Menu quantities: technical overview of the screen and its objectives

This guide provides you with detailed information on the capabilities and management rules of the menu quantities screen.

Business needs

Entering menu quantities allows you to record, on a daily basis, the number of guests for each menu, with details at the level of services (breakfast, lunch, dinner…), meal components (starter, main course, dessert…) and recipes.

From the quantities, it is possible to anticipate production and later observe the difference between forecasted quantities and ordered quantities.

General information

For a single day:

• Each menu includes one or more services.
• Each service includes one or more meal elements.
• Each meal element includes one or more recipes.

Example of a single day:

*ND: Not available in the current version of the application.

Note: A menu is generated from a menu template.

For each menu, it is possible to track daily:

• Forecasted quantities (estimated number of guests/dishes).
• Ordered quantities (actual number of guests/dishes ordered).
• Quantities to be invoiced (number of guests).

General rules for forecasted quantities

• The forecasted quantity can only be modified for a future date (D+1).
• Changing the forecasted quantity automatically updates the ordered quantity, provided the ordered quantity has not yet been entered by the user.

General rules for ordered quantities

• The ordered quantity for a past, present, or future date is freely editable.
• The ordered quantity has a status indicating whether the user has manually entered a specific amount. The cell colour visually identifies that ordered quantities were user-entered.
• The ordered quantity allows reverting to the previous quantity (via a back button appearing in the cell on mouse hover). If the previous quantity equals the initial quantity, the value is considered not user-entered. This helps correct user input errors.

Note: This revert option is only available during the current session (if the user closes the application and returns to the screen, the revert is no longer possible).

It is also possible to reset the ordered quantity to the forecasted quantity by clearing the ordered cell and exiting it.

General rules for billable quantities

• As long as the user has not entered a quantity to be invoiced, the invoiced column equals the ordered quantity.
• The quantity to be invoiced for a past, present, or future date is freely editable.
• The quantity to be invoiced has a status indicating whether the user entered the quantity manually. The highlighted cell colour visually identifies that quantities to be invoiced were user-entered.
• The quantity to be invoiced allows reverting to the previous quantity (via a back button appearing in the cell on hover). If the previous quantity equals the initial quantity, the value is considered not user-entered. This helps correct input mistakes.

Note: This revert option is only available during the current session (if the user closes the application and returns to the screen, the revert is no longer possible).

• It is also possible to reset the quantity to be invoiced to the ordered quantity by clearing the invoiced cell and exiting it.
• If the user enters a quantity to be invoiced of 0, this value is significant.
• If a service in a template has the option Included in quantities disabled, the quantity to be invoiced cannot be entered and displays as NF (Non-billable).

General settings impacting the menu quantities screen

At the site parameter level:

• The parameter Do not display this site in the site tree hides a site from the site hierarchy to simplify it. By default, this parameter is not enabled.
• The parameter Do not display menus on this site hides any menus for the site. By default, this parameter is not enabled.

Functional scope

Site search function

The site search lets you find any site within the site hierarchy the user has access to.

Note: If the Do not display this site in the site tree parameter is enabled for some sites, then these sites will not appear in the tree.

Select a site and/or menu

Selecting a site displays its assigned menus with quantities for the chosen period.

Note: If the Do not display menus on this site parameter is enabled for some sites, their menus will not appear.

Selecting a specific menu displays quantities for its services, including detail by meal component and recipe.

Initialisation/Modification of quantities at the menu level

Forecasted/ordered quantities at the menu level are initialised/calculated automatically:

• Either by the service quantity, if there is only one service (e.g. Service1 = 100 then Template = 100).
• Or by the service quantities, if all quantities are identical (e.g. Service 1 = 100, Service 2 = 100 then Template = 100).
• Otherwise, the quantity is initialised at 0 (e.g. Service1 = 100, Service2 = 200, then Template = NC "Not Calculable").

If the menu has different services but the same quantities, you can edit the menu quantity, and each service will update accordingly (e.g. Service1 = 200, Service2 = 200; setting the menu to 300 updates each to 300).

If the menu has services with different quantities, the menu is NC (Not Calculable and not editable).

Quantities to be invoiced initialise automatically from the ordered quantities. The user can freely edit the quantities to be invoiced.

Initialisation/Modification at service level

Forecasted quantities for services initialise automatically:

• Either from the forecast template configuration.
• Or directly from the menu if it was generated.

If the services have the same value, editing the menu quantity propagates to each service (see example above).

Quantities to be invoiced are not currently managed at the service level.

Initialisation/Modification at meal component level

No quantities are displayed or calculated for a meal component.

Initialisation/Modification at recipe level

Forecasted quantities at the recipe level initialise automatically:

• Either from the template configuration.
• Or directly from the menu if it was generated.

Editing the forecast at service level:

• Impacts recipe forecasts proportionally, using the same ratio as before.
• If the previous quantity was 0, the ratio is not calculated.
• Take-up rates configured in the menu template are not taken into account.
• If necessary, the calculated quantity is rounded to the nearest integer.

Quantities to be invoiced are not currently managed at the recipe level.

Duplicate a reference day/period

To make data entry easier, it is possible to duplicate (copy/paste) a reference day or period to a target day or period.

The general principle of duplication is as follows:

• The ordered quantities from the reference day or period for the current site and its child sites are duplicated to the target day or period, for all templates common to forecasted, ordered, and invoiced quantities. This automatically affects the forecasted, ordered, and invoiced quantities.

Before applying the duplication, in the case of a single-day duplication, a summary of its impact is shown to help with understanding and control. It is displayed between the two dates:

• The number of shared templates.
• The number of templates unique to the reference day or period, which will not be copied to the target day or period.
• The number of templates unique to the target day or period, which will not be affected by the duplication.

Business rules

• Duplication is performed from the current site and its child sites and is applied to the same current site and its children.
• The reference period can be set in the past, present, or future.
• The target period must be a future date (day +1) and after the reference period.
• It is the ordered quantities from the reference period that are duplicated into the forecasted, ordered, and invoiced quantities for the target period.
• The quantities copied into the target period are considered as not manually entered by the user.
• In the target period, it is not possible to recover previously entered quantities that were replaced by a duplication, even if they were manually entered earlier.
• Duplication is limited to a single day at a time.
• Child sites/templates/services/meal components that do not exist on both dates (the reference and target period) are ignored.

Details on recipe-level duplication

The chance of recipes matching between days is low. Quantities are distributed across target recipes based on the reference-day ratios, preserving the meals' configured order.

Three cases:

1. Same number of recipes: distribution identical.
2. More recipes on target day: extra recipes have zero forecasted and ordered quantities.
3. Fewer recipes on target day: ratio is calculated for proper distribution.

In all cases, target day quantities match reference day quantities.

Quantities to be invoiced at recipe level are not currently managed.

Filters

Types of quantities: This filter customises the view to certain quantity types for easier entry and consultation.

Reports

Status of ordered quantity entries by site/round: This report lists sites where ordered entries have or have not been made, considering rounds. Display options allow tailoring the report to the desired context.

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Originally published at https://help.mapal-os.com/easilys/menus/menu-quantities/menu-headcounts-technical-overview-of-the-screen-and-its-objectives/