Order list with sales forecasts

Sales expectations is the third — and most forward-looking — of the order list's generation modes, alongside Order to par and Burn rate (see order list overview). The other two extrapolate from past consumption, so neither can anticipate a holiday weekend, a heat wave, a new menu item, or a planned catering pickup. Sales expectations mode swaps in forecasted sales as the demand input, then rolls those forecasts down to ingredient-level quantities.

How it differs from burn-rate mode

How the math works

In Sales expectations mode, for each ingredient:

1. Look up every menu item that uses it.
2. Work out each menu item's expected sales over the projection window (until the next delivery + buffer). Forecast-driven demand is date-aware: dates inside the forecast window use that exact day's predicted portions — a delivery window spanning a weekend counts the weekend, a Monday–Friday one doesn't. Dates beyond the forecast window fall back to the item's per-operating-day average, and closed days contribute nothing.
3. Multiply those expected sales × the menu item's recipe quantity for this ingredient × portion multiplier, and sum across all menu items.
4. Compare to current stock; flag if stock can't cover projected demand.

Sub-recipes are exploded automatically — if "marinara" is used inside another sauce, its ingredient demand chains through.

Note that "expected daily sales" always means per operating day, never per calendar day — a closed day never adds demand.

Prerequisites

• Pro tier with demandForecast enabled.
• Sales data uploaded — at least 30 days of historical sales matched to menu items. See the sales data page.
• Menu items linked to recipes — recipes are how forecasted sales become ingredient demand.
• Current forecast — if the forecast shows an Outdated chip (generated more than a day ago, business context changed, new sales data, menu items changed, or the forecast window already passed), regenerate before loading it. See the "How forecasts stay current" section of demand forecasting.

Without one of these, Sales expectations mode either falls back to burn-rate behavior or shows incomplete results.

Switching modes

Unlike Order to par and Burn rate — which build the moment you pick a supplier — Sales expectations needs your expected sales first, so it has an explicit Update list step.

1. Go to Order list and pick a supplier on the left.

2. In the Start from list, choose Sales expectations.

3. Enter expected daily sales per menu item in the sidebar (or tap Load from AI forecast if you have a current one), then tap Update list.

4. Review the new quantities — some products will move a lot, others won't — and submit.

When you load from a forecast, Rinvy applies the forecast itself while building the list — not a flattened copy. Items you don't touch use the forecast's exact per-day portions. Editing an item's number adjusts its level while keeping its day-to-day shape: the edit rescales every day proportionally, so a Saturday peak stays a Saturday peak. Setting an item to 0 removes it from the projection.

The order list remembers your mode per restaurant — once you pick Sales expectations it stays selected on your next visit, until you switch back. Glance at the Start from list before ordering so you know which signal you're acting on.

What kinds of products see the biggest difference

• Sales-driven ingredients with weather or weekday sensitivity (lettuce, buns, cheese, ice cream).
• Ingredients in seasonal menu items.
• Items used in only one or two menu items — the forecast for those items pins ingredient demand sharply.

Staple ingredients used across many menu items (salt, oil, eggs) tend to smooth out, so the two modes often agree on those.

Banner warning: missing forecast or sales

If you switch to Sales expectations mode and you're missing data, the order list shows a banner explaining what's missing and links to the docs for how to fix it. Read the banner — the projections won't be meaningful until you address it.

Related

• Order list overview
• Menu items overview