
Questions people ask
What is a restaurant prep list app?
A restaurant prep list app turns par levels and an on-hand count into the day's prep, station by station, instead of a list rewritten from memory every morning. PrepSheet would add the 86 board and a written shift handover, so the line and the floor work from one source.
What is a par level and how do I set one?
A par is the amount of a prepped item you want on hand at open. Count usage for a week, take your busiest day, and add what you want left at close. Set a lower number for quiet days, because a par that ignores a Tuesday creates waste.
Does the 86 board reach the servers?
That is the point of it. An 86 posted on the line shows on any phone or screen the floor is signed into, with the time it went down. Servers stop selling the dish the moment the last portion leaves the pass, not one ticket later.
Do I need a tablet in the kitchen?
No. A phone on a shelf in a zip bag covers the 86 board and the handover, and the prep list prints on paper. Kitchens that want a screen can mount a cheap tablet by the pass, but nothing here assumes hardware you do not already own.
Does PrepSheet handle inventory and food cost?
No. Counting cases in a walk-in and reconciling invoices is a different job for different software. PrepSheet stays with the daily rhythm of pars, prep, 86s, and handover. Usage history is kept, so a costing tool has something honest to read later.
How does it help when the chef takes a day off?
Pars stop living in one head. A sous chef opens the sheet, counts what is in the walk-in, and gets the prep list the chef would have written. Yesterday's handover note says what is thawing and what did not get finished.
When will PrepSheet launch?
There is no date. PrepSheet would be built only if enough chef-owners and sous chefs join this waitlist and say they would pay for it. Joining costs nothing, and the printable prep sheet on this page is free whatever happens.
Where does this stand?
PrepSheet is a proposal, not a product. This page collects demand from search and answer engines. Askwright builds it only if enough people join the waitlist and say they would pay. Read how this works.